Last year, I published a story about owning a robot lawnmower—A Mammotion Luba 2, to be precise. The genesis of that idea was a piece Andrew did on a riding lawnmower with self-driving tech. An autonomous zero-turn is an objectively interesting contraption, but my argument was that a lawn robot is far more practical and just as sophisticated—all for less than 10% of the Honda’s (admittedly astronomical) asking price.
I quite like the little mowbot, and while the piece wasn’t much of a review in the traditional sense, it nonetheless got the attention of Mammotion’s U.S. product reps. One of them reached out to me in early March to let me know that my fancy little robot was already yesterday’s news. The third-gen model had arrived, and on top of that, it was now fitted with a lidar module—a feature that wasn’t offered in the U.S. on the Luba 2. Would I perhaps be interested in reviewing one?
Now, if you’re not familiar with lawn robots, they’re pretty much exactly what you imagine a robot vacuum engineer might conjure up in a fever dream; picture a Roomba with razor blades strapped to it and you’re about 99% of the way there. I’m really not exaggerating. As unhinged as the entire premise may sound, these things actually do work. How well (and how much setup is required to achieve that result) is, as always, largely dependent on how much you’re willing to spend, and you can spend an eye-watering amount of money on a robot lawnmower if you’re inclined to do so. Go ahead and Google “Yarbo.” I’m sorry and/or you’re welcome.
The most basic self-guided units rely on buried wires and other trickery to define their mowing boundaries, but the fancier ones use GPS-based geofencing, real-time GPS and/or RTK and even WiFi for navigation. RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) setups pair a fixed satellite base station with a GPS receiver on the mower itself. By maintaining a radio connection to the base station, the mower can correct for any errors or drift in the GPS signal with what amounts to dead reckoning.
They’re small, so even the fancier ones typically won’t cut a lawn nearly as quickly as even the cheapest walk-behind gas or electric mowers, but their set-and-forget nature makes the cut time less of a factor. Still, having two of them would let me cover twice as much ground. More better. Caveman brain like. Yes, please.
What’s in the box
Last year, my $2,400 Luba 2 3000H was Mammotion’s flagship model (albeit not the largest battery size), offering dual-motor all-wheel drive; a variable-height, self-adjusting adaptive suspension; camera-, radar- and bump-based obstacle detection, and a whole bunch more. Lidar was available on some Mammotion models overseas last year, but the Luba 2 didn’t ship with it here in the states. It also relied on an RTK antenna for signal correction.
With the introduction of the Luba 3, Mammotion has made the RTK station optional. Starting with the new model, Mammotion has enabled what it refers to as NetRTK, meaning it can use 4G or WiFi signals in place of an RTK station to correct for satellite errors. Even better than that, Mammotion made this option available retroactively on the Luba 2, meaning I no longer need my base station at all.
This is better news for those just now adopting the tech than it is for those of us who are upgrading. The only real pain point with RTK is the setup involved (especially if you have a taller home or substantial tree canopy). Once in place, the stations don’t require any upkeep apart from firmware updates, which you do from the Mammotion app. But now, as long as you have reasonably good LTE or WiFi coverage and decent line of sight to the sky, you can consider the RTK station redundant.
The Luba 3 replaces the Luba 2 (don’t confuse it with the Mini; different line), so most of the previous model’s specs carry over (more or less). From eyeballing it, it actually looks like the vast majority of the physical hardware is identical. Mammotion’s modular body design makes the robots easier to ship, with only minor final assembly (attaching the guards, vision/lidar module and front bumper) for the end user. It also makes it easy for Mammotion to offer rolling upgrades. Same old body, fancy new brain (and new cutting discs, designed to reduce grass clogs). It’s also about $500 more expensive than the Luba 2; that’s partly due to the lidar module, I suspect, and partly due to tariffs.
Mammotion’s modular ecosystem and app-based operation lulled me into the belief that expanding my little grass-shredding army would be equally intuitive. Phew, was I wrong.
Setup
The basic assembly and physical setup of the Luba 3 went without a hitch. The quick start guide looked much the same as my last one, and since it’s only been a little less than a year, I still remembered the common “gotchas” (like not properly securing the bumper before inserting the retaining screws). I had the robot assembled and connected to my Mammotion account in minutes. You don’t even need your own tools; Mammotion includes a reversible screwdriver with both necessary heads, and it’s a full-sized thing with a handle, not another dorky flat-pack key that you’ll inevitably stick in a drawer and never find again.
First-time users will follow a simple app-guided process to make sure they’ve properly placed all the hardware, paired it with all the necessary networks, and secured everything so that it doesn’t move around. Then, they’re directed to lay out their first lawn (referred to as a task area by the app). This can be done automatically, by allowing the robot to feel its way around an open area. I can also be done by manually driving the robot around a perimeter using a smartphone as a Bluetooth controller.
The former works best in areas with well-defined boundaries and few tricky obstacles; the latter allows for more precise control. Those with precious landscaping should choose the latter. No matter which you choose, you can add digital fences and “no-go zones” later, and even modify the edges of your task areas. You’re not committed to whatever map the robot pukes out on the first try.
I haven’t had a good opportunity to test the latest version of Mammotion’s AI auto-mapper; we’ll give that a shot in a later write-up. Whether you use that straight away or not, it would behoove you to get comfortable manually controlling the Luba via the app; it’s much easier than lugging it around whenever you need to move it. That battery is heavy and it can be awkward to grab the hand-holds on its flanks without getting yourself covered in grass clippings—not to mention anything else it may have… encountered. You wouldn’t happen to have a dog, would you?
The files are inside the computer?
Me? I’ve already done all of that. I have a year’s worth of accumulated maps and schedules, all backed up in my Mammotion account. I simply wanted to add the Luba 3 to my collection of devices, copy my yard profiles over and start some comparison tests. Turns out, you can’t. Why? Because all of that stuff is physically stored on (and exclusive to) the mower itself. Maps and tasks can’t be shared or ported to a different robot.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but it makes some degree of sense if you think about this from the perspective of somebody trying to make sure customers don’t experience major setbacks. Mammotion’s robots come in different sizes; what one can easily navigate, another may not, and a stuck robot can do damage trying to work itself free. And if you’re running with the obstacle detection disabled (believe it or not, there are times you’ll want to), you could do far worse things than simply getting the robot hung up in a tight corner.
By storing the maps exclusively on the device, you also guarantee that the only valid version is the one the robot has. What you see on the screen is exactly what the robot is assigned, every time, without fail. This is a 50-pound food processor with wheels; you don’t want it wandering someplace it doesn’t belong. That may sound dramatic, but it’s all fun and games until you come home to a missing garden bed.
Because it’ll take time to rebuild my maps and task list for the new robot, an apples-to-apples comparison of mow times and such will have to wait. That’s not as big of a setback as it may seem; I expect the new robot to perform slightly better in those categories by simple virtue of the fact that it has a larger battery than my Luba 2. As I noted above, the whole point to lawn bots is that they’re working while you’re busy (or not) doing other things. You can even let them run at night; that might even be healthier for the grass.
In the meantime, I’ll be loaning the Luba 3 out to a couple of friends to see how it handles their lawns. One has about a third of an acre; the other has closer to two. Mammotion set me up with the 5000H, which is the largest-capacity model they had available at the time. A 10000H is due before the end of the year. Again, I encourage you not to get hung up on capacity. If push-mowing is fast food, then Mowbots are rotisserie. Let ’em cook.
Mammotion provided the Luba 3 AWD for the express purpose of this review series; the Luba 2 was previously purchased by the author.
Do the robots speak to you directly? Let us know at tips@thedrive.com!