Mean Green Mowers and The Kobi Company, a leader in robotic solutions, are collaborating to develop safe and affordable, large area robotic mowers. With difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff, and the growing demand for more landscape services, the need for autonomous large area mowers is now more pressing than ever. While previous large autonomous mowers have been developed, none have been able to meet market expectations regarding accuracy, versatility, price and safety until now.

Mean Green and Kobi will offer an autonomous commercial electric zero-turn mower with a return on investment measured in months instead of years. Retrofitting of some current models will be possible, and after exclusive testing with selected customers through 2020, and certification pending the new ANSI/OPEI 60335-2-107-2019 robotics standards, full production is planned for 2021.

“We are proud to be working with The Kobi Company to convert our latest electric mowers to quiet, zero emission autonomous mowing machines” said Mean Green Mowers’ President Joe Conrad. “It’s a natural fit to combine our latest commercial electric mowers with high-tech-robotic automation”.

“We have designed our autonomous mowing module with mower speed, accuracy, and safety in mind. By using the latest in computer vision technology and artificial intelligence, we have been able to produce a system that can easily navigate any environment, even below trees and up close to buildings” exclaims Kobi CEO Andrew Ewen. “After years of writing code and exhaustive testing, we now have a safe and affordable autonomous solution for commercial landscape operations”.

The 74 inch (1.88m) EVO-concept autonomous mower is also being unveiled at the 2019 GIE Expo in the US.