At CES2025, John Deere's spectacularly designed exhibit was all about automation. Autonomous job sites, autonomous farms … but it's this new, battery-powered, autonomous lawnmower robot that stole the show.
The self-driving Deere mower robot seemed much smaller than the big farm machines around it, but it continues to prove that people will pack a punch for anything as more than one grizzled, white-haired man asked what his name was. (It's Howard. I'll fight you.)
For himself, Howard it carries a 21.4 kWh battery pack that uses a series of electric motors that include a drive motor and three cutting motors spread across a 60-inch cutting area – but it's not the electric motors that make John Deere's small robotic mower cool, it's how it does it. it works.
See, instead of using GPS data “just” or “just” repeating a previously recorded run, Howard can do something in between. The way it was explained to me, you would ride the mower around the perimeter of the area you want to mow, pick a pattern, then jump over, fold the platform, and let go. Howard cuts the hair the way you would, leaving you to focus on planning, investing, or (let's face it) negotiating with clients.
This is exactly the kind of help that landscape painters want.
But that should not surprise us. John Deere, perhaps more than most companies, knows its customer. “We've been in the turf business for 60 years – it's a core part of Deere,” says Jahmy Hindman, chief technology officer at John Deere, explaining things well. “The work that goes into this industry is incredibly difficult … they don't just do a haircut. They do trimming the trees, tending the flower beds and all these other jobs. Cutting the table posts, however, to get business. It's something they have to do to get a high-value job.”
Tim Lewis, lead engineer with automatic mowers, told Grass and Land that the industry in general has a high level of asset acquisition as well, making it difficult to meet people who know where one job ends and another begins. “There's a lot of diversity that's needed to do these jobs successfully,” he explains, “so “Independence can help with that.”
The John Deere autonomous commercial mower (no snazzy alphanumeric, though) uses the same camera technology as Deere's other autonomous machines, but on a smaller scale (since the machine has a smaller footprint). With two cameras each on the front, left, right, and back of the little guy, it has a 360-degree view of the world and enough AI to set a pattern, avoid an obstacle, and shut down if it thinks it's about to chop something (read: someone) off.
John Deere will be on display by Howard until tomorrow at CES in LVCC's West Hall. If you're in town, be sure to drop by and say hello.
John Deere CES2025
SOURCE | PHOTOS: John Deere; Electrek.
FTC: We use auto affiliate links to earn income. More.