by admin | Apr 10, 2026 | Uncategorized
We field numerous questions from customers and prospective customers worried about someone stealing their mowers. While not an expert on all brands we can speak to what Mammotion does for their mowers and address our commercial mowers.
We can start with the commercial mowers - first off good luck with stealing one. These things are big and heavy, you’d need multiple people to even think about lifting or moving it and something pretty big to load it in to. It is going to be constantly reporting its location to its owner so any theft or attempted theft is going to be short lived. Our commercial mowers also have a pin required to access the app so even if it is a sophisticated thief they won’t have any luck. Additionally our anti theft system includes an instant alarm if the unit is lifted or moved outside of its designated operating area. Lastly the units provide immediate real time GPS tracking to its exact location.
Our residential mowers from Mammotion are tied to a master user, the person who originally bound the unit when it was new and just opened. Only the master user can remove themselves from this role through “unbinding” the unit. The only reason for this would be to transfer ownership or full authority over the mower to someone else. The master user can share access with anyone they want but if someone tries to access or use the robot they will be unable to. There is no way to over-ride this other than the master user voluntarily doing it so they will be carrying around a paperweight if they steal it. Additionally if the mower is on it will provide a user notification that it was taken outside of its operating area and provide its location to the master user on the app via wifi or 4g. There is a place in the Mammotion mowers to place an air tag or gps tag as well if that is desired for even more security.
We do place labels on mowers that advise any potential thief that the mower is useless to anyone other than its owner and reports its location to its owner for a passive deterrent also. We are fortunate that we have not had any issues with theft
by admin | Apr 6, 2026 | Uncategorized
We get a lot of questions about larger areas of turf and being able to successfully implement autonomous robotic mowing. There are certainly great options out there for places like golf courses, school districts, municipalities, cemeteries, campgrounds, parks, airports, resorts, summer camps, and other places that have large amounts of turf they need to mow regularly. These facilities have high standards for mowing quality and much larger expenses to maintain their grounds then the rest of society.
Autonomous robotic mowing makes a ton of sense, especially in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota where we primarily work. Our mowing season is somewhat short so the work is seasonal for those willing to provide it. Finding an employee or third party person or a company to take care of it is getting more difficult and more expensive. Mowing is often the most basic task asked of grounds crew. Eliminating some or all of this time spent mowing could have your team focusing on more technical aspects of grounds maintenance where their knowledge and expertise is far more valuable.
Traditional lawn care equipment has increased in cost and still requires labor, fuel, and some level of maintenance. Autonomous mowers can be set to operate when and where desired and they don’t call in sick. Autonomous mowing is able to work near continuously to keep things fresh and cleanly cut with little to no clippings to pick up. These mowers will work at night and don’t require sleep. Many commercial models have hot swap battery charging to even reduce or eliminate any time spent charging.
We have the ability to provide autonomous mowing equipment to handle from less than an acre of grass up to hundreds of acres autonomously. Our larger units can handle 20 - 30 acres of mowing area in a 3 day span per each unit. You can use multiple units simultaneously or transfer units to other areas to increase capacity of acreage handled. Mapping with commercial units can often be done with handheld scanners and 3D LiDar and is something we provide as a service for those customers who are evaluating or purchase units through us. Mowers can share maps and data and work in tandem to cover larger areas. Managing areas for mowing can be done digitally and monitored remotely.
Nearly everyone agrees the concept makes a ton of sense, yet the implementation remains somewhat limited for many of those with significant areas of turf to maintain. Everyone is curious and interested while wanting to see others try it first. We have tried it and spent countless hours with these machines evaluating their performance. We are here and ready to back it up and not just tell you but show you. We have multiple units ready to demo on your location with no cost or obligation. The technology has improved vastly in recent years and none of our mowers require any buried wire, all have real time feedback on performance and location even when monitored remotely, and none of them have any subscription services required following purchase.
If you are curious about potential cost and applicability for your larger areas of turf mowing please reach out. We are happy to talk on the phone or provide an in person demonstration of what equipment can do. Some of our mowers have capabilities that include striping athletic fields fully autonomously and even picking up golf balls.
by admin | Apr 5, 2026 | Uncategorized
We see a lot of homes in Northern Wisconsin that are beautiful and newly constructed or extensively remodeled. Often times extensive landscaping projects that beautify the outdoor space while adding functionality accompany these homes. Many times following new construction or an extensive remodel a new lawn is needed. The easy process is just having someone one toss down some seed and straw or for those who want to really splurge - getting some sod installed. These methods both work, but doing a little homework and preparation really will help you get the long term results desired.
First a foremost our soils in Northern Wisconsin are often not the best for growing great grass. Many are rocky and lack organic content. We almost always do a soil test on the site before we consider putting in a new lawn. The soil test is free and lets us get an objective baseline on composition, PH, and nutrients present. From here it is alot easier to determine what can be added as far as topsoil, compost, organic material, or something like lime to amend the PH. Grass will grow to some extent on nearly any soil, but to see it thrive a little preparation can go a long way. Often times leftover backfill from a dug basement is simply spread around a lawn with no regard for quality of the soil.
Another huge issue on sites where extesnive work has been done is soil compaction. If contractors have spent months driving vehicles and heavy equipment accross a homesite and nothing is done to loosen up and decompact soils prior to seeding or sod your grass is going to struggle. This is true for sod, hydroseeding, or traditional seed/straw methods. Taking the time to break up compacted soils really helps new grass get the proper start and have a much better chance to establish a healthy root system. Even something like sod which may look great initially over a compacted site will eventually fall victim if soil compaction is not addressed ahead of time. A harley rake or hydra rake on a skidsteer are both excellent and efficent tools for this.
Lastly lets talk about water, this is essential with a new lawn regardless of the method. Seed and straw and sod are likely the least tolerant to days without water and hydroseeding is often the most tolerant due to mulch retaining some level of water, but having water is essential for new grass regardless of method of putting in new lawn. The amount of water is also important, saturation and pooling of water is not desireable and can have a negative effect. More frequent and shorter periods of watering are preferred versus a single daily watering.
Seed and straw are definetly the least expensive method to grow a lawn, sod is the most expensive, and hydroseeding is somewhere in the middle. Hydroseeding offers some benefits such as tackifier that keeps seed soil contact better, limits erosion, and has mulch which retains water for the seed compared to seed and straw. Sod looks great right away but there are many sod lawns that fail a few years down the road and you need to be very careful with watering schedules and not using for the initial period after it is transferred. To me there is something to be said in actually growing the grass from scratch in the environment you expect it to live in. I have nothing against sod but you won't find a sod farm in the very northern parts of Wisconsin as it is all brought up from the middle of the state. Their soil composition, growing seasons, and temperature range are different than the very northern part of the state. Hydroseeding can generally produce an attractive lawn in 3-4 weeks time with appropriate site preperation and watering. This will be denser than seed/straw and result in a more useable and complete lawn faster than seed/straw.
Paying attention to the type of grass is also important. Bluegrass is great but it does require watering and fertilizer at more frequent intervals and is less tolerant to drought and shade than fescues. If you don't have an irrigated site with a sprinkler system and close to full sun on your yard a fescue is likely a better choice long term.
by admin | Mar 31, 2026 | Uncategorized
The technology and capabilities within autonomous robotic lawnmowers are something many homeowners, businesses, and municipalities could take advantage of today. This style of mowing is safer, saves a tremendous amount of time, is more reliable, doesn’t emit noise or pollution, has lower ongoing costs, and provides superior aesthetics compared to traditional mowing.
At LAWNAMATION, we sell primarily robotic lawnmowers from Mammotion. We do this on a retail basis to customers and also on a wholesale basis to other dealers and contractors or those who require a higher volume of units. These products range in capability from around .2 acres of area to about 2.5 acres, and current pricing runs from around $1000
to $4000 and change. One can string multiple units together to cover a larger area if needed. With our mowers, they are designed to operate on a more frequent basis than the traditional once-a-week lawnmower. We usually set ours to operate every other or every third day. Operating more frequently does a couple important things: the grass clippings are shorter and decompose back into organic matter quicker as a result, your lawn always has the freshly cut clean look to it as it never has time to grow shaggy, your grass starts to grow thicker as when it gets cut more frequently it stops trying to grow towards the sky to get more sun, and weeds like dandelions don’t have time to start blooming before they are cut.
We are excited to tell people more about robotic mowing and actually show people through on-site demonstrations once our snow is gone. Stay tuned to learn more!
by admin | Mar 28, 2026 | Uncategorized
Sure we focus on robotic autonomous mowing for turf and grass but many of these machines have multiple functions. Some of these functions can add significant value and capability to these units, especially in commercial models.
Some available options and accessories include:
Ball Picker - One of our manufacturers and some others offer a golf ball picking feature that works excellent in a range type environment. Typically these units can collect and dispenese golf balls as well as mow grass.
Dew Brush - One of our commercial models has an additional attachment that can be used to remove heavy dew in the morning hours. This is typically for a golf course environment.
Snow Plow/Blower - we have tested some units that have these with mixed success. They do work but we havn’t found them to be as autonomous as when mowing grass only. They also come with fairly significant cost.
Leaf/Grass Collecting - Several varieties have some sort of attachment for collecting and dumping items in the mowing environment, including grass clippings, leaves, pinecones, pine needles, etc. These generally work quite well.
Leaf Blower - We have seen some units with a blower unit but don’t have first hand experieince with these.
Line Striper For Athletic Fields: This is perhaps the most valuable accessory for a commercial robotic lawn mower. We have several options for these and while they add some cost they are incredible versitile for painting athletic fields autonomously. There are multiple companies manufacturing stand alone field marking equipment and some of these prices are higher for a stand alone unit than our combination units that can mow and stripe. Accurately marketing athletic fields is time consuming and has marginal costs with paint consumption in addition to labor. These machines work autonomously to mark entire fields and also are much more efficient with paint use than a person is.
What’s next - it’s hard to say. Surely there will be continued evolution in terms of what these machines can do.
by admin | Mar 28, 2026 | Uncategorized
The first quarter of 2026 has been an absolute roadshow promoting autonomous robotic lawnmowing. From the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this January with Mammotion to a variety of regional home, landscape, and outdoor shows in Detroit, Minneapolis, Rochester, Marquette, Appleton, Wausau, and beyond we’ve had the opportunity to promote this technology and discuss it with a variety of businesses and people. We will continue this through April with four more shows before our lawn care and landscaping season really takes off. The success has been mixed, we’ve sold quite a bit of product but the interest and conversations we’ve been able to have will prove far more valuable in the long term.
Individual consumers are extremely interested and positive when seeing this technology demonstrated. Some have used or seen it and there are a few using it now with many more already thinking about adapting this technology. The consumer who was not aware this capability existed immediately has their interest peaked and starts thinking about their situation and potential application, while often asking dozens of questions. Regardless of how your lawn is mowed now and if you pay for a service or do it yourself using this technology can improve quality while saving time, money, or potentially both. This isn’t some far fetched idea or cute product that might work once technology improves. The practical application of automated robotic mowing for the vast majority of residential applications is already here and working; in North America it is just not normal, yet.
Being that our firm works primarily with Mammotion and is their exclusive distributor for Michigan, Wisconsin, & Minnesota we are actively working to establish a strong dealer network for both sales and support along with promoting individual sales in our territory. As such we have talked to many businesses as well. The majority of business owners we engage with are landscapers, existing robotic dealers, home automation companies, traditional lawn/garden dealers, or lawn servicing contractors. Many of these folks are not entirely aware of the capability of today’s technology either. Currently Mammotion has products that run from $1000 and change to up $4000 and change on the retail side, the biggest driver of price being the acreage they can cover, with around .2 acres being their smallest model and 2.5 acres currently their largest. With the capability and cost of units currently available along with the time it takes them to complete the task it usually isn’t practical to move units from property to property on the commercial side. Mammotion has plans that were publicly unveiled in January 2026 for the Maston, a commercial unit with more advanced features and a 10 acre capability. The hope is that this will be out in the fall of 2026.
There is certainly more advancement to be had regarding commercial applicability of robotic mowing when dealing with multiple properties and much larger acreage. Kress seems to be leading the way in this segment with the roll out of their Voyager series that was announced last fall at Equip Expo in Louisville. This is an entirely new concept with having a dedicated robotic unit as part of a traditional landscaping crew rotating from property to property and they are getting some traction as well. Our model on the commercial side involves a dedicated unit or units at a property that mow on a regular basis versus transporting a robotic machine with a crew and trying to complete multiple jobs in a day. There is a high level of coordination with route based robotic implementation of mowers when trying to get the robotic mower to complete its task around the same time the manned crew is done with edging, trim, pruning, bed clean outs, blowing, or other tasks. There is a high likelihood one will be waiting for the other. We carry commercial robotic mowers that are fully autonomous and can handle up around 30 acres in 3 days, at a relatively affordable price point given their capabilities.
We have had occasional negativity with some saying robots are taking jobs away from people. I get this thought process, but quite frankly it is far too simple, and it is wrong. Automation and technology are never going to eliminate all jobs. They are going to change jobs and workflows substantially and those of us that realize this and use technology to increase quality and productivity alongside technology stand to benefit the most. This change and challenge isn’t unique to robotic mowing, we are really behind the 8 ball when it comes to many industries including manufacturing and logistics which are already incorporating high levels of AI and robotics into many of their workflows.
If there is a single constant in today’s world it is certainly change. The pace of such continues to accelerate and while many of us, myself included, would love to stop it we are powerless to do so. Change, innovation, and continuous improvement have been hallmarks of humanity, even going back to the dawn of time when learning to use basic tools and use fire.
If your firm is doing landscape maintenance or lawn mowing for some or all of its operations you cannot afford to ignore this technology. Right now the most logical set up is a dedicated unit for the mowing at each property and having your firm still complete the more technical aspects including edging, trim, cleaning/blowing out beds, mulch application, aeration, fertilization, and any herbicide/pesticide treatments. Taking a step back and not viewing robotics as a threat but as a teammate is important. Robotic mowing can take the most basic, labor intensive, and time consuming part of your operation and automate it, while likely improving the frequency you can provide the service and the quality of the service provided. This leaves your company and your staff to focus on the higher quality and higher margin services provided and outlined above. It also allows your company to handle more business and keep that business more profitable. When we are working with contractors we can be quite flexible in terms of cost and payment schedules for machines. Right now our model is limited to having dedicated unit or units at each property but there is really no size limitation as they can be combined to handle additional acreage requirements. The pay back period is often around a year from the time these units are put into service.
The units coming out today have very advanced features including Lidar and iNavi which allows for operation via satellite without having to mount a permanent reference station. Our units from Mammotion all have 3 year warranties and no recurring monthly costs after purchase. Additionally it is easy to monitor multiple machines and locations from one app platform. As a contractor providing this service you can chose to charge month to month for services provided or have the customer purchase the robotic unit with you charging for all ancillary services you provide as well as set up/installation, winter storage, maintenance, etc if a complete hands off experience is what the customer demands. Robotic mowing is particularly advantageous in areas with many obstacles like trees, flower beds, etc. The mowers work efficiently around all of these obstacles and these are often not efficient areas to mow in terms of time with larger commercial stand on units. Robotic mowers are offered with all wheel drive and can handle extensive vertical slopes, difficult terrain, and side slopes.
Customers love robotic mowing once they experience it. These units are very quiet, you can’t even hear them if you are 25’ away. They don’t pollute or require any type of fuel or lubricants to run. Other than changing blades there is nearly no recurring maintenance needed. Set up often takes 30-60 minutes for an average lawn and after that it operates fully autonomously. The average power annually is between $6.00 and $8.00. If power isn’t available (think remote cemetery or golf course) we have solar options we can install that include panels and a generating station with bulk battery for recharging. Mowing with robotic units is typically done at a more frequent pace and lawns always look clean, striped, and freshly cut. Any clippings are cut finely as we are taking less height off per cut and they compost into the earth quicker. This adds organic content to soil and results in healthier soils long term, all while avoiding the need to bag or blow. When the grass is cut more frequently it also trains it to grow thicker horizontally as it isn’t able to be successful reaching upwards.
The benefits in terms of quality and time are there today.
