Development of the robotic lawnmower Miimo was pursued in response to people’s need to make their lawn look nice without spending time and effort on it. The product was developed on the three concepts of giving people a sense of security about letting it do the work, making it simple for people to use, and allowing people to spend their time in comfort.In order to enable the lawnmower to continue its work automatically without imposing a burden of labor on the customer, the unit was given the capability to recognize its work area, to automatically recharge its battery, and to avoid obstacles it might encounter. In order to maintain an attractive-looking lawn, the product assures finish quality by adopting movement patterns that cause the mower to work through the entire area thoroughly, a mowing method with a mulching system that distributes mown grass over seedbed soil, and movement patterns that avoid leaving ruts. Because the product works automatically, a conceptual approach of functional safety was built into the system so that there will be nothing to worry about even if someone other than the user approaches the machine.
Article of Honda R&D Technical Review Vol.25 No.2 (54 - 59)