From Floors To Lawns – ECOVACS Expands Australian Home Robotics Range With Launch Of First Robotic Lawn Mower
The world’s leading service robotics company, ECOVACS ROBOTICS, has today announced the Australian launch of its GOAT G1 robotic lawn mower, marking the first time the ECOVACS local range of home robots has extended from the home to the garden. Available on-shelf from September 21, the GOAT G1 addresses the most significant constraints of existing robotic lawn mowers on the market with a suite of powerful and new intelligent features that combine to deliver a mowing experience that is a cut above the rest.
The GOAT G1 was developed utilising ECOVACS’ 25 years of robotics expertise to address key pain points and a sharp gap in the lawn mowing market, with technological advancements in localisation, wireless boundary setting, navigation, obstacle avoidance and app interface among other features.
Australia is one of the first markets in the world to launch the GOAT G1 following its launch previously in Germany, highlighting ECOVACS’ commitment to the local market and based on a willingness from Australian consumers to embrace home robotics that save time, add convenience and are high performing. Australia has also been prioritised by ECOVACS due to its strong outdoors culture, combined with the large proportion of backyards, where tedious, time-consuming, and labour-intensive methods remain the primary way lawns are mowed in the country.
“We know Australians love their gardens, and there is great pride by many in keeping them pristine. We also know that, just with home cleaning, lawn maintenance can be a hard and laborious task that many don’t enjoy, or sometimes can’t perform themselves,” said Karen Powell, Regional Director of Australia and New Zealand for ECOVACS ROBOTICS.
“As we have done with floor care and window cleaning, we are bringing new robotic innovation to the Australian outdoors for the first time, with the GOAT G1 exceeding the capabilities of existing robotic and manual lawnmowers by a substantial margin. With its state-of-the-art features and cutting-edge precision and safety technologies, GOAT G1 epitomises our commitment to simplify and add further convenience and time-saving into our everyday lives.”
“As showcased in the GOAT G1, ECOVACS is year-on-year bringing more advanced technologies and diversified products than ever before, providing consumers with even greater convenience thanks to home robotics for both indoor and outdoor usage scenarios. The GOAT G1 not only represents a breakthrough in lawn mowing technology, but also in the way we live our day-to-day lives.” added David Qian, Global CEO of ECOVACS ROBOTICS.
With a full suite of intelligent and innovative features, the GOAT G1’s key highlights fall into four key areas:
One-click in-app boundary setting that trims 80% off time and effort.
One of the most time and labour-intensive tasks involved in robot mower set-up is boundary setting, which typically takes hours of physical effort, requiring manually digging and laying boundary wires around the desired area of lawn. GOAT G1’s app-enabled automated boundary setting changes this forever.
With the GOAT G1, electronic wire boundaries are replaced by ultra-wideband (UWB) signal beacons strategically placed around the edge of the lawn. This enables boundaries to be set within the app, improving the task’s efficiency by a staggering 80%.
In a 600㎡ garden, for example, only 2-4 beacons need to be installed before remotely driving the GOAT around the lawn edge via the app to set its boundaries. After this stress-free 20-minute process, the robot lawn mower will know never to stray outside of its designated mowing area.
Intelligent path planning and AI keeps lawns precisely manicured.
While its UWB beacons lay the groundwork for wire-free boundary setting, the GOAT G1 combines four different localisation technologies to ensure efficient path planning and precise operation in all scenarios. Existing technologies utilised in this category typically include GPS-led or ‘RTK’ localisation which is precise over large areas but can be blocked by walls or trees, and Visual-only technologies which make robots simpler to install but have lower positioning accuracy.
ECOVACS’ solution is called its TrueMapping Multi-Fusion Localisation System. This combination of innovations incorporates Dual Cameras (Panoramic and Fisheye) that actualise new environmental information in real-time, UWB Technology that creates its local area communication network via beacons, an Industrial-Grade Gyroscope to ensure navigation stability in varied outdoor environments and High-Precision GPS Signal Transmission that achieves centimetre-level accuracy in positioning.
AI-based ground segmentation further distinguishes between lawn and non-lawn areas to ensure mowing right to the last blade of grass at the edge. If the GOAT G1 is low on battery during the process, it automatically navigates to the charging station and returns to where it left off for charging.
With all this, the GOAT G1 is able to mow a standard 600㎡ lawn in a single day, improving mowing efficiency by 2.5 times compared with other robotic lawnmowers.
Accurae obstacle avoidance ensures safety and smooth operation.
A common concern for consumers researching robotic lawn mowing is obstacle avoidance. The GOAT G1 addresses this with its unique AIVI 3D technology, a highly effective innovation seen in ECOVACS’ DEEBOT vacuum range. AIVI-3D is powered by a 150-degree visual angle fisheye camera, and ToF Module that enable precise and broad-ranged visual recognition and strategic obstacle avoidance. This is further backed by ECOVACS self-developed, industry-leading algorithm.
The robotic mower can easily avoid objects as small as 3-15 cm such as pets, hoses, and stones thanks to information from its 150-degree camera. For taller obstacles over 15 cm such as swing-sets and trees, the ToF sensor accurately estimates the distance and avoids them at a closer range to reduce untreated grass during mowing.
Smart garden-keeping capabilities for one-stop backyard security
As well as high-performance mowing, the GOAT G1’s onboard 360-degree camera also serves as a remote home security camera, sending real-time notifications directly to the user’s smartphone to ensure peace-of-mind for homeowners.
The GOAT G1 can be remotely sent to perform multi-spot guarding where it visits up to 10 guarding spots that can be added manually on the app. The panoramic camera provides a 360-degree view of the vicinity of the lawn mower with a wide range of viewpoints for static and dynamic human detection. When users turn on the Human Detection feature on the app, the GOAT G1 will automatically capture and mark the location of the human figure on the map and send it to the user’s mobile app. In addition, the AI-based fisheye camera allows the user to zoom into the picture for a closer and more comprehensive view and take timely action.
User safety and protection is assured, with GOAT G1’s TÜV Rheinland data protection certification that ensures users’ personal data and information is always secured.
*Based on in house testing of competitor products and laying of a physical boundary for a 600m2 sized lawn taking 99 min vs our GOAT G1 for the same sized lawn which completed a wireless boundary in 9.36 min
Pricing and Availability
The ECOVACS GOAT G1 will be available from September 21, with a recommended retail price of $2,999 AUD from leading Australian retailers including JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Bing Lee, Robot Specialist, Bunnings (Online), Robot Lawn Mowers Australia (www.robotlawnmowers.com.au), Amazon & ECOVACS Online
About the Author
Adrian Gunning Adrian lives in Melbourne Australia and has a huge passion for gaming, technology and pop culture. He recently finished his a Bachelor of Journalism and is currently focusing on games journalism. When not writing and playing video games, Adrian can be found in Comics 'R' Us debating the pros of the DC Universe and cons of the Marvel Universe.
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