Segway-Ninebot unveils its first robotic lawnmower. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Segway-Ninebot, a Chinese tech company well-known for its self-balancing scooters, is now rolling into the robotic mower sector with its first product that can help consumers cut lawns without needing a buried boundary wire.

The robotic lawnmower, called Navimow, is part of the Beijing-based company's broader push to leverage its growing research and development prowess, and supply chain advantages in China to seek new growth revenue points in the robotics market.

Gao Lufeng, chairman of Segway-Ninebot, said the company sees robotic lawn mowers as an industry with great growth opportunities. "Our self-developed automatic robotic lawn-mowing technologies give us a chance to be the world champion in the sector."

Unlike most robotic lawnmowers in the market, the company's Navimow can work without laying a boundary wire, which can save a lot of time and work to install, according to Segway-Ninebot.

Navimow is quite easy to set up, as it is equipped with a satellite-and-base-station-enabled positioning system, which the company calls "exact fusion locating system" and supports centimeter-level accuracy, said Ren Guanjiao, General Manager at Home Robotics Business Unit of Segway.

"Consumers just need to download an app to connect Navimow with their smartphones, and then follow prompts on the app to set up a virtual boundary," Ren said.

Moreover, the navigation of the Navimow is also more reminiscent of a modern vacuum robot with laser navigation than of the chaos principle of most of the models available on the market. In this way, orderly lanes are driven through the lawn and adjustments can be made in the app. Here it is possible, for example, to set up no-go zones for the robotic lawnmower, Ren said.

A large number of different sensors ensure safety so that pets or children, for example, are not endangered, the executive said, adding that this technology also offers protection against theft, as the position of the Navimow can be located at any time.

Segway-Ninebot's foray into the robotic lawnmower sector came after nearly 900,000 units of robotic lawnmowers were shipped in the global market in 2020, with a market size of nearly $1 billion, according to data compiled by Segway-Ninebot.

But the robotic lawn mower industry is still in initial development, as its penetration rate is still as low as 3.6 percent, even in developed markets such as Europe.

In comparison, currently, there are about 250 million private yards in the world, with about 100 million in the US, and more than 80 million in western and northern Europe. And these yards are still dominated by traditional hand-push-reel mowers and ride-on lawn mowers. Also, these traditional lawn mowers rely heavily on human labor, which add to lawn maintenance cost. 

Ren from Segway-Ninebot said the rapid development of AI and other intelligence technologies will help popularize robotic lawn mowers in the future.  

The market research company ResearchAndMarkets forecast that the escalating penetration of smartphones and wireless devices, coupled with the rapid development of software applications for controlling robotic lawn mowers will propel Europe's robotic lawn mower market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of around 25 percent during 2021-2026.

Sensing big growth prospects, Segway-Ninebot bets on its strong R&D capabilities, supply chain advantages and established retailing system to stand out amid the competition.

Ren said the company has attracted top-level talents in the R&D of robotic lawn mowers. And it has already accumulated more than 1,774 patents in areas ranging from self-balancing control technologies to computer-vision-based multi-sensor indoor positioning technology.

Meanwhile, Segway-Ninebot already has an established presence in the short-distance transportation sector. Providing over 75 percent of the shared scooters worldwide, the company said it has enough manufacturing experience in mass-producing robots, as well as excellent quality control capabilities and price bargaining power in key components, such as chips and electrical machineries.

As of the end of 2020, the company had more than 5.87 million users of its app in more than 225 countries and regions, with extensive partnership in overseas retailers and e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, Costco, Walmart, Athena, Best-Buy and Indiegogo.

"We plan to build a dedicated team to take charge of front-end sales and after-sales in Europe next year for the robotic lawn mower business. We want to use our technologies to create real value for consumers," Ren said.