Roborock’s Big LiDAR Robotic Lawnmower Needs No Satellites

Roborock launched the RockMow X120H robotic lawnmower, priced at $3,200, which uses LiDAR and AI-based obstacle avoidance to map and mow up to half an acre without guide wires or satellite navigation. The device features four-wheel drive, a vision camera, and 4G connectivity, aiming to compete with Segway's Navimow X430.

Roborock has released a beefy new robot lawnmower called the RockMow X120H https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GS17LYCH?tag=gizmodo08c-20 that the company says can handle a half-acre lawn in a day. Like many of the latest crop of such devices, it needs no guide wires, no satellite connection, and can map your lawn all by itself. If true, it sounds like a great robot lawnmower, but it won’t come cheap—Roborock is charging $3,200 for it. The RockMow X120H looks and sounds a lot like the Segway Navimow X430 https://gizmodo.com/segway-navimow-x430-review-a-featureful-mow-bot-2000761324 I reviewed earlier this summer. It has four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive—the company lists both on its Amazon listing for the robot and features a vision camera that it uses for AI-based obstacle avoidance. It can handle up to 38.7-degree slopes, can cut to within 3 centimeters of the edge of a wall, and can climb obstacles up to 3.1 inches high, the company says. Also like the Navimow X430, the RockMow X120H doesn’t require guide wires to keep it mowing where you want it to go, and Roborock claims it can map all by itself. There’s reason to hope that’s true, given that the X120H has a 360-degree LiDAR scanner atop its body. The Navimow had a hard time auto-mapping my complicated yard, but it relies on satellites and its vision camera for that. Although the X120H doesn’t rely on network RTK for its navigation like the X430, it does come with three years of free 4G connectivity to remotely track it. The X120H features knobby wheels and a “Dynamic Suspension System” with “a terrain-adaptive chassis and dual independent springs,” along with a floating cutting deck the company says will keep it mowing at the same height over uneven terrain. The cutting deck, by the way, can adjust from 1.6 inches to 3.5 inches. That’s narrower than the X430’s 0.75-to-4-inch cutting heigh range, although I’m not sure how much that matters in reality. Not everyone thinks it’s a great idea to cut your lawn down to an inch or less, and there’s not much of a practical difference between 3.5 inches and four inches. Lastly, the X120H carries an IPX6 waterproof rating, meaning it can handle jets of water—you can hose it off when it’s dirty, in other words. It will be interesting to see how the X120H performs compared to the cheaper, $2,500 X430. Its half-acre mowing is less than the full acre Segway promises for its own mower, but the use of LiDAR could make it better at navigating and less fussy in a complex lawn. Whether it’s hassle-free enough to justify the extra $600 cost, though, remains to be seen. That said, for anyone with money to burn, the Roborock RockMow X120H is available on Amazon now https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GS17LYCH?tag=gizmodo08c-20 at an introductory $2,500.