Skip to main content

Ingenious RC lawn mower lets you trim your grass without leaving your chair

Easy Mow Video 1
Inspiration can sometimes come from unexpected places. Several years ago, U.K.-based engineer Warren Harris’ wife began suffering the effects of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a currently incurable condition in which the joints in the body — including the spine — fuse together, causing unimaginable pain. As a result of his wife’s illness, Harris had to take on more of a caretaker role.

“As my time was limited due to my home and work commitments, I found it very difficult to mow my large backyard,” he told Digital Trends. “I already had a manual reel mower, which I had to push all over the garden, making it very tiring and time consuming. Mowing the lawn became a headache, and I hated it as it was taking so much time. I began wondering if it was difficult for me to do this chore, imagine how difficult it would be for an elderly or disabled person.”

While it may sound like a relatively small thing in the bigger picture, Harris’ research into the subject made clear to him how the ability of a person to keep their yard properly mowed and maintained gives them a sense of pride. Hiring a gardener is also prohibitively expensive for many people.

After plenty of work, he has developed a solution called Easy Mow — an automated, remote-control lawn mower. “Easy Mow has been tested and can mow an average 600-square foot-garden in 10 minutes,” Harris said. “This saves everyone so much time and energy; all you have to do is sit back, relax, and operate the Easy Mow from the touch of your fingertips. The remote-control technology also ensures that it be operated by anyone, of all ages and abilities.”

The mower is adjustable to a range of cutting heights to suit individual preference, and promises to easily cut through the most overgrown and wettest of grass with ease. “A fully automated mower, on the other hand, would get stuck in wet grass, or avoid overgrown grass which it cannot cut,” Harris said. “In essence, what we have made is something which tackles all problems — it eliminates the hard work of a conventional lawn mower, and it performs better than the fully automated mowers by leaps and bounds.”

Easy Mow is currently raising funds on Kickstarter. You can pre-order a unit with a pledge of 1,500 British pounds, or $1,933 U.S. Shipping is set to take place in January 2018.

Editors' Recommendations

Luke Dormehl
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
The best portable power stations
EcoFlow DELTA 2 on table at campsite for quick charging.

Affordable and efficient portable power is a necessity these days, keeping our electronic devices operational while on the go. But there are literally dozens of options to choose from, making it abundantly difficult to decide which mobile charging solution is best for you. We've sorted through countless portable power options and came up with six of the best portable power stations to keep your smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other gadgets functioning while living off the grid.
The best overall: Jackery Explorer 1000

Jackery has been a mainstay in the portable power market for several years, and today, the company continues to set the standard. With three AC outlets, two USB-A, and two USB-C plugs, you'll have plenty of options for keeping your gadgets charged.

Read more
CES 2023: HD Hyundai’s Avikus is an A.I. for autonomous boat and marine navigation
Demonstration of NeuBoat level 2 autonomous navigation system at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show

This content was produced in partnership with HD Hyundai.
Autonomous vehicle navigation technology is certainly nothing new and has been in the works for the better part of a decade at this point. But one of the most common forms we see and hear about is the type used to control steering in road-based vehicles. That's not the only place where technology can make a huge difference. Autonomous driving systems can offer incredible benefits to boats and marine vehicles, too, which is precisely why HD Hyundai has unveiled its Avikus AI technology -- for marine and watercraft vehicles.

More recently, HD Hyundai participated in the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, to demo its NeuBoat level 2 autonomous navigation system for recreational boats. The name mashes together the words "neuron" and "boat" and is quite fitting since the Avikus' A.I. navigation tech is a core component of the solution, it will handle self-recognition, real-time decisions, and controls when on the water. Of course, there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes with HD Hyundai's autonomous navigation solution, which we'll dive into below -- HD Hyundai will also be introducing more about the tech at CES 2023.

Read more
This AI cloned my voice using just three minutes of audio
acapela group voice cloning ad

There's a scene in Mission Impossible 3 that you might recall. In it, our hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) tackles the movie's villain, holds him at gunpoint, and forces him to read a bizarre series of sentences aloud.

"The pleasure of Busby's company is what I most enjoy," he reluctantly reads. "He put a tack on Miss Yancy's chair, and she called him a horrible boy. At the end of the month, he was flinging two kittens across the width of the room ..."

Read more