Ecovacs, a prominent name in the world of home service robots, is expanding its lineup with a robotic lawnmower and commercial floor cleaning robot. The two products are expected to arrive in China next year, although pricing and North American release dates are yet to be determined.
The robot lawnmower, Goat G1, is arguably the more interesting of the two, as it’s designed for both personal and commercial use. This will be the first robotic lawnmower from Ecovacs, although it builds on existing technology to offer a lawn-mowing experience that works much like a robot vacuum. After mapping out your yard with an accompanying smartphone app, the Goat G1 will go about cutting grass with centimeter-level precision, thanks to a 360-degree camera and the ability to scan 25 frames per second to avoid moving obstacles.
Ecovacs says you can expect it to take around 20 minutes to initially map out your property. The Goat G1 can handle up to 6500 square feet of mowing each day, is IPX6-rated to deal with inclement weather, uses a variety of localization networks to monitor its position (including ultra-wideband, GPS, and inertial navigation), and is expected to arrive in China and Europe in March 2023. If you can’t wait that long, be sure to check out our roundup of the best robotic lawnmowers of 2022.
Unlike the Goat G1, the Deebot Pro is designed for commercial use — think shopping malls, professional offices, and conference centers. The robot is massive compared to traditional robot mops and vacuums built for personal use, although it offers a “shared intelligence” system called Homogeneous Intelligence Variable Execution (HIVE), which allows it to share data across a team of robots. This means you can send out a crew of Deebot Pro robots to clean a building, and they’ll get updated details on what’s been cleaned and what still needs to be done. Two robots will be offered in this lineup: the larger M1 and a smaller K1.
Deebot Pro will release in China in the first quarter of 2023. Neither product is currently slated to arrive in North America, but since many products in the Ecovacs catalog are already available in the U.S., it’s possible we’ll see them at a later date.
