Gardening is a hobby many enjoy, but weeding is something most people dread. To help gardeners focus on the fruits of their labor, rather than tedious tasks, the inventor of the Roomba has created Tertill. It’s a gardening robot which clears the weeds from your garden.
To use the device users simply place it in their garden where it can collect sunlight to charge the battery. There’s no need to charge its battery via a docking station or cable. Once the battery is charged, Tertill starts patrolling for weeds. The built-in sensors cause it to turn away from plants, while also detecting when it encounters an obstacle.
The device treats short plants as weeds, cutting them with a string trimmer (weed whacker). If the garden has seedlings, there are plant collars designed to protect them. Through proprietary algorithms, Tertill can ensure it finds as many weeds as possible.
The sensor relies on simple logic for functionality. A plant tall enough to touch the front of Tertill activates a sensor that makes the robot turn away. Plants short enough to pass under the shell, however, activate a different sensor that turns on the weed cutter.
Although whacked weeds can potentially sprout again, that takes energy which isn’t always replenished. Since Tertill keeps coming back each day, the plants never develop the leaves they need to recreate their energy.
As mentioned earlier, Tertill gets its power from the sun, even on cloudy days. The built-in solar cell converts light into electricity which is stored in a battery. The intelligent power supply conserves power during cloudy sketches (fewer runs) and more aggressive when the sun is out. In order to ensure the gardening robot doesn’t get stuck, Tertill uses a four-wheel drive which helps the device move through soft soil, sand, and mulch. It also helps the device climb slopes and gets past terrain challenges.
By using sensors like those in smartphones, the device can detect obstacles with the slightest touch. The device also uses the same sensor as smartphones to determine which way is up. There’s also the ability to detect when a motor stops turning – such as if it is jammed by a rock – to protect its self from damage.
Tertill is sized 8.25 x 8.25 x 4.75 in, weighs 2.5 pounds, has a Li-Ion rechargeable battery, comes with Bluetooth LE connectivity, and has backup charging using a Micro USB port.
So far the makers of Tertill have raised over $140,000 via crowdfunding over their estimated goal of $120,000. Pricing for the device starts at $249 with an estimated shipping date of May 2018. Each of these purchases includes a Tertill and a package of plant collars.
Charles Costa is a marketing specialist helping technology companies grow, one word at a time. You can learn more at CharlesCosta.net
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Hi there, Great tips by the way and thank you.
I did have a question though. I’m hoping you can answer it for me
since you seem to be pretty knowledgeable about gardening.
What are some homemade herbicides that kill weeds without damaging the
earth? If you had some insight I would greatly appreciate it.
Well you certainly came to the right place if you were wondering about your garden 🙂
I have a garden that would eat this thing alive. We should be realistic about stuff like this and know that most gardens are not nice, soft, flat pieces of property.
I love to garden, but sometimes the small things can be a little too much for me to fit into my day. This might be the product I have been looking for. Even though I see a video here, I would like to see one in person!
It only makes sense to move onto another type of robot when you already created one that is quite popular and has not really changed over the years. If this is the next step, I am already wondering what the next, next step is in the personal robot world.
Although a great thought, a gardener still has to plant things in such a way to accomodate the robot, that is a pain in the neck.
true. Efficiency and having a FLAT garden area might be a little more complicated. I really like the name though 🙂
It’s a great concept, but I guess I would not use it until my seedlings are tall enough to hit the thing so it will turn away. I do not want to be putting collars on all the plants just to protect them, right?
LOL, this is crazy. I saw another robot a while back that planted and watered everything in a smaller area. I guess if you are looking to get started in farming on a small scale, but who can afford to get a robot like that just to do those things when they take such little of your time? Pulling weeds? Come on!