From the creator of the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, Franklin Robotics has designed a solar powered device that takes the frustration out of manually weeding your home garden. Let’s face it – no one enjoys the labor intensive process of weeding a garden, even if you do have a green thumb. But that’s why Tertill – the weatherproof robot that stores energy from the sun – has been engineered. It’s designed for those who would rather spend their time doing something else – which is my estimation, is pretty much everyone.

Tertill’s Weed Extraction Process

The chemical-free extraction process is an all-day-everyday-event – leaving your home garden filled with flourishing plant life instead of riddled with choker weeds. Equipped with an arsenal of intuitive obstacle sensors, Tertill can easily decipher between a growing weed and garden vegetation. How so you ask? The simple answer: weeds are super short and plants are tall. Once it identifies ground-level weeds, it begins the removal process – digging deep under its roots. If a plant is tall enough to touch the front of Tertill’s frame, then an obstacle avoidance sensor is activated and the robot turns away.

This begs the question: what if there a shorter plants just starting to grow and Tertill thinks they’re a weed? Thankfully, Franklin Robotics thought of this very situation. In order to protect the seedlings in their early growth phase, Tertill comes with plant collars that it will avoid due to the height barrier. Then once your plants grow, you can remove the collar and let Tertill continue to work around your garden.

Solar Cells & Storing Energy

Perfect for 100 square foot gardens with already-established borders, the Tertill weeding robot works within a carved out area. Whether that be a fence, edging that 2+ inches tall, or a wooden border of a raised bed, Tertill needs some sort of barrier from keeping it venturing off on a mission to weed everything in the neighborhood. I’m sure the neighbors will appreciate it but your garden won’t.

With a few smart garden robots hitting the market this year (Honda Miimo and Kobi), the connected home is not just isolated to indoors. From robotic mowers that keep your lawn at the perfect length to a solar powered weeding robot, smart home devices are taking on the landscaping challenge.

Armed with four-wheel drive and equipped with a spinning trimmer to cut weeds at the ground level, there’s really no escape the Tertill. By working all day, Tertill never lets the weeds develop and they eventually give up from trying to come back. Powered by the sun, Franklin Robotics created a garden device that strategically converts light into energy. On cloudy days, it knows to use up the stored energy and patrol less frequently. During sunny stretches, it’s an aggressive weeding device spinning up any weed in its path.

Availability & Affordability

With an estimated ship date scheduled for May 2018 and a Kickstarter pre-order price at $249, Franklin’s solar powered weeding robot is poised to disrupt home gardening. Let’s just hope it can tell the difference between a Dandelion and a Hibiscus plant.

Sources: Kickstarter, Franklin Robotics