Eeve's personal robot dream began with the autonomous toadi lawn mower. It has evolved into a willow battery electric tour gardener. Now more than 1700 products are used in the field throughout Europe. Unlike many robotic lawn mowers on the market today, eeve's works do not use peripheral wires or GPS tracking, but rely on visual camera systems, maps and obstacle detection. Willow of the latest iteration is set and controlled through a supporting mobile application.
Willow robots and applications are now ready. Although the manufacturing quota in 2022 has been completed, the next batch of orders are now being accepted, starting at € 2990 (about $3150), which is expected to be shipped in January 2023. However, the eeve team is already in the early development stage of the next evolutionary version, namely willow x, which is characterized by two grip wheels in front, a stable wheel in the back, and a pair of extended multifunctional robot arms. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the design team has pocketed some prototypes of functions and has opened pre order books.
Willow x robot picks up the falling debris from the courtyard area, grabs an attachment, sucks away the smaller debris in the way of Roomba, and then returns to its toolbox to cut the lawn with a lawn mower. Although it does not seem to collect debris in the dustbin, it does have a built-in dustbin and can use its onboard camera and artificial intelligence to identify and remove weeds in the flower bed and put them into its storage bin for subsequent disposal in compost.
A video shows willow x harvesting carrots from a vegetable field, collecting fallen walnuts, and then placing the harvest in a box on the courtyard steps. At the end of its work, it returns to its charging port, fills the battery pack and prepares for the next patrol. The multifunctional arm will enable willow x to undertake some tasks around the garden and will also include a mowing tool. It is expected to use 4K camera and artificial intelligence. It can run for 6 hours per charge, and its motor is estimated to be able to cope with a slope of 25%. It will also have built-in rainfall detection function to return to the base in heavy rain.
The goal of eeve development team is to put willow x into production by the end of 2024 and deliver it to customers at the beginning of the second year. The list price of the standard model is 4200 euros (about US $4400), but it is now pre ordered for 3990 euros. The professional version with a larger battery is available for 4900 euros, but can be purchased in advance for 4690 euros.