Wire-free robot mowers: LiDAR vs. RTK vs. camera
How the three navigation types work, and which yards each one suits.
By The RoboMower Picker team · Oct 23, 2026
For years, owning a robot mower meant burying a boundary wire around the lawn. Today’s wire-free models replace it with one of three ways of knowing where they are.
RTK satellite positioning
RTK pairs GPS-style satellite signals with a fixed reference station in your yard, giving centimeter accuracy. It’s superb in open lawns. Its weak spot is sky view: big trees, tall houses and narrow side yards can block satellites and cause drift or pauses. Husqvarna’s EPOS virtual boundaries use this approach, with the RS1 reference station.[3]
LiDAR
LiDAR fires laser pulses and builds a 3D map of trees, fences and walls, then navigates against it. It doesn’t need a clear sky, which is why it shines in wooded yards. Segway’s Navimow i215 LiDAR uses it without any RTK antenna,[1] and ECOVACS’ GOAT A2000 LiDAR PRO is built around it too.[4]
Camera AI
Camera-based mowers like the Worx Landroid Vision “see” the grass and stop where it ends.[5] Setup is simple, with no antenna or mapping walk. The trade-off is that they need clear contrast between grass and border. Lawns that blend into meadow or gravel can confuse them.
Hybrids
Some mowers combine methods. Mammotion’s LUBA 3 AWD uses LiDAR, vision and RTK together,[2] covering one system’s weak spot with another.
How to choose
- Open yard, few trees: RTK works well.
- Many trees or tight side yards: LiDAR.
- Simple, well-edged lawn: camera.
- Big, steep or complicated: a hybrid with AWD.
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