At Europe's Largest Garden Fair, Chinese Robotics Companies Signal a Shift in the Outdoor Automation Race

The commercial case is strengthening. Europe’s landscaping sector is facing structural workforce pressure, with over 50% of businesses in the UK landscape sector reporting hard-to-fill vacancies, according to research from the Landscape Institute. At the same time, EU emissions rules and sustainability-driven procurement trends are adding further momentum to the shift toward lower-emission and battery-powered outdoor equipment. Against this backdrop, the European robotic lawn mower market is projected to reach USD 635.8 million in 2026, growing at a 7.32% CAGR through 2031, according to Mordor Intelligence.
 
Among the exhibitors, Yosemite Robotics stands out for its more than 15 years of accumulated AI and robotics expertise and over five years of formal robotic mower R&D. The company has built its platform around AI-powered perception, high-precision positioning, and multi-sensor fusion. Lawnova — its robotic mower brand — features a four-series portfolio covering different outdoor mowing scenarios: the S Series for entry-level residential users, the X Series for four-wheel-drive all-terrain residential applications, the P Series for commercial-grade landscaping, and the G Series for golf-course applications.
 
For example, the X Series combines RTK positioning, LiDAR, IMU, and computer vision with an NVIDIA Orin computing platform delivering 40–67 TOPS. According to Yosemite Robotics’ technology roadmap, the platform supports 2–3 cm positioning accuracy, object and boundary recognition, autonomous mapping, and path planning — capabilities designed to enable wire-free robotic mowing without physical boundary installation.

At the heart of these capabilities is the data flywheel built through B2B deployments around the world. “Every machine deployed in real-world conditions helps us improve the system’s perception, navigation, and decision-making capabilities,” said Jack Li, CEO of Yosemite Robotics. “Five years of deployment means these systems have already been validated across complex outdoor scenarios — not just tested in a lab.”
 
Natural language interaction is emerging as a frontier among AI robotics companies — enabling machines to understand and execute task-based commands rather than simply follow pre-programmed routines. Yosemite is developing this capability with a system that combines cloud-based model support with local inference, enabling on-device decision-making even in offline environments and allowing operators to instruct a mower with simple commands such as "mow the backyard but avoid the flower beds."  CEO Jack Li describes this direction as embodied intelligence — machines that can perceive outdoor environments, understand user intent, and act accordingly.

That trajectory is drawing attention because it reflects a broader shift in smart outdoor hardware. According to IDC, global lawn mower robotics shipments grew 63.8% year-on-year in 2025, while wire-free models reached 1.32 million units, accounting for 66.2% of shipments and growing 182.4% year-on-year. IDC also noted that the top six wire-free robotic mower brands were all Chinese manufacturers, underscoring how AI navigation, cordless design, and rapid product iteration are reshaping the category.
 
For European distributors and industry buyers evaluating outdoor automation at spoga+gafa 2026 in Cologne, the question is increasingly not whether AI-powered outdoor robotics is coming, but which platforms will define the next phase of the market.


Sources:
Landscape Institute, Skills for Greener Places
https://landscapeinstitute.org/policy-practice/policy/skills-for-greener-places/
 
https://www.bdonline.co.uk/opinion/the-next-government-must-address-the-green-skills-shortage-for-a-greener-economy-and-more-sustainable-built-environment/5129946.article#commentsJump
 
Mordor Intelligence, Europe Robotic Lawn Mower Market Growth Report 2031
https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/europe-robotic-lawn-mower-market?utm_source=chatgpt.com
 
IDC, Worldwide Cleaning Robot Trackers
https://www.idc.com/resource-center/blog/global-home-cleaning-robot-market-2025/