If weeding is the single major reason why you gave up gardening, well, then be prepared to get into gardening all over again because Tertill (pronounced as ’turtle’) is here to help. Created by Joe Jones, the inventor of the original Roomba, Tertill is, you guessed it, the garden equivalent of a Roomba. Except that this outdoor ‘Roomba’ does not vacuuming; it helps you to weed out, well, weeds. If Tertill delivers as promised, weeding could a thing of the past, forever. The most brilliant part about Tertill is, it is completely solar powered. It needs not charging dock to recharge.
Even more brilliantly, Tertill don’t need to be mapped like most robots require. Just turn the power on and off it goes. A variety of sensors enable this little green guy to go about ensuring your garden is free of weed, covering up to as much as 100 square feet in a day. It automatically roams around, seeking out greens that are shorter than an inch. Typically, a plant is taller and therefore, Tertill knows to avoid taking down your priced plants when the shell touches it. However, if it is shorter than an inch, it probably means it is a weed and Tertill will proceed to take it out with a spinning nylon string trimmer (think handheld grass cutter) outfitted under the device.
I know what you are thinking. What about very young plants? Well, at this point, Tertill is not clever enough to distinguish between very short plants and weeds, and hence, a metal collar can be placed around the desired very short plants until they outgrow it. Simple but quite brilliant solution. Now, I know how it sounds. It sounds a little low-tech, but hey, if it works, then all good and awesome. In addition to the trimmer, Tertill features specially design wheels that are critically cambered that will served to trash up any emerging weed as it patrols around even before the weeds can have the opportunity to flourish. That, folks, is an exceedingly simple solution to a nagging problem. Trust me. Weed is a nagging problem and removing every other day is no fun.
And did I mention that Tertill is weatherproof and all-wheel drive? Yeah, it is. So weather and traction will never be issues. Franklin Robotics, the company behind Tertill Solar Powered Weeding Robot was successfully funded on Kickstarter, rolling over $300k in funding from 1,267 keen backers and it is now on Indiegogo InDemand where you can pre-order a unit for $249.
Check out the product pitch video after the post to learn more.
Image: Franklin Robotics.
