LUBA Mini Lidar: This Lawn Mower Robot Will CHANGE EVERYTHING! (NO Antenna, NO Subscription)

Oh wow, it's still pretty incredible.

That's when you really see the power of the motor and the robot still manages to climb.

It's impressive. Can the new Luba Mini really work without an RTK antenna?

And this famous LAR, will it truly live up to its promises? Will it be able to handle complex gardens with slopes, obstacles, or lots of trees?

Hi everyone, it's Victoria and today we're going to test the new version from Emotion, the Luba Mini with Lidar, a robotic lawn mower that promises to work without boundary wires, without subscription, and without an external antenna, thanks to this little LAR module.

For those who don't know, LiDAR is simply a sensor that sends out laser pulses, allowing the mower to detect obstacles, locate itself, and move around precisely without needing wires or external antennas. With the previous model, there were sometimes positioning issues.

We'll see if this one is reliable, if it really delivers on its promises.

I'll first show you quickly how it's built, then we'll do a quick comparison.

This Luba Mini is equipped with a powerful 88 W motor, exactly the same as the standard Luba Mini.

What changes, as you've guessed, is the front module.

The LiDAR with an integrated camera.

The LiDAR module is specifically designed for this mower. It has the same front wheels, which glide over the lawn to avoid damaging the grass.

You'll also find the side shock absorbers so it can adapt to various terrains.

We'll test that a bit later in the video.

There's also a physical bumper at the front.

And if we compare the Luba 2 with the Luba Mini, underneath the two mowers, there's a major difference. The Luba 2 has two cutting decks, while the Luba Mini with LiDAR has only one. The cutting width is 40 cm for the Luba 2 and 20 cm for the Mini.

The big advantage of the Luba Mini is all the space around the blade, which helps prevent grass from building up.

That was one of the Luba 2's flaws.

When the grass is wet, it tends to clump on the sides.

Each blade can be easily unscrewed and replaced, and each can be used up to four times. Another big plus for the Luba Mini is the battery, which can be easily replaced. There's a small cover.

I'll take it off and show you in more detail.

Here you can uncip it.

It's a 6.1 amp hour battery. You can even check its battery life.

These batteries are easily available on Mimotion's website.

There's a nice waterproof compartment on the Luba 2.

Unfortunately, you can't change the battery yourself, though it's a 12 amp hour one.

Here you'll also find a small light to illuminate the work area, a rain sensor, buttons to control the mower directly, and a stop button.

There are also handles on both sides to lift it easily.

This robot has four-wheel drive.

It's well protected from scratches since part of the wheel trim will scratch first, keeping the body intact.

At the back of the mower, you'll find the charging connectors.

There's an infrared sensor that helps the robot align properly when backing into the station.

We haven't talked about the rear wheels yet.

They're grippy, slightly rubberized, and help it adapt really well.

They're still fairly flexible, and with its low center of gravity, it can handle slopes of up to 80% or 38°. The robot is waterproof.

Look at the two Luba minis. If you spot a difference, let me know because I don't see one except that one has clearly done some work. This LAR module is quite large because it also includes a front camera which streams video to your smartphone.

The LAR module helps the robot position itself and detect objects.

Inside, a laser measures the distance between the mower and objects.

We're going to install the Luba Mini with LAR in this garden.

There are plenty of slopes and tricky areas.

Setup is super fast. Just place the base station and plug in the cable.

You only need to install the LAR module.

I recommend placing the base on a flat surface as with any station. To fix it, it's really simple. Just screw in the bolts.

There's a super detailed guide.

You also get several accessories like spare blades.

Let's plug it in.

It's offering a firmware update.

Since I don't have Wi-Fi here, I just share my phone's connection and it works perfectly.

The update is complete.

The Luba Mini is in the station and we can start mapping.

The robot is scanning its surroundings using LAR and we can begin the mapping.

It's already detected the base station on the map. Now we'll move to the edge of the mowing area.

You can choose between automatic or manual mapping.

I prefer manual.

It's more precise. It reverses slowly and scans the environment.

Let's go. When I map the garden, I always leave a margin of about 5 cm between the mower and the border.

One great feature with Motion robots is that you can adjust their speed.

You can tell it to go faster or slower.

For example, on tricky parts where precision matters, slower speed helps you control the mower better.

To move forward or backward, you use the joystick on your phone via Bluetooth, and it creates the map in real time.

This is something you only need to do once.

After that, you're all set.

The robot will then be able to navigate your entire garden.

We return to the starting point.

The map is finally done.

I've completed the first mowing.

Actually, it didn't finish. It got stuck at a drain.

Not a big deal. Why did it get stuck?

Let's figure it out. No idea, really.

No problem. We'll just let it go again.

Worst case, I'll mark that area as inaccessible.

Maybe it slipped and saw it as an obstacle. In any case, the mowing lines are clean. It didn't miss any grass.

Let's see how it reacts to an object.

Good. It detects it properly.

It's been installed in the garden for over a week now. It's mowing this section, making lines in that direction.

You can really see the before and after.

Let's start it up again live.

The mowing lines are beautiful. I've put the small protective cover on it. Let's tell it to continue the job. It will resume exactly where it left off. For example, we have difficult areas with soil, bumps, holes.

That's where you see the front wheels doing their job, preventing the grass from being torn up, even when the ground is wet.

We've got an FPV mode.

If I stand in front of the mower, I can see the live feed. It seems a bit quieter than the original Luba Mini.

Say you want to have the mower cross a difficult area like gravel.

Thanks to its four-wheel drive, it's not a problem at all.

And if it needs to turn in that spot, it still works. It handles it just fine.

Behind me, I have a really tough garden full of bumps, holes, and slopes.

We're going to test how it performs there.

In the app, there's a manual mowing mode.

As long as you're connected via Bluetooth to the mower, let's see how it does in very tricky areas.

There, it hit the bumper. This slope is really at the limit. It forms a little ridge.

The mower might touch the bumper here.

That's probably the only real limitation.

If you've got a terrace edge, for example, it might be a bit tricky.

Otherwise, you wouldn't expect it, but it's very hilly here.

We've got a slope with a big ridge.

Let's have it climb from here and see.

That's where you really see the front suspension at work. The right wheel, for example, is fully retracted.

it will gradually unfold. The terrain is really rough and the mower adapts perfectly without slipping.

If for example you want to cut tall grass like my irises, the only limitation is the front bumper which can force the mower to stop.

Not every mower can do that.

Now, let's have some fun with very, very tall grass.

Oh wow, it's still pretty incredible.

Do you see the motor's power?

Nothing stops it. We'll test a climb in tall grass to see how it handles it.

There it powers through. We're basically in a field with holes, slopes, and tall grass.

Everything's there, and the mower still manages to climb.

It's impressive, even with huge holes.

Oh, it stalled. That means if you forget to mow in the spring, the motors are powerful enough to cut tall grass.

It can detect over 200 objects.

We're going to test object detection live.

We'll start with the easiest and finish with the hardest.

There shouldn't be any problem here.

It already detects it well.

2 m ahead. It turns the hand ball.

You could see it right away.

It slowed down and is going to go around it.

And it's a close call. Where I think it might struggle is with a tennis ball.

Pretty sure it won't detect that.

Well, it's slowed down, but too late.

There's something interesting with this robot to avoid damaging the blade or deck.

If the blade hits a ball or object, it actually folds in by itself.

We can send it right over again.

It slows down. Ah, this time it saw it.

Now it passes beside it. I'll throw it right in front of its nose over there.

There it detects it. Ah, yes.

It managed to detect it and is going to go around.

And look at the mowing quality.

It's incredible. The lines are really nicely drawn.

On the edges, it will leave about 10 to 15 cm of uncut grass.

That's totally acceptable for a robot.

Around trees, it'll be a bit more 20 to 30 cm of uncut grass.

During the first test near the hose, the robot got stuck, but that hasn't happened since.

I didn't understand why it got blocked in that spot.

I didn't even set up a no-go zone.

It automatically goes around.

And let's say you're playing football.

It slows down right in front. And in the app, we have three detection modes.

You can disable object detection.

Basically, the robot will detect objects using the front bumper.

There's standard mode, the robot uses the camera, and sensitive mode.

Great if you have pets.

While the robot is mowing, you can remotely adjust the cutting height. You can also adjust the forward speed. For example, 0.2 m/s is very slow, and you can go up to 0.6 m/s.

Let's look together a motion app.

I find this app pretty intuitive.

It has improved a lot since the beginning.

Basically, you have the lubo with the LAR right there. You tap on it.

You see the map with the different zone.

The base station is here. If you want to start mowing, you tap mow. And now there are a lot more settings than usual.

You can choose which zone to mow.

First, you can set the cutting height from 20 mm to 65 mm and speed from 0.2 m/s to 0.6 m/s.

And this is new. You can now choose the spacing between mowing lines from 8 to 12 cm.

This is useful if you want the robot to slightly overlap its previous path.

You can also choose the mowing angle or set it to random so the robot never follows the same route.

You also have four mowing modes.

Today I'm testing the grid mode. The robot will mow in one direction then crisscross in the other.

There's also zigzag mowing, the classic mode. Then you can choose perimeter mowing only. It will optimize this to save time. Basically, it will do one zone first, then another.

You can now also choose how many loops you want it to make around the zone. You can pick the object detection mode you want.

Also, super handy mowing around no-go zones.

You can tell it to mow the perimeter first or start with the interior zigzag.

You can also schedule the robot.

That's what I did. I told it to mow every 3 days. For that, you tap new activity.

There you program either a fixed interval, eg every 2 days at a specific time or on a weekly basis, eg every Sunday and Thursday.

Once it's set, the robot will go on its own.

If you don't want it to mow at night, you can set quiet periods. You can also tell it not to mow on rainy days.

And of course, if you want to change the map later, you can. Once the battery hits 15%, it goes back to charge automatically.

If you're hesitating between the Luba Mini with or without LAR, if you have large trees like I do and you're worried about poor RTK signal reception, the LAR version is a huge advantage.

No positioning issues, no subscription needed.

However, if your garden is open to the sky, the Luba Mini AWD will do just fine.

You can even upgrade it with INA's 4G in case the antenna doesn't get good reception.

Advantages of the Luba Mini mower robot. After several weeks of use, what I've noticed is you no longer need an RTK antenna or 4G subscription.

That used to be a hassle with MMA Motion Robots.

Either an RTK antenna or recently the ENA 4G, both needing a subscription.

Now that's not necessary.

It also works perfectly under trees or in low GPS signal areas. If you have many trees, this is an excellent option.

Installation is quick and intuitive.

You just mount the little LAR module on the robot.

Only four screws.

Compared to other mower robots I've tested, this one goes almost anywhere, even in tricky gardens or narrow zone.

I've also noticed that it handles tall grass much better than the Luba 2.

There's more space around the blade disc, allowing it to cut tall grass, though it's not ideal since it heats the motor.

It's also covered by a three-year warranty.

The battery is easy to replace.

Huge advantage. It also handles slopes of up to 80%, about 38°.

I installed it in a garden with slopes of 35 to 40° and it did a great job.

Very important. The object detection is excellent, whether using the front bumper or the camera. I grabbed a hedgehog shaped rock and placed it here.

Let's see if it detects it live.

There it slows down.

Oh, yes. It detects and goes around it with no problem. Thanks to the front lighting, built-in lights for me, that's now a must on a mower robot.

It weighs around 15 kg. That's substantial.

It helps the robot grip better, especially on slopes.

You can also carry the robot and move it to another area it can't reach on its own. You can create multiple mowing zones, connect them via a path, and create no go zones, like around a pool. I find the mowing quality extremely clean.

The footage speaks for itself.

Here, I just did back and forth passes with the robot. It leaves no uncut patches.

Another thing I like with Motion is the app evolves regularly thanks to updates. For example, the Luba Mini version in the app didn't have as many mowing options before. You also get free 4G until the end of the year.

As I said, it's not essential.

Even without Wi-Fi or 4G, the robot will work just fine.

A few areas for improvement.

First, the rain sensor. It works well.

That's not the issue. But when it returns to the base due to rain, it doesn't resume mowing automatically when the rain stops. You have to restart it manually from the app or directly with the buttons on the robot. I think MMA Motion could fix that with a software update.

Also, along borders, it leaves around 20 to 30 cm of uncut grass.

As you've probably guessed, the cutting deck is centered, so there's always a wider uncut margin compared to the Luba 2.

In conclusion, this new Luba Mini with Lidar is perfect for complex gardens, slopes, bumps, holes, trees.

I find it to be an ultra complete, reliable, and well-designed robot for flat gardens, sloped gardens, and difficult terrain.

If you want to see the price or order it, I've put the link in the description. There's also a 50 discount on your first order.

And of course, I look forward to your questions in the comments. Don't hesitate.

I'll reply the same day and read all your messages.

See you next time.