Quick Answer: iRobot has never sold a Roomba-branded lawn mower, and its actual robotic mower — a separate product called Terra — was never released at all. iRobot unveiled Terra in January 2019 with wire-free navigation using battery-powered radio beacons instead of a buried wire, planned a Germany beta for 2019, then suspended the launch in April 2020 because of COVID-19 disruption, per contemporaneous reporting from TechCrunch and Engadget. No relaunch ever followed, and iRobot itself has since been through a failed $1.7 billion Amazon acquisition, major layoffs, and a January 2026 bankruptcy takeover by Shenzhen Picea Robotics — making a mower revival even less likely now than it was in 2020. If you want the wire-free convenience Terra promised, the Segway Navimow and Mammotion Luba lines deliver it today, on Amazon.
If you searched “Roomba lawn mower,” the instinct makes sense — iRobot turned the Roomba into a household name for autonomous indoor cleaning, so a robotic mower from the same company sounds like the obvious next step. iRobot clearly thought so too. It just never happened. Here’s the real story, and what to buy instead if wire-free mowing is what you’re actually after.
What iRobot actually built: Terra, not a Roomba
iRobot’s robotic lawn mower was never branded “Roomba” — it was called Terra, and iRobot unveiled it on January 30, 2019 in a press release titled “Reinventing Lawn Care with Terra Robot Mower.” The pitch was genuinely different from the boundary-wire mowers dominating the market at the time: instead of burying a perimeter cable, Terra used ultra-wideband radio beacons — battery-powered stakes rated to last about a year, placed around the lawn — that the mower localized against after a single guided walk around the yard’s perimeter and interior features, according to IEEE Spectrum’s reporting from the announcement. Then-CEO Colin Angle described the setup as: “You put in a couple beacons, you take the robot out of the box, you drive it around the perimeter of your lawn and the interior features, and you’re done.”
iRobot planned a Germany beta launch around Q3 2019, with a limited US beta to follow and a full US launch “at a later date.” Neither price nor US availability was ever disclosed.
The 2020 suspension — and why it never came back
In April 2020, iRobot told press it was “suspending our go-to-market plans associated with our Terra robot mower,” according to reporting from TechCrunch and Engadget, citing COVID-19 disruption to its supply chain and a decision to redirect engineering resources. iRobot’s language at the time — “it is simply the wrong time to launch this product” — implied a delay, not a cancellation. No relaunch date was ever announced. As of 2026, six years later, no Terra unit has ever shipped to a consumer, and Terra is now generally listed among iRobot’s shelved, discontinued projects.
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Why iRobot was in no position to revisit it
Terra’s shelving looks even more permanent once you look at what iRobot went through afterward. Amazon agreed to acquire iRobot for $1.7 billion in August 2022, but the deal collapsed in January 2024 after EU regulators signaled they wouldn’t approve it — Amazon paid iRobot a $94 million breakup fee, and iRobot laid off roughly 31% of its staff while founder and longtime CEO Colin Angle stepped down, per CNBC’s reporting at the time. iRobot had also borrowed $190 million in 2023 to stay afloat while the acquisition review dragged on, and cut staff again — another 105 employees — in November 2024, roughly halving headcount from where it stood at the start of that year.
The pressure never let up: increased competition from cheaper Chinese LiDAR-equipped vacuum brands like Roborock and SharkNinja continued eroding iRobot’s core Roomba market share, and the company eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. On January 23, 2026, iRobot announced it had completed a “strategic transition” — an acquisition by its own contract manufacturer and lender, Shenzhen Picea Robotics. A company that just spent two years fighting for survival and emerged under new ownership focused on its vacuum business is not a company about to fund a lawn-mower relaunch it shelved in 2020.
What to buy instead: wire-free mowers that actually shipped
Segway Navimow i105
- RTK-plus-VSLAM navigation with no buried wire and no beacon stakes to place — the wire-free setup Terra promised in 2019, delivered by a different company.
- Covers roughly a quarter-acre with a 30% (about 17°) slope ceiling, per Segway's published specs.
- Built-in anti-theft tracking and app-based zone mapping, features Terra never got far enough to confirm.
- Ships and sells direct on Amazon today.
For a small-to-mid suburban lot, the Navimow i105 is the modern answer to what Terra was trying to be: no wire, no beacons, out of the box and mowing. See our full Segway Navimow review for the rest of the lineup.
Mammotion Luba 2 AWD
- All-wheel-drive chassis with RTK-plus-vision navigation, rated up to roughly 80% slope.
- Scales to about 1.5 acres — far beyond anything iRobot ever specified for Terra.
- No boundary wire and no radio beacons to plant and replace annually.
If your lawn has real acreage or grade, the Luba 2 AWD goes well past the coverage Terra was ever positioned for. Our best Mammotion robot mower guide and Mammotion Luba 2 AWD deep dive cover the full range.
iRobot Terra and the fallout — by the numbers
- January 30, 2019 — Terra announced. iRobot’s own press release unveiled the wire-free robotic mower with radio-beacon navigation.
- April 2020 — launch suspended. iRobot cited COVID-19 disruption and called it “the wrong time to launch,” per TechCrunch’s reporting — and never announced a relaunch.
- $1.7 billion — the collapsed Amazon deal. Amazon’s planned iRobot acquisition, announced in 2022, fell apart in January 2024 over EU regulatory concerns.
- 31% — staff cut after the deal collapsed. iRobot laid off roughly a third of its workforce in early 2024, per CNBC, with CEO Colin Angle departing the same month.
- January 23, 2026 — bankruptcy takeover completed. iRobot finished its “strategic transition” to ownership by contract manufacturer Shenzhen Picea Robotics.
The bottom line
There is no Roomba lawn mower, and there never was one — iRobot’s actual attempt, Terra, was announced in 2019, quietly suspended in 2020, and never revisited while the company fought through a collapsed Amazon deal, deep layoffs, and an eventual bankruptcy that ended with new ownership in January 2026. If wire-free, drop-and-mow simplicity is what drew you to the idea of a “Roomba for the lawn,” the Segway Navimow i105 delivers that today for about $669, and the Mammotion Luba 2 AWD scales up for bigger or steeper yards. Start with our best robot lawn mower rankings for the full field, or robot lawn mower without perimeter wire if wire-free navigation is your main requirement. iRobot isn’t the only familiar brand with a confusing robot-mower story — RYOBI has never made one anywhere in the world, John Deere’s only home model was discontinued years ago, and Honda’s Miimo is real but dealer-only and wired.