Segway has been producing pioneering robotics products for two decades, and Segway New Zealand has been an active partner from day one. Today, we're a leading supplier of robot lawn mowers in New Zealand with Segway's ever-expanding Navimow range.
Segway's launched the Robotic Mobility Platform (RMP) 20 years ago, based on the Segway Personal Transporter (PT) i-series platform. The RMP range included self-balancing and simpler statically balanced options.
One of the most exciting early applications was developed by Marathon in Australia: mannequins atop RMPs racing around a 'town' while sharpshooters practiced taking out only the baddies, not the innocent civilians (first article here without photos, next article here, third article here).
In 2006 a powered four wheeled ATV RMP based on the XT platform was released which was used to develop a variety of military and firefighting solutions. An RMP fitted with a manipulating arm is here.
If you're only going to watch one video, check out this one because if introduces all of the 2000-era platforms and shows off rare live-fire Marathon footage.
An articulated version called ARTI was unveiled in 2012. To understand ARTI's abilities you need to watch these videos here and here.
Here In New Zealand we've been supplying Segway PTs and RMPs for research purposes since 2004. Philip Bendall was especially excited to supplied Segway products to Auckland University's School of Engineering, as this was the University where he completed his degree in Engineering. We've also supplied products to Massey, AUT, Victoria and Canterbury Universities. Read more about some of these projects here. It didn't take long before students were mounting laser beams on their Segway platforms (all in the name of research, of course).
We supplied Segway Loomo to New Zealand's most successful middleware company and also to Auckland University. In addition to roaming about Takapuna beach in front of Auckland's Rangatoto volcano, Loomo learned to play Segway Polo and helped out inside a hospital during the COVID crisis.
Philip was shown early development platforms for Navimow and delivery robots at Segway Robotics HQ in Beijing in 2018 and 2019. Today, Segway Robotics has a range of indoor and outdoor delivery service robots, and RMP platforms.
Segway New Zealand was part of the early pre-beta testing program for Navimow, receiving the 6th pre-production unit of the production line in 2021 to begin testing in Kiwi conditions.
This month (February 2025) we're testing beta versions of Navimow's new X3-series range in Auckland conditions. We're busy providing valuable feedback and we're anticipating New Zealand availability of this model range in Q3 2025.
