Because Why Wouldn’t You Add Off-Road Mods to a Robot Mower?

by Alan Cole · Published Saturday, December 13th, 2025 · Updated Wednesday, December 10th, 2025

Our robot lawn mowers might be in winter hibernation mode, but the off-season is the perfect time for… upgrades. On a recent trip to Bristol, my Dad deployed his 3D printer (aka the family’s unofficial R&D department) to produce a pair of traction rings for the wheels on our Mammotion Yuka Mini.

Now, the stock wheels already have decent lugs — perfectly adequate for your average lawn-care scenario — but every now and then, especially during tight-radius manoeuvres or unexpected obstacle encounters, the Yuka Mini engages in what engineers might politely call uncontrolled torque events. In normal language: wheelspin, followed by the creation of a surprisingly precise divot in the turf.

Enter: the traction rings.

These beauties come with spikes that look like they were designed for a robot attempting a summit bid on K2. They slot onto the wheels with near-laboratory precision and promise a healthy bump in grip coefficient. Field testing will have to wait until Spring, but early bench tests (i.e., spinning the wheels with my hand and making “vroom” noises) indicate significant performance gains.

And now I’m wondering: what else can we 3D-print to customise our mower? Aero fairings? A cosmetic spoiler? LED underglow? If we’re not careful, this thing is going to end up looking like a tiny Fast & Furious reject — but at least it’ll have excellent lawn traction.