Ambrogio Remote

The app is OK, there’s no real complaints on its functionality. We should have the ability to download the schedule and edit it without having to be attached to the robot. That is very annoying!

My Ambrogio Elite 4.0 is a great robot. My grass looks good, the robot is well built and reliable, and it saves me tons of work. But the great hardware is let down by bad software. The app’s UI is confusing and unpredictable. Some screens are cards, which must be swiped away while others are more standard screens that navigated via back buttons. Some screens hide the back and save buttons until the user swipes down, which is hard to discover and makes one wonder what they are missing. Robot state isn’t saved locally so updating settings can only be done while close enough to the robot to be in Bluetooth range. If you want to update the robot’s cutting schedule, for example, you’ll need to stand next to it to get a connection and the current schedule and update the schedule(s) while you stand there. How much nicer would it be if you could just create your ideal schedule while on the bus or sitting at your table and then walk over to the robot to upload it? There are also numerous localization problems. The app’s English translation is poor with some labels too long and poor grammar. The date and time formats are configurable but sometimes inconsistently applied. Worse, sometimes multiple formats are applied—for example, some screens show a time as 20:01 PM. It’s clear that Ambrogio has devoted significant resources to their excellent robots. It’s time to devote some resources to their controlling app as well.

Adding an extra star as they fixed the most annoying feature of the old program. You may now select whether or now to check for updates, rather than having to wait for it to go online and check before allowing you to use the remote. I still cannot figure out how to adjust the settings of my L85 Elite from the app, as the documentation on using the app is sparse (non-existent). It is possible that this capability is not available on this particular model, but, as I say, I have no documentation to tell me whether it is or nor. The online manual accessible with the app is identical to the hard copy that comes with the robot, and does not mention the iPhone application.