COULDN’T CARE less for the “art” of mowing lawns? Give the job to a robot. Robotic mowers resemble a Roomba, except they target grass instead of dust bunnies—traveling around your yard to keep your pasture in check with their spinning blades. Unlike their gas-guzzling, human-steered counterparts, these battery-powered bots are quiet enough to work at night (making about as much noise as a window-unit air conditioner). And because they run automatically on a schedule you set, you can deploy them with abandon.

In fact, a robotic mower performs most effectively when used a few times a week, trimming a small amount each time. That way, the clippings are fine enough to sift back to the ground (instead of sitting on top of the grass to yellow in the sun.)

Robotic mowers do require some labor-intensive set up. Before running one the first time, you must tack down the included low-voltage wire around the perimeter of your lawn, creating an invisible fence. After that, the machines pretty much run on autopilot. They’ll leave their charging base (which you’ve plugged into an outdoor outlet) and hit the field on a set schedule. If they bump into anything—a garden hose, your child’s trike—they’ll turn around and head a different direction. (A safety mechanism also stops the blade when the bot is lifted.) And when their batteries run low, they return to their base.

We unleashed three robotic mowers on our sloped lawn. These machines take a random path, similar to a Roomba. As a result, they don’t produce the pleasing parallel lines that a human does. And although none offered 100% coverage, they did come close. Just expect to do some touch-up with a string trimmer.

Perfectionists will want to wait for this admittedly expensive technology to mature. But for anyone who hates mowing, here are three models to keep your lawn just tidy enough.

For Precision: Robomow RS630 Photo: Robomow

Thanks to a pair of triangular blades that extend to the edges of this 44-pound bot, the RS630 can cut an unusually broad 22-inch swath. Under its cover, you’ll find a geared knob for making fine adjustments to the mowing height, which ranges from ¾ to just over 3 inches. With a running time of up to 70 minutes, which allows it to tackle lawns up to ¾ of an acre, this bot did the best job of cutting right up to our lawn’s edges and against a cobblestone border. A user-friendly app for Android and iOS lets you tweak many of the RS630’s settings—as well as steer the bot toward a particularly irksome overgrown patch. $2,100, robomow.com

For Lawn With Complex Layouts: Husqvarna Automower 220 AC Photo: Husqvarna

Most robotic mowers find their way back to their charging bases by traveling around the perimeter of the lawn—an inefficient and often slow journey. But the 19.8-pound Automower 220 AC can, when necessary, use a separate “guide” wire that you’ve laid down to take a shortcut across the lawn. The Automower’s three short cutting blades nibble an 8.7-inch-wide path for up to 60 minutes per charge, making it ideal for ½-acre lawns and smaller. On the field, the mow was relatively consistent, but the cutting-height range, from just under 1 inch to 2.4 inches, was the smallest. $2,400, husqvarna.com

For Easy Setup: Worx Landroid M Photo: Worx

While the Landroid M, a scant 20 pounds, has a cutting diameter of just 7 inches (the smallest of the three models shown here), we found this robot the simplest to set up, easily taking it from its box to its maiden voyage. After laying the perimeter wire, all we had to do was punch a few keys and the machine was off and running. The Landroid M can tackle up to a ¼-acre lawn with its three razor blades. Like the Robomow, this bot also has a built-in rain sensor; to ensure a cleaner cut, the Landroid M will stop mowing in inclement weather and head back to base, then launch again when the rain has passed. Using an easy-to-adjust dial, you can change the cutting height from about 1½ to 4 inches. We just wished we could access the companion app that’s available for European versions and lets you program the bot from your couch. $1,000, worx.com