Hideki Tsuji, sales manager at Kyodo America Industries Co., also cuts the grass at the company's Lawrenceville factory.
During good weather, you may see Tsuji standing in a green patch outside the building. He pushes a few buttons on the back of a sleek, red contraption that looks like a miniature Italian sports car and steps back. Silently, the machine pivots, smoothly moves in a series of soft curves, then executes a couple of sharp, precise corners to cut the letters USA into the grass.
"I programmed it to do that," Tsuji says, smiling.
A Japanese sales manager directing an Italian robotic mower to spell USA in a lawn in Lawrenceville? This is not your average landscaping program.
That is exactly the point Tsuji hopes to communicate as he launches a campaign to try to position Gwinnett County and his company on the cutting edge of lawn care in America.
"The robot mower doesn't require gas - no pollution and a quiet operation," Tsuji says. "It doesn't need any human help. It goes back to its recharging base when the battery is low. I believe these robotic products will be very popular in five years - or maybe in 10 years. We would like our county to be the hub of the new success."
Kyodo America is a branch of Kyodo Rubber Industries of Tokyo, the largest rubber molder in Japan and a global conglomerate. Since the Lawrenceville facility opened in 1996, it has focused on the core business of producing rubber and plastic parts that it supplies to manufacturers of heavy equipment and vehicles.
This year, Kyodo America decided to try something new: import and distribute the finished products of an Italian software engineering company, Zucchetti. The Italian company has marketed its line of robotic mowers in Europe, and now hopes that Kyodo can make inroads with the products in the United States.
"We have been dealing with [manufacturing parts for] gas-powered products since we opened this factory," Tsuji says. "We would like to contribute to our community, to make people's lives easier and to improve the environment. And, you know, we can also make money."
Robotic mowers are not new to the United States, although they have never really taken off. Some of the machines are heavy, cannot travel up steep slopes and have other limitations.
Tsuji believes the Zucchetti line can mow down the competition. The Ambrogio Evolution model, for example, operates on Lithium batteries, weighs only 21 pounds and can handle slopes as steep as 27 degrees. The Zucchetti mowers are not cheap, however, with prices ranging from about $1,200 to $3,000.
Will suburbanites looking to be the first on their block with the latest toy spring so much green for a robotic mower?
Some have their doubts, including Richard Babyak, the editor of Appliance Design, a Michigan-based trade magazine that tracks consumer product trends.
"For that kind of money, you could pay the kid down the street to mow your lawn for the next seven years," Babyak points out.
He views the current crop of robotic mowers as more novelty items than practical products. "My understanding of how they operate is that they just kind of mow your lawn randomly, with no control system for an orderly back and forth pattern, basically functioning like an electronic sheep."
If the Zucchetti mowers are electronic sheep, at least they are clothed in sexy Italian design.
Imagine relaxing on your deck as you watch your sleek, automatic mower silently give your St. Augustine a crew cut. You pause to take a sip of beer, then wave at your neighbor who is sweating under the hot sun as he rides around on his noisy, gas-belching sit-down mower.
"The most difficult thing is to get it into people's minds," Tsuji says. "Right now, more than 95 percent of Americans don't know about robotic mower products."
Tsuji has created a Web site for the Zucchetti mowers (www.robonext.com). He has found individuals to help find distributors for the products - in Alabama, Texas, Massachusetts and Illinois. He is in the process of hiring sales people to work out of Gwinnett County and is seeking partnerships to help handle the installation of cable required to operate the machines.
"My first selling point is to be the envy of your neighborhood," says Kerry Clabaugh of Dothan, Alabama, who has signed on to demonstrate the Zucchetti mowers and find dealerships in the territory of Alabama, South Georgia and Mississippi.
"I've got to maximize exposure of letting people see these mowers in action," Clabaugh says. "That's how we're going to generate sales. This is not something you can put in a store on a shelf. It's something people have to see in action to appreciate."
Kyodo America also plans to import and distribute Zucchetti robotic floor cleaners and pool cleaners.
One of Kyodo's main competitors is iRobot Corp., maker of the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. Since its introduction three years ago, the Roomba has sold 1.2 million units, making it the first robot appliance to sell in large numbers to the general public. The Massachusetts firm is also researching a robotic lawn mower.
If these firms and others can produce the right robotic consumer products at the right prices, perhaps "The Jetsons," the futuristic American cartoon family, will become closer to reality.
Tsuji has never heard of "The Jetsons." He grew up in Japan and has only been in the United States for four years. He lives in Lawrenceville with his wife, Yuko, an interpreter for Kubota, another Japanese company.
The only thing Tsuji says he misses about Japan is the food, although he gives a thumbs up to Haru Ichiban, a Japanese restaurant on Satellite Blvd.
"In Japan, I hated standing on the crowded train every day," he says. "I worked until midnight every night. That was normal."
Tsuji now has free time and enjoys playing golf and soccer. He says he has no plans to go back to Japan. He wants to put down roots in Gwinnett County, where he is surrounded by big lawns and sees lots of green in his future.
