BARRINGTON — Jason Partridge’s grass-cutting robot is no mower.

Partridge, of Columbus Avenue, reported to the police Friday that he returned home from work to find that his $2,500 robotic lawn mower was gone — missing from its recharging station, where it rests between cuttings.

It is not known whether the robot wandered off or was clipped.

Partridge told officers that the device is designed to sense when the grass is long, turn itself on and start mulching. It is constrained by a wire along the perimeter of Partridge’s yard that tells the robot when it’s at the property line.

When the cutting is done, it returns itself to the charging station.

The police checked neighboring lawns in search of a rambling robot, but turned up nothing.

Partridge said last night there is little chance the robot (sold under the Lawnbott brand at www.lawnbott.com ) simply drove itself away.

“The designers of the robot and the dealers said even with ‘underground interference,’ the most it has ever left the border is by 10 feet.”

What’s more, he said, the device will only work on a yard where the perimeter wire has been installed. Without a signal from the wire, it simply won’t work.

The device looks something like a slightly large, colorful vacuum cleaner and weighs just 22 pounds.

Partridge says he hopes someone spots the machine and returns it. It obviously can’t find its own way home.