Slashdot Mirror
Internet-enabled Robot to Mow Lawns
prostoalex writes "Researchers at Massey University in New Zealand built a lawnmower operated via the Internet. The device currently needs physical boundaries of the lawn, but later this year it will be able to navigate. Here's the page of Glenn Bright, the researcher quoted in the article, unfortunately, the links to the research group and list of projects appear to be broken."
Just imagine:
42. Easy. What is 32 + 8 + 2?
Why do they need an autonomous grass-cutting machine in NZ? Can't you just tie a sheep to a pole in the center of your yard and have him eat the grass for you?
GMD
watch this
I can't wait to see the virus that makes it mow down all the people in my address book!
Ron Paul
is a machine to mow the lawn. For the love of God... it's the only exercise I get!
There are four boxes used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.
... what do you think we have all those sheep for?
(You Aussies are not allowed to answer this question!).
Do you think we have reached the climax of reality in gaming? Well, you were wrong so read on. This article contains cooking intructions for games that mix physical reality, virtual world and interaction using techniques and devices available of-the-shelf.
so old in fact there there are commercial products available already that DO navigate on their own.
/. story...
and other than the slashdot 'contect everything to the internet' mentality, WHY do i need my lawnmower hooked up to the internet?
if you say something like 'to get blade spin data and average grass length' or something idiotic like that, well you could just USB enable it, and download the data when you were finished. a 'mowbot' should not be required to be controlled.
another stupid
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
unfortunately, the links to the research group and list of projects appear to be broken.
Yeah, apparently something cut the fiber line to their ISP.
Researchers at Massey University in New Zealand unveiled a new defense against Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Popuar tech website, Slashdot is a well known attacker to many small sites. The defense employs a technique known as broken links to prevent such attacks. The groups plans to patent the technique and license the technology to several security firms.
Next thing spammers will be sending spam to the Mowbot -- which will reciprocate by mowing the spam message into the lawn. The neighbors will be all over my case for the 6' (obnonus: 2m) letters spelling out porn sites and make money fast scams.
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
This really isn't a new thing - the sharper image has been selling robot lawn mowers for a few years now. Just say the words "robot" and "internet" in the same sentence, and suddenly it becomes a slashdot article. . .
All my money went to Nigeria and all I got was this lousy sig. . .
...surely they'd be even more impressed with this . I mean, geez -- is the mowbot thing really news?
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
I hear there's a strong grass roots movement against it.
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
I'm going to wait for the remotely operated chainsaw.
Hmm, the family which we traditionally celebrate midsummer eve with have had one of these for ages (at least 5 years). As far as I know it wasn't internet connected though, but could navigate their yard without problems, cutting the grass suitably as it went (and they have a big yard with lots of trees). They do live near Huskvarna, Småland in Sweden though (where the mower in the article was manufactured) so it's possible it was some kind of prototype they've gotten their hands on.
robot lawnmowers have been around for at LEAST 20 years. I made one back in the 80's from a series in Byte magazine using a KIM-1 as the brain.
or a simple search on google gives hundreds of ready to buy models... Like this one here
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
so your saying people withpout legs are lazy for not getting out and pushing there lawn mower themselves?
how about greens keepers?
instead of looking for a reason to complain, perhaps you should try to put some thought into the why question first.
I know people who are very physical, but they hate mowing there lawn.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Look, all you need is a wheel barrow, 50 pounds of ballast, some optics, a couple of Bluetooth modules or wireless LAN cards, a few other odds and ends, and you can hack together a bloody big mouse that you can push around your basement. Much cooler, geekier, and totally free of insectoid interference.
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
So when you order the mower to get her lawn ornaments that you have hated for so long, you can throw your hands up and say "well, I loved that little windmill too, but honey, ITS THESE DARN HACKERS."
You know, there are a lot of starving children in Africa who would be benefited by much less effort than what went into this device that will lead to many premature deaths through sloth and gluttony.
What an excellent idea! I'll replace my robotic internet-enabled lawnmower with starving kids from Africa! Any lawn clippings they don't eat, they can send home to their families.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Wow!
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
Besides the coolness of an autonomous lawnbot, BOY, WHEN CAN WE INSTALL LINUX ON ONE OF THESE?! Yeah, it's a troll and I'm lovin' every minute of it :)
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I particularly liked the Fortune 500 part.
Insulting Linux, of course, is standard.
I wonder what security devices they will use on the things. It would kind of suck to have someone stop by and toss your $3000 dollar lawn mower in their trunk, and drive off, while you watch helplessly from the Internet.
Casca
August 17, 2003 - has sex with unsuspecting client. Dissatisfaction with the incident leads to the creation of a companion: Internet-Enabled Chainsaw Woman
August 18, 2003 - The Ambiguously-Lawnmowing-Chainsawing Duo begin a massive telemarketing scheme to take over the world
This is the sight for the lawnmower, however, it does not mention connections to the internet. Perhaps it is the base model that the university modified?
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
Couldn't they get Karel the Robot to do this?
OK, he would have to do something with his beepers, and he is physically challenged (what with his inability to turn left), but still!
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Pasty basement Linux hackers?
"I'm a top programmer at a Fortune 500 Company and write open source software in my spare time...I cherish mowing my lawn"
"Growing Problem of Obesity in America"
"Starving Children in Africa"
"Even Theo DeRaadt..."
*** The real dilemma ***: should this me modded up as "Funny" or modded down as "Troll"???
I remember reading about this in one of those airling expense toys catalogs. There's a similar thing that works a little differently. You bury a cable around the edges of your lawn, and around trees/shrubs/non-mowed areas. Put this thing out there and it does it's business, turning whenever it encounters the underground cable. At $500 it's not all that much more expensive than a decent mower already is.
It's not internet enabled, but is it really all that safe to be mowing remotely anyhow? At least sit in the hammock with a cold brew and make sure it doesn't hit your neighbor's kids or something.
Here's some links;
Robomower w/ video of it in action!
Robomower
Here's a photograph at the Massey Uni. site.
Everyone knows that damage is done to the soul by bad motion pictures. -Pope Pius XI
I know people who are very physical, but they hate mowing there lawn.
I'll second that, and I'm one of them. I prefer to get my physical labor in a gym or training area. Mowing lawns makes my allergies act up severely, and I get to spend the next 24 hours inside waiting to be able to breath and see again.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
Yeah, I already have an internet-connected robot that mows the lawn. It's called a teenager.
unfortunately, the links to the research group and list of projects appear to be broken
Great, the lawnbot can't even tell the difference between a T1 and grass...
On a related note, the cheif research assistant was also missing his wallet, dog, and 2 children.
12 million sheep in a country of 3 million people and they still need to cut grass mechanically?
So I'm just going to flame: You're a retard.
If you think mowing the lawn constitutes good physical excersize, you need to get your head screwed on straight. It is perfectly possable, and even fairly common to be someone that likes to get excersize through somehting like riding a bike, walking, going to a club and not want to waste your time on a mundane activity like mowing the lawn which is not good excersize.
As for your starving children thing, I'll again repeat my first statement: You're a retard. People have a right to work in the field they want. Personally, I work on giving network access to university students. It's my damn choice and I'm not a horrable individual just because I'm not in the peace corp.
Speaking of which if you care so much how about you quit whining on Slashdot, get off your lazy ass and join the peace corp. Stop whining that other people need to save the world and go save it yourself.
(Que booming announcer voice)
Internet enabled snow blower!!
Internet enabled dog collar!!
Internet enabled Popeil Pocket Fisherman!!
Slapping an X10 camera on something will become the equivalent of "case modding"
From the article;
The mower was developed in collaboration with lawnmower and chainsaw company Husqvarna, part of the Sweden-based AB Electrolux home appliance maker.
The next step is an automatic vacuum cleaner, Bright said.
Husqvarna has sold a self-propelled, self-navigating autonomous lawnmower for YEARS.
The automatic vacuum cleaner (also fully autonomous, fully self-navigating) was introduced over a year ago.
(Linked pages are in Swedish, sorry about that. I did not find an English page at these companies' sites.)
Having done that, I now feel justified in asking WTF is the point of and internet connected lawn mower? Marketing. I'm convinced it's marketing because I can see zero reason that you'd actually want your lawn mower attached to the internet. So that it can order gas refills? So that you can manually start the mower? (Ignorant of the fact that your toddler is playing on the lawn - just out of view of the web-cam that's part of the package.) Or is it really that the mower is just a robot on a timer, with a webcam on your house. For marketing.
I mean, otherwise, whee, what a fun hack target? What's a better thing to play with over the internet than something that actually moves and cuts things and generally causes mayhem? Simply cannot beat the idea of chasing cats halfway across the world with someone else's robot mower.
Makes me despair the species, you know?
IP is just rude.
Is there any torture so subl
one of these things killed some Turing Police who were chasing Case. Shouldn't we have learned by now?!?
When it comes to mowing lawns this is all I and every other self-respecting geek really needs.
That is unless you have five riding mowers , five friends, one big yard and a shitload of paintballs.
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