sg3000 asks:
"Our lawnmower broke -- it's an electric, rechargeable Craftsman mulcher mower, and it seems the battery won't charge any longer. So, now we have to find a new lawnmower. My wife, being an environmentalist, listed her requirements: electric, zero emissions, and mulching. Luckily, she never said she didn't want robot to mow our lawn, so my solution so far is the Toro iMow. Unfortunately, the iMow isn't selling well; They only sold about 500 units last year and Friendly Robotics's US local company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year. They've already dropped the price 50% since it's introduction, so I don't want to pick one of these up and then have Toro discontinue the model. Has anyone had any experience with one of these things? Does it really work? Will my lawn look good afterwards? Will I spend 3 hours watching it to make sure it doesn't run over a neighbor's kid? Does it have little arms that sprout out to run the edger? Should I look for something else, resigned that my dreams of a little robot to mow my lawn are still years away?"
"Apparently, the way it works is you lay out some conductive wire along the perimeter of your lawn, and let the iMow loose. It first mows the perimeter, and then it zig-zags through the inside until it completes your lawn. It looks a little random in action-- kind of like a teenager half-heartedly mowing the lawn after he's been told 5 times to, 'Do it already!'
After a little searching on Google, I learned a little about the mower. Apparently Toro rebrands the Robomower made by Friendly Robotics. There are some mpegs of the mower in action on their site. The movies are pretty funny to watch -- check out the "Handling a Tree". Unfortunately, the robot doesn't seem to be very efficient and there are no good shots of what the lawn looks like afterwards. There should also be a movie showing what the neighbors think when they see this thing in action."
Slashdot Mirror
my dreams of a little robot to mow my lawn are still years away?
For about $50.00/acre I could dress my little brother up in his R2 costume and send him over with the push mower...
but yes, trying to tell a woman she's wrong is impossible
-- botsex is {grep;touch;strip;unzip;head;mount}
To heck with that. If you really want an environmentally sound way of dealing with your grass problem, get one of these.
Now animal rights activists will be yelling. You can not keep an animal penned up.
Ever been on a farm? You don't have to keep cows penned. They're not exactly jackrabbits, you know? Cows are perfectly content to just stand around, eat, poop, and occasionally walk about ten feet so they can have a change of scenery in which to stand around, eat, and poop.
Then when the cow gets good and fat and ready for the grill the animal rights activist will yell even louder at the way it is killed.
Lisa: Do you have any food that wasn't brutally slaughtered?
Homer: Well, I think the veal might've died of loneliness.
Get a BeoCow cluster and fill up the yard..
My friend's dad bought one, and it was all fine and dandy. Until he woke up at 3am during a thunderstorm and saw the damn thing mowing the lawn. Anyway, he returned it.
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