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New CASMOBOT Lawnmower Controlled By a Wiimote
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark have modified a Wiimote so that it can control an industrial lawn mower. The project is called Casmobot (Computer Assisted Slope Mowing Robot). 'The Casmobot project is about making grass cutting more efficient,' said Kjeld Jensen, a robotics researcher at the University of Southern Denmark who developed the system. It uses a standard Wiimote that communicates via Bluetooth to a computer and robotics module built into the mower. Actions of the mower are matched to tilt actions of the remote. For example, if you tilt the remote down the mower moves forwards; tilt it up, and it moves backwards, and so on. The Wiimote can be used to control the mower manually or in computer-assisted mode, where the mower uses autonomous navgiation based on RTK GPS positioning to cut larger areas."
It's a cut above the rest!
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
I for one welcome our Wiimote controlled Mower Overloards and hope I get to the Wiimote before my enemies do. (It's a valid concern.)
Because you always need a smart fox!
mowing your lawn this way is just as exciting as your average wii game
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Does it make it more efficient? First of all I am pretty sure it is going to take longer. Second, for the cost to make one of these I am pretty sure you can make one of those lawn mowers that cut grass BY ITSELF with NO HUMAN INTERVENTION. I don't care if it takes 5 days for the machine to do it, if it is automatic and I don't need to be there. Finally, all this does is requires a human to still attend to the grass, but not get the side benefit of exercise... While this invention is cool, don't pawn it off as something useful when their is clearly little to no market for something like this...
What happens if you don't have the Wiimote condom on and the Wiimote goes flying out of your hands? Anyone remember the lawn mower scene in "The Happening"?
First, the obligatory Google Cache link.
http://74.125.95.132/search?hl=en&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A//www.casmobot.dk/
There's not much on the main page except a link to the YouTube video, here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhMl7a3wJvQ
Anyway, I wonder how easy it really is to control this thing. Holding a WiiMote level for a long time is harder than it sounds.
The GPS-autonomous mode is really cool, though. Last time I checked the progress of robo-mowers, many of them required a buried cable, fence, or other tangible barrier. This thing is orders of magnitude more convenient.
I'm guessing that'd pretty much sum up Hank Hill's reaction to this monstrous melding of beloved mower and new fangled gadgetry things. Mowers are a lifestyle I tell you what.
What's with this fad of making everything controllable by a Wiimote? It's losing it's charm. Maybe I should stop reading Hack a Day: http://hackaday.com/category/wii-hacks/ :p
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
I recently put together a Mindstorm NTX based robot that's controlled from a web page. It's been lots of fun, and it even has its own blog (which I'm specifically not posting so hordes of Slashdot users don't try to drive it around terrorizing my daughter).
My son and I joked about making it do something useful and buying a URL called "cleanmyroom.com" where total strangers will go around cleaning up your room. In this case, I'd go for "mowmylawn.com". It's like Tom Sawyer charging money to whitewash a fence.
This'll teach you punks to stay the hell of my lawn!
Have gnu, will travel.
They got their wiimote to communicate via Bluetooth? That's marvelous! What will they think of next? I am so very tired of my wiimote communicating via Morse code! They should tell the good folks at Nintendo about this innovation!
The site seems to be slashdoted, so here's the Google cache and a Youtube video
The site doesn't seem to mention it, but why a wiimote? Why not a standard RC joystick?
The wiimote is okay with games, where misjudging the position of the wiimote will just screw up a virtual character. But why bring that into the real world where misjudging the position of the wiimote will send an industrial mower (with very sharp very fast spinning blades) off in the wrong direction? At least with the standard RC joystick if you let go of the control it'll snap back to the center and the mower would stop. You don't have the same feature with a wiimote, if you want to stop the mower you have to find the neutral zone yourself, if you drop the wiimote, the mower will go shooting off in some potentially dangerous direction (especially when near a road.)
... because my doctor advised me just the other day that I need to be getting less exercise, for the sake of my health.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...just better graphics.
Blank until
"Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark have modified a Wiimote so that it can control an industrial lawn mower."
"It uses a standard Wiimote that communicates via Bluetooth to a computer and robotics module built into the mower."
So which is it? Did they actually modify a Wiimote or just use it as another HID via any of the myriad drivers out there? Would this be any more or less newsworthy if they used a wireless mouse, or a controller connected to the computer with *GASP* a wire?
Better known as 318230.
I, for one, don't think any power tool should be controlled by a WIIMOTE. Also, I'd never want to have to explain to my neighbor how I accidentally "mowed" her cat. This device isn't really a timesaver, you would just end up with poorer control and less ability to see what you were actually cutting.
have modified a Wiimote so that it can control an industrial lawn mower.
It uses a standard Wiimote that communicates via Bluetooth to a computer and robotics module built into the mower.
How is that modifying the remote? Sounds more like interfacing an unmodified remote with a computer that controls a module which controls the mower.
Look at me! I've modified a keyboard to put text on a remote web server!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Why hasn't this been tags as retarded yet?
Much like the Wiimote is a horrible game controller for almost every Wii game made sense they try to stuff it into the role of a traditional controller anyway, there are far more intelligent controllers to use for a lawnmower than a Wiimote.
This is just a retarded way to control something hoping to gain some attention because it has 'Wii' in the press release.
While its neat that someone did it and all that, its a stupid idea in general. Would you try to drive a car with a Wii mote, if you answer yes, give up your drivers license and life, you don't deserve to live.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
I don't get why they even bothered with the WiiMote. Why not just transplant a Roomba onto the mower, and GPS inputs as virtual boundaries for where there are no fences and let it go?
or you could just get off your fat ass and mow the damn lawn.
greed@All_Evils:~#
http://www.wilkinsonsword.co.uk/women/mowlawn
Get off my y... oh snap, your cutting it for me? Ok, I guess you can stay on my lawn just this once.
Or some rabbits or something.
Good lord, imagine expending money and energy to just keep grass short.
Deleted
Since it has GPS receivers, one should be able to click and drag the area to be mowed on a zoomed in Google Maps terrain view (just hope there's no cars or babies parked on your lawn now).
Does it assume that the forward tumble means go forward fast? What happens as the Wiimote rolls across the ground? What happens if someone calls your name and you spin around to see who it was? A lawn mower seems to be kind of a dangerous device to have tethered to a remote that responds to hand/body motion. I tend to be in favor of having a human directly in control of a lawn mower.
This is all fun and games until you trip over a branch or something... Watch with horror as in that split second it takes you to hit the ground, you can see the lawnmower backing up at full speed...
I am sorely disappointed in you guys. Give ol' Jeff Fahey some love!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Now they just need to find a large slope or hill in Denmark to try it on... good luck :-)
An industrial lawnmower is a good start, but they really need to adapt this thing to a combine before next November. Nothing says Halloween like a driverless combine headed right at you.
It's a robot with the ability to finish mowing after you define the parameters (edge of the field) and we're excited somebody is using a Wiimote???
Let me put it this way, which movie would you watch - the one where somebody successfully controls a robot from a distance, or the one where you give a robot a spinning deadly blade and then let loose?
See what I mean.
BTW trick question geeks would watch both
Peace out.
It's very cool.
Reminds me of this homebuilt remote mower: http://members.iinet.net.au/~tnpshow/RCLM/intro.htm The best ever would be if you mounted a wireless videocamera on top so you could get a first-person view from the mower.