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Robotic Lawn Mower Gets Regulatory Approval

Posted by timothy on from the easy-to-hit-with-a-shotgun dept.

Dave Knott writes with news that US regulators have given iRobot clearance to make and sell an unmanned lawn mower. The company, known for its robot vacuum cleaner Roomba, has designed a robot lawn mower that would wirelessly connect with stakes in the ground operating as signal beacons, rising above the ground by as much as 61 centimetres. The Federal Communications Commission usually prohibits the operation of "fixed outdoor infrastructure" transmitting low-power radio signal without a licence. iRobot's lawn mower beacons fall in that category, and the stake design required a waiver from the FCC, which was opposed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, stating that the lawn mowers would interfere with its telescopes. An anonymous reader writes with another piece of automated plant-related hardware at a slightly different scale: The tractor pulling the grain cart in the video has no one in the cab. It is controlled by an open source autopilot, and it can operate autonomously all day in the field without a driver. I can't take credit for every bit of hardware and software used but I did put it all together.

1 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. it's wireless people... and another thing... by yodleboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    the difference with this mower is it uses wireless stakes to define the cutting area. competing robo-mowers require you to bury wires in the ground. The biggest benefit I can see is ease of making changes... Decide to do some planting, put out some yard decor or otherwise change the layout? Re-position your stakes. No digging up the yard.

    The biggest problems I've seen with the robo-mower idea are related to cost.

    1. Existing robo-mowers (at least as sold by places like Home Depot) are expensive. Like $2000-$3000 USD expensive.

    2. Letting them run while you're away (which would be one of the attractions and selling points) means your very expensive mower is out there unattended for anyone to grab. Never mind the potential liability concerns. My back yard is fenced, but most people in the US don't fence a front yard.

    3. For the price of a robo-mower, you could purchase a very nice riding mower, with assorted attachments. This would dramatically reduce the amount of time spent mowing, and give you additional uses like hauling, leaf cleanup, tilling and so on. Robo-mower, it mows. That's all.

    I suppose if I had a large rural property, where the risk of theft or cutting off the toes of a curious person was minimized, I could see how a robo-mower might be ok. For the typical suburbanite, what we REALLY want is a robo-lawn-care-service that will mow, edge, trim hedges, fertilize, do pest control. Like that other favorite of Popular Mechanics, the flying car, I'm sure it's just around the corner...