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iRobot Unveils Terra, a Roomba Lawn Mower (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

Krystalo writes: iRobot is best known for making vacuum cleaner robots: the infamous Roomba lineup. But the company also makes mopping robots (Braava lineup), pool cleaning robots (Mirra lineup), a bot to help clean gutters, and even programmable robots (Create lineup). So, what's next for your home? A lawn mower robot. Queue the "get off my lawn" jokes.

6 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Is this new? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Informative

    Is this new, I mean, it might be new for iRobot, but haven't lawn mower robots been a thing for a while now? iRobot entering the market place might be a big player coming, probably one that can be marketed towards "common man", but I swear we've had companies with robot lawnmowers for a decade or more now.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  2. Dogs by mccalli · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Would love one but alas - three dogs. Which means manually cleaning up the lawn on a regular basis, for obvious reasons. What I would pay for a robot that would handle that clean up for me...

    1. Re:Dogs by Thud457 · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's not automatically picking up the dog poop that is the problem.

      The problem is limited battery life prevents automatically delivering the dog poop to Washington.

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    2. Re:Dogs by goose-incarnated · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's not automatically picking up the dog poop that is the problem.

      Why not just mow the poop into the lawn as fertilizer?

      Because poop from carnivores makes terrible fertilizer.

      Actual fertilizer is digested grass (comes from herbivores).

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  3. Re:This market could use more competition by chrysrobyn · · Score: 3, Informative

    Same reason most people mow their yards, whether they know it or not, to keep mice and rats away from the home. I'm in an area with a lot of hay fields, so a lot of unchecked rodents. It's not perfectly effective, but keeping a big buffer from the main home, the detached garage and the pool is important to me and my family.

  4. Re:Is this a good idea? by ClickOnThis · · Score: 3, Funny

    A robot with spinning blades called Terror...

    History will look back on the great Man vs. Machine War that started when lawnmowers demanded suffrage and wonder what iRobot were thinking.

    This.

    Do you want Skynet? Because this is how you get Skynet.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.