iRobot just got government clearance for a hands-free lawn mower

[dkpope]

The day is coming when instead of having to mow the lawn yourself, a robot will do it for you. And it might be closer than you think. Reuters reports that on Wednesday, iRobot Corp, maker of the Roomba, got technical clearance to produce and sell a robotic lawn mower.

Roomba’s lawn mowing cousin is designed to wirelessly connect with stakes in the ground that work as signal beacons and rise above the ground by up to two feet. In effect, this creates a guide for the robotic lawn mower to follow. The Federal Communications Commission had to get involved because the lawn mowers will transmit a low-power radio signal. This needs to be cleared to make sure transmissions between the iRobot machines and antennas wouldn’t interfere with other devices on the same frequencies.

Robotic lawn mowers have recently been embraced in Europe and it's time for the United States to get on board, says anyone who has had to mow the lawn in the summer. There are other companies out there working on robotic lawn mowers too, but iRobot says that their machine has the simplest setup.

Before we get too happy about never having to mow the lawn again however, this new development merely means that iRobot can fully explore the technological options for their mower, and there is no release date in sight.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/61754-irobot-got-government-clearance-hands-free-lawn-mower.html

 

[Uncle Al]

It's a great start but I am going to need one that also trims the hedges, plants flowers, waters and of course, walk that worthless dog .... hmmmm, wonder if I could get that walking on one direction with no return route???

 

[noel24]

Run iForrest, run!

 

[stewi0001]

Hmmm... I don't have a fence around my yard, so I would be semi worried about someone stealing it. Also, I have some steep hill parts, so I wonder if it would be able to handle that too.

 

[RebelFlag]

I got tired of cutting the lawn too, so I got ikid 1.0. Nice thing about iKid 1.0 is that it will also walk the dog, trim the hedges take out the garbage, fetch beer, etc! Can be kind of expensive, but worth the cash I say.

 

[Someone8MyPosts]

I got tired of cutting the lawn too, so I got ikid 1.0. Nice thing about iKid 1.0 is that it will also walk the dog, trim the hedges take out the garbage, fetch beer, etc! Can be kind of expensive, but worth the cash I say.

LOL

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

I must have a beta version of iKid because mine just says no and refuses to mow the lawn. I tried beating it but then it called the iGovernment and they threatened to put me in eJail.

 

[9Nails]

I like my grass cut in neat rows. But the iRobot takes chaotic angles around the place. It would be nice to have a robot cut the grass, but wouldn't it look like it was drunk?

 

[sadman3]

It would be wonderful to have a robot clean your yard but I don't think it can follow the thing you wanted to do with your yard.