Robot Living

Husqvrana introduced at CES a new solar powered robotic lawnmower called Automower Solar Hybrid.

The mower can cover .65 acre at the rate of about 1000 sq feet per hour.  It uses a brushless DC motor,18 v NiMH batteries and a 12W solar cell.

A guide wire needs to be installed around your lawn’s perimeter.  Any object 6 inches high or taller does not need a guide wire as the mower will gently bump into it and then reverse and go around it.

Additional features include an anti theft lock, timer, and course-treaded wheels for uneven ground.

The robot recharges itself at the docking station as needed.

The MSRP or Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price is a hefty $ 2,999.95.

Video after the break.

Link via (FreeRepublic)
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“Muwi”, the robotic lawnmower concept, comes to us from designer Yuli Sung.

The robot first sizes up the lawn and then starts cutting it.  The grass is collected inside the lawnmower.  As it starts to get full, the grass is compressed into different shapes and then released.

The shapes it creates out of the grass are round discs and balls.  What one is supposed to do with these shapes we are not quite sure, but it certainly is an interesting concept.

Link via (Gizmodo)

A robot designed by Lely helps save farmers from bending and stooping.  Farmers are known to need knee and hip surgery.  This system saves them from bending, stooping and the later need for surgery.

Cornish dairy farmer Fred Harvey and family have been using the Lely robotic milking system since 2006 to great success. The herd of 125 cows is now producing 1m more litres of milk since switching to robotic milking and there is no waste milk at all.

The cows can now choose when to be milked as the robotic milking system works 24 hours a day.

Link via (Farmers Weekly)

The company Harvest Automation, formerly known as Q robotics, is made up of former iRobot employees.

Not all robots are humanoids designed to doom mankind.  Many robots are designed to do boring repetitive tasks like the robot Harvest Automation has created.

They have created a robot to organize potted plants.  This could be very beneficial to large nurseries as plants need to be spaced correctly to maximize efficiency.

Harvest Automation is already working with growers and the (ANLA) American Nursery and Landscaping Association.

Link via (CNET)

Check out the robot called Mower.  Mower is part of the Robot 250 festival going on in Pittsburgh this summer and was inspired by the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick.

Mower was created by Osman Khan, a Visiting Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Art.  The robot has a mowing device in it’s mouth and navigational sensors in it’s head.

Watch the video here.

Link via (CNET)