This robot will mow your lawn, staying within a defined area, avoiding obstacles and working autonomously, automatically charging itself with a solar panel. It's science fiction great Clifford Simak's dream come true.
(Robotic lawn mower video)
This solution also offers a further advantage, since the continuous mowing ensures that the grass is always young and soft, and as it is cut in very small pieces it is due to decomposing itself in a short time, thus serving as fertilization for the lawn. You shouldn’t expect the grass that has been cut to be gathered: on the contrary, it will deposit itself among the grass blades that have just been cut.
For this kind of usage, less power is needed, and can be easily managed with a battery powered system. The weak power in play convinced us to choose a traction and a cutting engine with reduced power. Probably, they might not completely suit the needs of our readers, who may anyway pick up the engines and the structure they prefer, depending on their budget and personal exigencies. To define the cutting zones in a lawn, the underground wiring system proves to be at the same time simple, accurate and reliable. It is also the best system to define the work area of the robot.
In his 1944 novella City, Clifford Simak describes the joys of the robotic lawn mower:
Gramp Stevens sat in a lawn chair, watching the mower at work, feeling the warm, soft sunshine seep into his bones. The mower reached the edge of the lawn, clucked to itself like a contented hen, made a neat turn and trundled down another swath. The bag holding the clippings bulged.
(Read more about the robot lawn mower)
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
A System To Defeat AI Face Recognition
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'