The LawnBott from Kyodo America is a pretty nifty lawn mower robot; it has the unique feature of taking orders from your cell phone via Bluetooth.
(LawnBott demonstration video)
This device is rather pricey at $3,249; you can add even more to the price (just like you can with a high-end laptop) by adding more lithium-ion batteries. You can even add a Mad Max touch by accessorizing it with spiked wheels - cheap at $79.
This device takes me all the way back to 1944; in his prescient novella City, Clifford Simak describes the joys of the robotic lawn mower. Follow the link below to see a much-needed feature for robot lawn mowers.
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)
Read more at NY Times; thanks to Moira for the tip on the robot mower.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/15/2008)
Humanoid Robots Building Humanoid Robots
''Pardon me, Struthers,' he broke in suddenly... 'haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'' - Isaac Asimov (1940)
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.
Humanoid Robots Building Humanoid Robots
''Pardon me, Struthers,' he broke in suddenly... 'haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?''
Stratospheric Solar Geoengineering From Harvard
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'