New CASMOBOT Lawnmower Controlled By a Wiimote 81
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark have modified a Wiimote so that it can control an industrial lawn mower. The project is called Casmobot (Computer Assisted Slope Mowing Robot). 'The Casmobot project is about making grass cutting more efficient,' said Kjeld Jensen, a robotics researcher at the University of Southern Denmark who developed the system. It uses a standard Wiimote that communicates via Bluetooth to a computer and robotics module built into the mower. Actions of the mower are matched to tilt actions of the remote. For example, if you tilt the remote down the mower moves forwards; tilt it up, and it moves backwards, and so on. The Wiimote can be used to control the mower manually or in computer-assisted mode, where the mower uses autonomous navgiation based on RTK GPS positioning to cut larger areas."
I heard (Score:4, Funny)
It's a cut above the rest!
Wiimote Mower Overloards (Score:1, Redundant)
I for one welcome our Wiimote controlled Mower Overloards and hope I get to the Wiimote before my enemies do. (It's a valid concern.)
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interestingly enough (Score:5, Funny)
mowing your lawn this way is just as exciting as your average wii game
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Re:interestingly enough (Score:4, Funny)
Especially if you factor in the racing aspect.
Really useful? (Score:2, Insightful)
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Exercise? You mean, sitting on the mower?
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That is why I got one of these [drinkstuff.com].
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The OP was talking about a solution that is "automatic and I don't need to be there". "mow it themselves" doesn't quite fit the bill.
Actually the OP said "BY ITSELF with NO HUMAN INTERVENTION" so asking the kid down the street or a lawn crew to do it would also not fit the bill. But since the GP was already suggesting ways to do it WITH HUMAN INTERVENTION you might as well just save yourself the money and just mow it yourself and burn a bit off fat off that ass.
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This is an industrial mower.
Like that's going to stop anybody on /. with an excess of both disposable income and body fat from looking at getting one. And by the way mister smartass, they sure [amazon.com] as [amazon.com] hell [amazon.com] do [amazon.com] still make manual push mowers, they're far from obsolete. You should go buy one tomorrow, and work on losing that lard-ass of yours.
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You can buy a robotic lawnmower from Walmart. It's about $1600. For much less than that, you can pay a landscaping crew or the kid down the street to mow the lawn. This is one of those tasks that doesn't make sense to automate. It can be done cheaply by willing humans without putting them at unacceptable risk.
This lawnmower? [walmart.com] The one that requires a wire be placed around the lawn, and is intended for lawns of only about a 5th of an acre?
You don't seem to get the point of this at all. It's not for mowing small lawns. This is for large fields or parks for which a tractor-mower was the most practical option anyway. I suspect that after a year or two of not needing to hire someone to drive around mowing on that expensive tractor, you can save quite a bit.
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Re:Really useful? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry to sound sandy, but to quote my honours superviser at uni: "Where's the science"? This isn't even as cool as if he'd stuck a Basic STAMP on it and internet-enabled it.
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Does it make it more efficient? First of all I am pretty sure it is going to take longer. Second, for the cost to make one of these I am pretty sure you can make one of those lawn mowers that cut grass BY ITSELF with NO HUMAN INTERVENTION. I don't care if it takes 5 days for the machine to do it, if it is automatic and I don't need to be there. Finally, all this does is requires a human to still attend to the grass, but not get the side benefit of exercise... While this invention is cool, don't pawn it off as something useful when their is clearly little to no market for something like this...
According to the video all you have to do is use the Wiimote to guide it around the perimeter of the area you want it to mow, then it mows the area inside of that on its own. I'm not an expert but I think for those other mowers that do it by themselves, you still have to set up some kind of barrier of some sort (buried wire for example). I could maybe see this being useful for someone who goes around and cuts grass in a lot of different areas that they can't set up a wire or whatever. Maybe.
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Buy a goat (Score:2)
Or some rabbits or something.
Good lord, imagine expending money and energy to just keep grass short.
What happens if.... (Score:1)
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The Happening never happened, and if you attempt to claim otherwise, I'm going to run you over with a lawnmower.
Slashdotted - cache. (Score:3, Informative)
First, the obligatory Google Cache link.
http://74.125.95.132/search?hl=en&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A//www.casmobot.dk/ [74.125.95.132]
There's not much on the main page except a link to the YouTube video, here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhMl7a3wJvQ [youtube.com]
Anyway, I wonder how easy it really is to control this thing. Holding a WiiMote level for a long time is harder than it sounds.
The GPS-autonomous mode is really cool, though. Last time I checked the progress of robo-mowers, many of them required a buried cable, fence, or other tangible barrier. This thing is orders of magnitude more convenient.
It's an outrage (Score:2)
Re:It's an outrage (Score:5, Funny)
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Wiimote fad? (Score:2)
What's with this fad of making everything controllable by a Wiimote? It's losing it's charm. Maybe I should stop reading Hack a Day: http://hackaday.com/category/wii-hacks/ [hackaday.com] :p
Web-controlled robot (Score:5, Interesting)
My son and I joked about making it do something useful and buying a URL called "cleanmyroom.com" where total strangers will go around cleaning up your room. In this case, I'd go for "mowmylawn.com". It's like Tom Sawyer charging money to whitewash a fence.
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This might be safer than my plan, which is to have a round lawn with a string (like a weed whacker) that pops up from the center and buzzs around a few times. It could be automated, but having someone chase off any random animals (birds, neighbor's cat, mailman) before turning it on might be prudent.
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Funny that was my thought too.
Re:Web-controlled robot (Score:4, Funny)
I'm sure within a few hours of "mowmylawn.com" being up there will be an auto-redirect from "mowdownmybegonias.com"
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Engage attack mode! (Score:2)
Bluetooth you say? (Score:2)
Why a wiimote... (Score:5, Interesting)
The site seems to be slashdoted, so here's the Google cache [74.125.93.104] and a Youtube video [youtube.com]
The site doesn't seem to mention it, but why a wiimote? Why not a standard RC joystick?
The wiimote is okay with games, where misjudging the position of the wiimote will just screw up a virtual character. But why bring that into the real world where misjudging the position of the wiimote will send an industrial mower (with very sharp very fast spinning blades) off in the wrong direction? At least with the standard RC joystick if you let go of the control it'll snap back to the center and the mower would stop. You don't have the same feature with a wiimote, if you want to stop the mower you have to find the neutral zone yourself, if you drop the wiimote, the mower will go shooting off in some potentially dangerous direction (especially when near a road.)
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I suppose the worst part would be if you didn't make sure that it goes off with some kind of killswitch. "Hold down the z button to engage blades."
I always hated it when the batteries died and I couldn't even pause the game...it's annoying when Leon dies in RE4, but this would be a little worse.
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Here's a better video. [youtube.com]
This is a really great innovation... (Score:4, Funny)
... because my doctor advised me just the other day that I need to be getting less exercise, for the sake of my health.
Same old game (Score:5, Funny)
...just better graphics. [the-commodore-zone.com]
Modified Wiimote? (Score:2)
"Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark have modified a Wiimote so that it can control an industrial lawn mower."
"It uses a standard Wiimote that communicates via Bluetooth to a computer and robotics module built into the mower."
So which is it? Did they actually modify a Wiimote or just use it as another HID via any of the myriad drivers out there? Would this be any more or less newsworthy if they used a wireless mouse, or a controller connected to the computer with *GASP* a wire?
safety? (Score:1)
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Also, I'd never want to have to explain to my neighbor how I accidentally "mowed" her cat.
A mark of good intentions: putting the inverted commas around "mowed" rather than "accidentally".
"Modified"? (Score:2)
have modified a Wiimote so that it can control an industrial lawn mower.
It uses a standard Wiimote that communicates via Bluetooth to a computer and robotics module built into the mower.
How is that modifying the remote? Sounds more like interfacing an unmodified remote with a computer that controls a module which controls the mower.
Look at me! I've modified a keyboard to put text on a remote web server!
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Zelda decals. Duh.
Missing the retarded tag? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Why hasn't this been tags as retarded yet?
Much like the Wiimote is a horrible game controller for almost every Wii game made sense they try to stuff it into the role of a traditional controller anyway, there are far more intelligent controllers to use for a lawnmower than a Wiimote.
This is just a retarded way to control something hoping to gain some attention because it has 'Wii' in the press release.
While its neat that someone did it and all that, its a stupid idea in general. Would you try to drive a car
Roomba (Score:1)
or you could just get off your fat ass and mow the damn lawn.
Here's a better idea (Score:1)
Since it has GPS receivers, one should be able to click and drag the area to be mowed on a zoomed in Google Maps terrain view (just hope there's no cars or babies parked on your lawn now).
What if you drop the Wiimote? (Score:2)
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Well, use a deadmans handle. Or in this case, Switch B underneath the wiimote. Failsafes are well tried and tested in industry.
Sorry bout that, I fell down... (Score:1)
What, no Lawnmower Man jokes ? (Score:2)
I am sorely disappointed in you guys. Give ol' Jeff Fahey some love!
Slopes? Hills? (Score:2)
Now they just need to find a large slope or hill in Denmark to try it on... good luck :-)
Take it to the next level (Score:2)
An industrial lawnmower is a good start, but they really need to adapt this thing to a combine before next November. Nothing says Halloween like a driverless combine headed right at you.
and autonomus control doesn't make the headline??? (Score:1)
It's a robot with the ability to finish mowing after you define the parameters (edge of the field) and we're excited somebody is using a Wiimote???
Let me put it this way, which movie would you watch - the one where somebody successfully controls a robot from a distance, or the one where you give a robot a spinning deadly blade and then let loose?
See what I mean.
BTW trick question geeks would watch both
Peace out.
How cool is this? (Score:2)
Reminds me of this... (Score:1)