iRobot Unveils Terra, a Roomba Lawn Mower (venturebeat.com) 142
Krystalo writes: iRobot is best known for making vacuum cleaner robots: the infamous Roomba lineup. But the company also makes mopping robots (Braava lineup), pool cleaning robots (Mirra lineup), a bot to help clean gutters, and even programmable robots (Create lineup). So, what's next for your home? A lawn mower robot. Queue the "get off my lawn" jokes.
Is this new? (Score:5, Informative)
Is this new, I mean, it might be new for iRobot, but haven't lawn mower robots been a thing for a while now? iRobot entering the market place might be a big player coming, probably one that can be marketed towards "common man", but I swear we've had companies with robot lawnmowers for a decade or more now.
Is this a good idea? (Score:2, Funny)
A robot with spinning blades called Terror...
History will look back on the great Man vs. Machine War that started when lawnmowers demanded suffrage and wonder what iRobot were thinking.
About your sig... (OT) (Score:1)
While at first glance, this appears absurd, the bit pattern that corresponds to 65536 is actually the same bit pattern as that needed for the value 1.0, when using fixed point precision with 16 bits to the right of the binary point.
I do not know for sure if that's really what is going on with that line of code... I am unfamiliar with that codebase, and this is just my first impression, but taken by itself, it's actually not really that crazy a thing to see.
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C# doesn't let you simply reinterpret binary as different types like that.
The person who wrote it was trying to avoid using floating point by multiplying everything by 65536. Windows CE doesn't require an FPU so it might have helped on some low end ARM systems, but in practice I really doubt it as by far the biggest bottleneck was the rendering on the GPU.
In any case, the name "one" is... Not great. Also the code didn't actually work properly anyway, so it's a case of premature optimization.
One day I'll fin
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That's what fixed-point is... it happens to be the case multiplication by some 65536 is equivalent to everything being shifted left by 16 bits, and is how the bit pattern similarity between the integer 65536 and a a representation of 1.0 with 16 bits of precision is relevant. Obviously, the optimization is only practical on systems that do not have efficient floating point.
In the early 1990's, I remember wo
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Sure, but the other thing about C# is that bit shifting is quite slow too. It really really isn't built for doing bitwise operations. And also there are fixed point maths libraries for this kind of stuff, although I suppose to be fair they might not have been available at the time they wrote it or available for the .NET Compact framework.
If I were doing it in C# I'd probably create a class, or if it was C I'd have INT16_TO_FIXED() and FIXED_TO_INT16() macros.
Still, that library saved our bacon when it turne
Re:Is this a good idea? (Score:4, Funny)
A robot with spinning blades called Terror...
History will look back on the great Man vs. Machine War that started when lawnmowers demanded suffrage and wonder what iRobot were thinking.
This.
Do you want Skynet? Because this is how you get Skynet.
1, 2, 3, TOMMY! TOMMY! (Score:2)
Spinning blades of a robotic lawn mower... Terror... It reminds me of a scene late in Disney's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids where the neighbor kid Tommy was running Nick's radio control lawn mower, and the kids were in danger of getting sliced up.
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Our Husqvarna mower works with small razor blades that can pivot freely around an axis. Centrifugal force allows them to cut grass without problems, but they rotate away above the protective cover whenever they hit something hard. Keeps the blades from being damaged too easily, and as an added benefit also protects limbs.
This is our second robot, we bought the first one about 12 years ago so it's hardly a new concept.
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I've been watching this area for a while as I'd find one very useful. Be interested in knowing price.
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Re:Is this new? In the US. (Score:2)
For what ever reason robotic vacuums are more popular in Europe.
Husqvarna has had multiple models available for a while.
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Most of them are from home made robotics enthusiast, not a commercial for sell product.
The biggest hurtle I see is legal vs technological. What happens if this mower mows over your cat, your dogs tail, or your kids favorite toy. Now a company like iRobot we would hope would have enough safety features to prevent harm, and if they did they would have insurance to help compensate for your damage.
Now if I had one of these things, I would not try to push its safety features to its limits (bring in the pets, m
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I've had a Robomow commercial product for years, Husquarna/Gardena (big garden tool brands in Europe) have mowers as well, as have various other manufacturers
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You're redefining what it means to "mow a lawn" now, to make this product viable? Wow. I mean, I shouldn't be surprised. Idiocy knows no bounds.
He's wrong. There are different methods, but all actually do cut the grass
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Disclosure: I worked for iRobot for several years fairly high up the management chain and departed in the late aughts.
iRobot has been looking for an act 2 for more than a decade now. The Roomba was a huge financial success, selling over 32 million units (and my data is from back when I worked there - the actual number is likely higher now), but even almost a decade ago we could see the sell curve falling and many, many competitors entering the market, several with long vacuum cleaner histories (Dyson). We
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Then they also started to sell off the mapped interior data to third parties to "server the customers better." When they started doing that, and not having a way to turn the "feature" off, is when I decided to stop looking for a robot vacuum as you know the competitors will be doing it too.
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Que?
Quebec?
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Que?
Quebec?
Sorry, I don't speak Canadian.
Dogs (Score:5, Insightful)
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Hmmm... that shouldn't be too hard actually. Probably easier than a lawn mowing robot. And I bet there are a lot of people who would pay a few hundred bucks for such a thing.
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Looks like there are a fair number of them in the works. Here's one from CES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
My favourite part of the second video: "Are you interested in joining our mailing list" "um..."
Should make the thing pick up leaves too.
Re:Dogs (Score:5, Funny)
The problem is limited battery life prevents automatically delivering the dog poop to Washington.
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Hm... I found a flying poop scooping drone. Would make delivery quicker, but doesn't fix the battery life issue.
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Why not just mow the poop into the lawn as fertilizer?
Re:Dogs (Score:4, Informative)
Why not just mow the poop into the lawn as fertilizer?
Because poop from carnivores makes terrible fertilizer.
Actual fertilizer is digested grass (comes from herbivores).
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It's been done! It's call Va-poo-rize!
That was a bit mean... (Score:2)
That was a bit mean, but pretty funny.
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Well, it dries up pretty fast, why not just mow it into the grass as fertilizer?
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Gives parasites and harmful bacteria a place to live and thrive which can be very bad if you have young kids and dog waste doesn't make good fertilizer it's too high in nitrogen and phosphorus.
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Doesn't have to go to the vet, take heartworm, flea and tick, go on the carpet, get fur on everything, chew on stuff, get in the trash, wake you up in the middle of the night to go out, and would probably cost a lot less.
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:1)
Pet Safety (Score:2)
Have to wonder how long until we start hearing the horror stories of the neighborhood cat or playful puppy having an unfortunate encounter with these things...
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Well, I guess Fluffy now needs a new name...
their only 10 years behind... (Score:1)
I've been using the husquavarna automower for the last year and it works great.
I knew I should have been an attorney (Score:3)
So many negligence and injury cases are about to get queued up.
Think of the difference of a relies-on-smooth-floors, air-sucking machine moving around your locked home when you're not around vs. a powerful-enough-to-push-through-stiff-grass, blade-slashing machine moving around a neighborhood full of other people's kids and dogs.
Maybe I should go get that law degree after all.
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https://kytrial.com/man-who-was-injured-while-using-trimmer-awarded-5-78-million/
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Weed eater string rips rather then cuts, which injures the grass. Ideal would be (safety) scissors or a miniature reel mower. Rather then sharp, two right angle surfaces with about a thou of clearance between them.
Ho Hum (Score:1)
There are several "robot lawn mowers" on the market already, from the likes of Honda, Husqvarna, and Worx. While iRobot brings it's own expertise to the field, it will still have to play "catch up" with the established (and deep-pocketed) vendors. I applaud iRobot for the effort, but I feel that their offering is more of a "we need to at least show our face" effort than a "we are the market leader" face.
For me, I have little need of a robot lawn mower. It is a pleasure to cut my meager suburban lawn in the
This market could use more competition (Score:3)
I've got a 6 acre plot, 4 of which is mowed. Generally this takes me 3 hours every Saturday during the warm months. I would love a robot mower. So far, they have all been random paths, except for some prototyping in Ardumower. Random paths are great for suburbia but they just can't cover large open spaces.
This market could really use someone who can handle straight paths. My kind of yard doesn't mind some radio beacons to help with DGPS signals, but fence type transmitters far from the home will be tough. In-ground wires aren't too much of an issue.
Right now, the only automatic mowers I can find that can handle more than 2 acres are more than my zero turn mower. Not that that's a deal breaker, but I would need to buy two to cover my whole yard -- which is the problem.
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Re:This market could use more competition (Score:4, Informative)
Same reason most people mow their yards, whether they know it or not, to keep mice and rats away from the home. I'm in an area with a lot of hay fields, so a lot of unchecked rodents. It's not perfectly effective, but keeping a big buffer from the main home, the detached garage and the pool is important to me and my family.
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In his defense, rodents aren’t too keen on big open spaces where they can be picked-off by birds.
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Most people with less than 4 acre properties have neighbours... who mow their lawns. Try not mowing your lawn in suburbia for a while and see how the neighbours react.
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Interesting. I'm glad rodents are too lazy to go the extra acre. All those people with less than 4 acre properties must be absolutely infested.
To be fair, the OP said they were surrounded by hay fields. So I would guess that they are in a rural area.
Have you been to Chicago, NYC, LA or DC? I was in Baltimore a couple years ago and rat ran out of an overgrown yard crossed the street and climbed the rain spout of another house. This was in the middle of the day. It looked like it weighed at least 3 lbs.
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You forgot about all the other wild life and insects that enjoy high grass.
People don't really think about why we do certain things like mowing the lawn. Usually if you are going to plant any thing that flowers you would place it away from the house I see things like lilacs up against the house attracting bees and ants. I see trees too close to the water pipes, sewer pipes, or power lines. Mulberry trees to close to the house and driveway they clog up the gutters, drop mulberries on the car, the drive, stai
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Yup, damn ticks.
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It can be for fire suppression too. Short dry grass doesn't burn the same as long dry grass. Helps if you're somewhere where you can't water in the middle/end of summer.
This is Awesome! The Next-Gen Lawnmower (Score:2)
There are several posts about how this is about time. If you read the article, you'll see that this is a huge step above anything out there now. All existing robotic lawnmowers require you to bury a wire around the perimeter of your lawn. It's essentially the same technology as the invisible fence that many dog owners use to keep pets in their yards. This is fine if you have a nice contiguous lawn, but if you have sidewalks and driveways breaking up your grass, it can be a huge pain. The Roomba system
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You truly must be one of the dumbest people online at this hour.
It sounds like you're giving out memberships to the club
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My brother researched previous robot mowers, they were designed for shorter grasses like bermuda. Where we live, tall fescue is the top choice as it is heat tolerance, drought tolerant.. but it's recommended to keep between 3.5" and 4" tall. The existing mowers cut to a maximum of 2.5" if I remember correctly, probably
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That's a fair point. We had an early Roomba vacuum, and it didn't last long.
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The great thing about Roombas though, is that there's a fantastic community around it. Very easy to order third-party replacement stuff, and even 3D printed parts for cheap.
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Yea, where I am, 3-4 inches is recommended but a lot of people struggle to have a golf green length lawn. Another reason for longish grass is weed suppression, weed seeds and seedlings need light so if you shade them out...
iRobot. Pfth. Aren’t they falling behind? (Score:2)
Seems like Neato is more clever. I like the capability to mark areas as off limits in a map.
Look out, Stephen King (Score:3)
This sounds like the basis for a great new Stephen King book...
High value theft target (Score:3)
Nothing new, I've had one for 15 years (Score:2)
A bit lax on any real details (Score:3)
It looks small, whats the hp/kw rating? Run time per charge, max height of grass it can handle, and scores of other things. Looking at it it doesn't seem like it'll handle more than about a .5" of cut depth so you would have to set it to run every other day, if not every day depending on the weather. Which would be fine for it head out every day when I'm at work except that now you're talking a ton of hours wear and tear on it. My roomba vacuum runs most days and after a year or so it's definitely showing the mileage. And that's nothing like cutting a lawn.
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I wonder how it deals with mole hills, and tunnels. Moles have been doing very well around here.
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I expect an arms race between the robots and the moles.
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And the moles will win. Our new underlords.
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I, for one, welcome them.
They will make mountains out of mole hills!
Here come the lawsuits from morons (Score:2)
Can't shake the feeling (Score:1)
Infamous? (Score:3)
One clickbait-y article means they are "infamous?"
Wirecutter seems to like them:
https://thewirecutter.com/revi... [thewirecutter.com]
Not a "best" recommendation, but a runner-up nod.
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Kind of a stupid article too. Somebody who won't leave the Roomba unattended, even though they also admit that it's never broken anything, including itself.
lawnba (Score:2)
I guess the name lawnba was already taken.
I would prefer an RC one with tracks... (Score:2)
like this one [rcmowersus.com] just a residential version (not costing over 2K). Don't think the iRobot one would climb a slope.
Safe from Thieves? (Score:1)
Grass Technology (Score:2)
Instead of mowing your lawn every week or so to cut it to a preferred length, why not use a GM grass seed that only grows to your preferred height, and then stays there? It can be modified to require less water, as well. Imagine how much money that'd save golfing institutions. It could even be made Roundup-ready to make it easier to kill weeds. Seems Scotts DID test a Roundup-ready grass for golf courses, but the USDA refused to allow its sale; European/Asian customers scoffed at the idea and they decided t