Friday, September 26, 2008

Home robot

I heard somebody had a leak and they were on vacation, and so were the people living downstairs, so two apartments were ruined.
While the communications aspect of this robot may be a bit silly, it could have averted the worst parts of a situation like the above. Just check in with it in the morning and in the evening.

The wheels are ingenious. Each one has mini-wheels on it which can go sideways, so the other two wheels can push it in that direction.



More videos here.

9 comments:

Alex said...

Like a Roomba on steroids....

Monsieur Beep! said...

My neighbour has a robot looking exactly the same, doing all the lawn-mowing for him, without making any noise!
For me it's either gene-engineered grass which won't grow any longer than 2 cm, or a robot.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Does he really? Can you find out what it is?

It must be electrical, but without wire, since it would run it over... ?

Monsieur Beep! said...

Correct.
The robot looks like a green tortoise, lol, and is moving along silently, it knows its borderline (the lawn is bordering to a street with a curb). The owner is a servicing firm for and seller of agricultural machinery; he is demonstrating that the idea works.

Alex said...

We were talking about it a few months ago, the general concept, and we decided that no one would be able to afford the liability insurance.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I don't know, if the "blade" was actually a piece of plastic string, then not too much damage should be possible.

MB, so this is a prototype?

Alex said...

Those plastic string blades are very efficient. My music teacher lost her finger to a Flymo in the early 80's, and I believe weed whackers are still quite dangerous in that regards. Maybe there are safe versions.

If that's the case is there a robotic raking machine to pick up the grass clipping after?

It also depends on your style of lawn care, a robot with decent weighted rollers would be quite a beast to move around. How often would it need to recharge?

I'd like to see it just to see how it addresses these issues.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

A finger? Seriously? (Sucks for a musician.) Are you sure? The only Flymo I've used had a metal blade.

Alex said...

Might have been a strimmer, not a hover, but it was a Flymo, and it was a nylon cord blade.