Bosch releases world’s first smart lawn mower
Intelligent lawn care device not only cuts grass, also reduces time spent performing arduous chore
Just in time for Father’s Day, Bosch has introduced what the company is calling the “world’s first intelligent robot lawn mower.”
Artist rendering of the Indego by Bosch.
The grass-bot, referred to as Indego , is a completely autonomous robotic lawnmower that can cut up to 1,000 square meters of grass without any supervision at all.
How it works
Prior to sending it out to conquer one’s suburban safari, the owner must first install a wire around the edge of the property to make sure that Indego doesn’t make its way onto the road or a neighbor’s lawn (though I’m sure they wouldn’t mind the free yard work).
Other than this one relatively minor half-hour project, everything else is hands-off.
The Indego requires zero supervision.
The mower uses high-end sensory technology to autonomously avoid gravel, trees, terraces, bends, shrubs, fishponds, sprinklers, ornaments, and everything else we use to pretty-up lawns. If it comes across a new obstacle like, say, a new bench or patio set, it’ll remember the location of the obstruction and come back to mow it later on. If it encounters the same problem at the same location three times in a row, it’ll save the spot to memory and avoid it from there on out.
The Indego has a memory system that allows it to avoid obstructed sites.
The Indego is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and can mow for 20 minutes per charge. When it’s drained, the Indego goes back to its docking station to charge for 90 minutes. When fully charged again, it resumes cutting where it last left off. This feature alone makes the Indego more efficient than a gas-powered mower, and much cheaper to use, too. It’s also super silent and will mulch all the grass clippings, too.
The Indego is significantly more efficient than a gas-powered mower (and much quieter, too).
The “smart” part
What makes the Indego particularly noteworthy — and worth covering — is that it has the ability to localize itself, meaning it can cut in a straight-line pattern, rather than operate at-random (think of the popular carpet cleaner, Roomba).
Bosch says that this is possible because the Indego always knows where it is in relation to the charger; somewhat akin to a beacon system, if you will.
Check out an artist’s video of the Indego in action:
Before you take your credit card out . . .
For those seriously considering the Indego mower as the ultimate Father’s Day gadget gift to give, you might want to print this article out and give it to him in a card as an IOU. Bosch’s Indego is only available in a couple of Scandanavian-based locations for now, at a pinch over $2,000.
A much wider release is planned for 2013. ■
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