April 6 - iRobot, the maker of the Roomba, is hoping to find
another consumer hit with robots that can mow your lawn. But those plans are
causing some friction with astronomers who are mapping the galactic regions
that produce new stars.
Scientists from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory have
formally objected to iRobot’s early plans for a lawn-mowing bot, telling the
Federal Communications Commission that a radio-frequency fence meant to keep
the product from wandering away would interfere with their sensitive equipment.
iRobot has to ask the FCC for permission to market its lawnmower
robot because the company plans to use a series of radio transmitters mounted
on two-foot lawn spikes to define the boundary of an owner’s lawn, sending
signals that would halt the mower before it starts motoring down the street.
There are other robotic lawnmowers in the world, but they typically use
hard-wired fences to keep the bots in place.
Officials from the federally funded observatory say one way to
solve the problem could be forcing iRobot to remotely disable any lawnmower
bots if they’re too close to an installation of radio telescopes.
In its official response, Bedford, Mass.-based iRobot says that
while it “respects the work of the radio astronomy community,” the remote
location of the radio telescope facilities and the low-power signals proposed
for iRobot’s radio fence system mean “there is an exceedingly low practical
risk” of any interference with the work of mapping the heavens.
That’s where things get a little snarky. In response to iRobot,
Harvey S. Liszt, an astronomer and spectrum manager with the National Radio
Astronomy Observatory implied that iRobot’s claims about the need for its
autonomous mechanoid landscapers were both wildly overblown and utterly
trivial: “iRobot cited multiple
statistics of grim accidents and spilt gasoline to assert the public benefit of
approving its wireless robotic lawn mowers.
However, there is already a
competitive market for robotic lawn mowers using wire loops, which has somehow
failed to stanch the stream of ghastly accidents and spilt gasoline that iRobot
associates with the mundane practice of lawn-mowing. Robotic lawn devices are
expensive, typically several thousand dollars, and meant for situations where
mowing is performed far more frequently than in the typical front yard.”
It’s too early to tell who will win this particular fight, which
was previously noted by Bloomberg. But iRobot’s proposed lawnmower bots are a
long way from hitting the market. The company’s plans to enter the lawn-care
field were teased earlier this year, right after a lackluster earnings report
dinged iRobot’s shares on Wall Street. In its initial FCC paperwork, iRobot
acknowledges the lawnmower idea is still “in the early design phase.”
iRobot has pushed into several other robotics categories in the
dozen years since it debuted the Roomba, its original disc-shaped robotic
vacuum. But most consumers would probably be hard-pressed to name iRobot’s bots
for cleaning gutters and pools or mopping household floors — iRobot says that
Roomba remains the company’s biggest seller.
Curt Woodward www.betaboston.com
No comments:
Post a Comment