back to article Hefty beauty GAGA gets voluptuous new undercarriage

Our autonomous lawnmower has had a hard summer, with brains, brawn and even her skeleton delayed, but despite failing to manage 2012's growth, she's still on track to wreak graminoid havoc - if just a little later than hoped. The grass has, quite literally, been growing beneath our feet while we waited for RS Components to …

COMMENTS

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  1. rurwin
    Terminator

    You're doing what!?

    You are giving a robot a serious deadly weapon? Are you crazy?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And when will you be slinging this under a balloon?

    Go on it has to be done - air-dropped autonomous lawnmowers.

    It's an untapped market.

    1. A J Stiles

      Re: And when will you be slinging this under a balloon?

      Hmm ..... would "Air Dropped Electronic Lawnmowing Equipment" happen to be taken?

  3. Richard 120

    Sensible

    At least you're withholding the actual part which does the cutting until you can determine exactly how intelligent the beast is going to be.

    I think you need to target dog like intelligence, border collie that is, not springer spaniel.

    Too much or too little intelligence could be bad for the human race as we know it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sensible

      Reduce the need to cut the grass in the first place. Add a little alcohol to the irrigaiton water. The grass comes up half cut.

      Coat in hand.

  4. FunkyEric
    Pint

    Surely....

    The trick is to make it so happy mowing lawns that it nevers wonders if there is anything else that it could do :-)

    1. Kobus Botes
      Coat

      Re: Surely....

      Are you by any chance employed by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation?

      The satisfied sigh of automatic doors comes to mind....

      Mine's the one with the electronic thumb in the pocket.

  5. HumptyDumpty
    FAIL

    Just remind us again - how long did it take RS Components to come up with the motors?

  6. Barry Tabrah
    Flame

    Fun with robots

    You might wish to check out Katy Levinson's talks on the defcon website. It may save a lot of pain and heartache. If nothing else it's entertaining. For example, velcro is your friend. Battery plus C-clamp equals fire.

    Note: It's been a while since I listened to the talks so I cannot recall if they are completely safe for work.

  7. BillboBaggins
    Pint

    And this on the day...

    And this update is on the day I hear about a man who chopped his tackle off with a lawnmower!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Headmaster

    Weldink?

    All men ought to have a rite of passage, by doing a basic welding certificate at puberty.

    It's a dirty shitty job, but it's a brilliant skill to have as a hobby.

    And it's a nice thing to be able to make things that do not shed rather large fastly spinning chunks of steel at ones lower regions - because of fundamentally bad welds in intrinsically important areas.

    1. A J Stiles
      Stop

      Re: Weldink?

      Why limit it to men?

  9. Richard 12 Silver badge

    Extremely Important - Fit a removable link

    You really want to be able to physically cut the power from a distance.

    Find a sufficiently-high current rating 2 or 4-pole connector, (eg the ones found in forklift trucks) add loop of wire to one sex and wire the other in series with the battery.

    (4-pole means it can be an aux. charging socket as well)

    Then you can grab that loop and yank it out to immediately shut down the machine should it blow something and jam a motor on, or get bored with grass and go on a rampage.

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Re: Extremely Important - Fit a removable link

      Just to clarify - a (reasonably-priced) switch isn't good enough.

      Most designs of switch can weld together internally should they get overloaded (eg motor controller failure), also you really want to be able to hold "the keys" in your hand or in a safe box when working on this thing so it's definitely impossible for it to fire up the Spinny-bit of Death (and grass-cutting)

      Yours, a former Robot Wars competitor...

  10. GreyWolf

    Vulture Central is redoing the cions...

    Can we have a Black Lawnmower, please?

  11. imanidiot Silver badge
    Coat

    Some glider pilots might get jealous...

    The Slingsby T.21 Cadet (vintage glider first flown in 1944) uses the spitfire tailwheel as a main landing gear. And these tires are becomming harder and harder to come by. (There have been reports of people digging up crashed spitfires to get their hands on an original. I can't testify to the veracity of those tales though)

    In other news, I still think the castor wheel is going to give you problems when moving over rough terrain, but we'll see how it handles.

    I'll go grab my coat. I'd rather be flying right now anyway...

    1. Martin Budden Silver badge

      Re: Some glider pilots might get jealous...

      I was wondering about the castor wheel too... it will work best if the castor wheel is at the back.

      1. Bill Ray (Written by Reg staff)

        Re: Re: Some glider pilots might get jealous...

        You might be right, but it looks so much better with the caster at the fount.

        I shall run some tests and see how it goes.

        Bill.

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