|
|
Insects inspire robotic mower design
15 Aug, 2008 By: Pest management staff PMP Buzz Online eNewsletterCLEVELAND — Engineering students from Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University are working to create a self-guided, robotic lawn mower.
According to Cleveland’s Plain Dealer newspaper:
“‘Cutter,’ the boxy, three-wheeled, sensor-studded device (named “Cutter”) they built in five months, finished third in a national robotics competition in June. The team members have a big-league sponsor in MTD Products Inc., the outdoor-equipment giant, and a mandate to get their technology to the marketplace, where mower sales rake in $15 billion annually.
Medina County-based MTD, maker of Cub Cadet, Troy-Bilt and Yard-Man mowers, was intrigued by Case's biologically inspired approach to robotics, which takes its cues from the behavior patterns of living things, particularly insects.
Take cockroaches. They lack a traditional brain but have managed to survive for eons. How? By evolving lots of hair and antenna sensors that detect hazards and by hard-wiring reflexes into their peripheral nerves, which speeds up their response to dangers.
Roaches react without having to devote much effort to thinking — a good model for an affordable, efficient autonomous mower."
Read the complete article from the Plain Dealer.
Please send any technical comments or questions to our webmaster.