Robo-mower

and 7 billion humans became useless.

Can I use it for the plastic grass on my veranda?

Another excuse for people to be lazy

Japan has grass? (that is not roped off that is)

Can I get this in the 100 yen store? If not my lawn can just keep growing and contributing to countering global warming.

This is just the lawnmower version of the automated vacuum cleaner.

It looks like the US robots that sweep and mop. I think our lawns might be a lil too rugid for that guy.

Cool lawnmower!

Now for Japan's next great invention - a lawn!

this would sell nicely in the U.S. where they have big front and back yard lawns. Not much use in Japan except in parks, etc. Is the lawn mower going to be a retail product or will it be ASIMO's side-kick blade cutting superhero?

This is just the lawnmower version of the automated vacuum cleaner.

The only reason they didn't market this YEARS ago in the states is because it would quickly get stolen.

cuts 3mm? What use is that? You have to have it constantly running? Not very eco triendly, does it run on gas or electric?

where is the one with a machinegun that shoots anything that tresspasses! model Dalek nr.001 Exterminate!

@Dennis--I was thinking Daleks too. Been watching a lot of Dr. Who lately. Saw a good one about Winston Churchill.

That nude statue in the background is actually a grass watering robot.

Is this the robot that's going to clean up the nuclear mess?

Can the mower play soccer, like Asimo can? Then they can play together.

You'd need to erect fences to prevent it from going over to the neighbors' yard.

If it's anything like the roomba, it'll have accessories that make invisible 'walls'. Maybe it can also tell the difference between grass and not-grass, like the roomba can tell the difference between floor and not-floor so that it doesn't throw itself down the stairs.

I've had a succession of roombas and fake roombas - they're great for getting out of the daily chore of hovering. If only they weren't killed by a surfeit of animal hair.

For the dalek lovers there is ROVIO, a Wi-Fi enabled mobile robot with a webcam that you can interact with they have a lo of different designs.

http://www.wowwee.com/en/products/tech/telepresence/rovio/rovio

Does it come with thief alarm in case someone snatch it up from your properties? Also, I believe I have seen something like this a while back in US' Disney world.

Does it stop when detecting dog poopy ????

If you go to the link provided in the caption, you'll learn that this is going to be initally sold in Europe, not Japan, and that it is electric. When it detects its battery is getting low, it returns to its docking station to recharge, then resumes cutting.

I wonder what it uses for blades? I'm guessing a line trimmer (too lazy to look) because the safety interlocks would be amazing if it used a rigid blade. But yeah, in Japan you don't need one. Europe is probably a good bet. In the US many lawns are rather large, you might need a fleet....that would be funny to watch.

Cool, but pointless.

I wonder what it uses for blades? I'm guessing a line trimmer (too lazy to look) because the safety interlocks would be amazing if it used a rigid blade. But yeah, in Japan you don't need one. Europe is probably a good bet. In the US many lawns are rather large, you might need a fleet....that would be funny to watch.

Seeing as it only does 3mm of grass in a pass, I would guess the blade is encased in a foil shield similar to how the blades on an electric razor are shielded. This unit isn't going to be used to knock down the 6-inch jungle of your typical American redneck yard. You'd have to take it down to manageable size with a conventional lawn mower before unleashing this "lawn-ba".

I'll get over the fact of the missing anti-grav vehicles if they put a speed up on fully functional household androids. I'm not talking about the ones that will go Terminator/Matrix on us, I'm talking about the iRobot and Eve no jikan kind minus the negatives. Set to do certain chores (like shopping, loading the dishwasher, taking kids to school, babysitting, etc)

I've seen those kind of robot-lawn-mower since a few years around my place. They have a small station they go back and dock for electric power wich is solar. It makes absolutely no noise and the grass is cut clean through the season! Looks like a gadget but actually quite efficient. You delimit the surface with a kind of wire (don't see it, ground level) it won't cross. It's quite cool, don't have to worry about lawn-mower noise right under the office/meeting windows!