FCC Approves iRobot Automatic Lawnmower
The products already on the market aren’t cheap: the list price of the wonderfully-named Robomow is $1,200, for example.
The Federal Communications Commission was involved because the mower uses radio beacons to figure out the boundaries of your lawn, which the FCC had to ensure wouldn’t interfere with any other wireless equipment.
The main entity that objected was the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which had concerns about the mower beacons interfering with its equipment. The FCC concluded that the beacons are tiny and small enough that they won’t interfere with the observatory’s giant radio telescopes.
iRobot hasn’t announced yet when the mowers will hit the market or how much they might cost. However, if they use radio beacons at the corners of your lawn, they’ll be easier to set up, and iRobot can use its existing robot-marketing network to sell them.
iRobot’s robotic lawn mower gets U.S. regulatory approval [Reuters]
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