But Does It Spread Fertilizer?

A solar-powered mowing robot

by Doug Nathan

One of the articles in The Ecology Of Justice (IC#38)
Spring 1994, Page 9
Copyright (c)1994, 1997 by Context Institute | To order this issue ...

A robotic solar lawn mower? That's right. Weed Eater's latest lawn mowing innovation requires no fossil fuels, no electrical cords, little maintenance and automatically avoids sticks and stones. All that's required is sunlight, a grassy lawn, and around $2,000 to buy it.

The Weed Eater Robotic Solar Mower has a bank of solar cells that rotate the mower's tungsten blades and propels it ahead searching for uncut grass at a maximum speed of 1.5 feet/ second.

Electronic sensors prevent the mower from running into buildings, fences and shrubs as it grazes, shuts it down if the grass is too wet, and even sets off an alarm if a neighbor borrows it without asking.

The mower climbs small hills and operates in an area up to 13,500 square feet as defined by physical barriers or by an underground wire charged by a solar unit.

All you do is put it on the lawn in the spring, take it off in the fall.

For more information, contact the Real Goods Trading Corp. at 800/762-7325.

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