WINNER: New robot lawnmower

MAKE reader gnomic had a sweet deal on a new robo mower, FREE – you just had to come up with the best idea – and here it is!

Adam, Congrats! You Won! You idea had the greatest combined technical and social merit. I hope that you use this as a prototype and perhaps even produce a DIY version. As an owner of 2 dogs, I’d buy one for my back yard!

Here’s the winning idea:

Idea: Robotic poop grabber

1. Cull parts of it that are unnecessary (blades and extra engines). My brother-in-law will probably re-use these for his own robotic lawn mower project (with GPS, stick cleanup, etc)
2. Add inexpensive elementry object identification gear (for object recognitiion).
3. Add some sort of inexpensive, pay as you go cell phone + gps to phone home, if it is stolen.
4. Add ability to pick up dog poop
5. Deploy at local dog park in Omaha to clean up (as dog parks are typically covered in stuff that owners leave behind).

Impact:

1. It will advertise the local hackerspace (Omaha Maker Group), which is trying to grow.
2. It will improve a public space
3. It *should* save the city money as public employees currently have to do this
4. It should help cut down on disease transmitted (dog-to-dog) by feces (worms, giardia, etc.)