The northern hemisphere is currently experience the end of fall, which means winter is coming, but those in the souther hemisphere are enjoying the good life as spring is in full bloom, which means lawns have to be mowed. You could use an actual functioning lawnmower that will be able to cut your grass, or you could just use a LEGO lawnmower to look extremely cool in your front yard as the your grass slowly, but surely, grows around it. (more…)
Despite the fact that I live in the city and have a really tiny lawn, I’m still really bad about mowing my lawn regularly. I think I’d rather stay inside and build things out of LEGO. But maybe if I had a LEGO lawnmower, I could kill two birds with one stone.
LEGO artist Sean Kenney has already beat me to the punch, having built this amazing lawnmower out of bricks. The full-scale mower was built using 13,704 individual LEGO bricks, and took Kenney and his assistants over 200 hours to design and build.
The mower was built for Kenney’s traveling LEGO exhibition Nature Connects, which is touring the U.S. through 2016. It’s currently on exhibit at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, NC through January 5, 2014, among many other amazing LEGO creations.
Unfortunately, the LEGO lawnmower isn’t functional, but that’s okay with me. I’d be happy to just sit and stare at it instead of cutting the grass anyhow.
What can you do with a small yet really powerful engine, a new riding lawnmower, a healthy marketing budget, and a professional race driver with some free time? You can cut the grass really, really quickly. Oh, and severely injure or kill yourself if you’re not careful.
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For much of the world, it’s probably fair to assume this type of machine and it’s originally intended utility are something quite foreign. The majority of planet earth’s residents don’t have golf courses or sprawling, heavily grassed estates, so one could be forgiven the assumption that this thing is something like a 4-wheeled ATV for senior citizens (realistically, in a way, riding lawnmowers are kinda that).
If such machines are new for you, that up there is a riding lawnmower – it cuts grass – lots and lots of grass, usually very slowly. Most riding lawnmowers do not hit 130mph/209kph, nor do they crank out 108HP and scream from 0-60mph/96kph in just four seconds. So yeah, again: fabulous engine, new mower, marketing cash, racecar driver. Vrooom!
Along with this mower’s, uhhhh, enhancements, Honda UK also made sure it can still do its job. Blade & grass bag included.
Have a watch – and if time’s short, and you must choose – go with the second one:
Honda’s Mean Mower
Racing Lawnmower from TopGear
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Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.
When you’re cutting your lawn, it always seems to take a lot of time. Not anymore, thanks to this lawn mower, which can mow your lawn at speeds of up to 130 mph. OK, maybe that’s not entirely accurate, but still, it’s fast enough for the Stig from Top Gear!
Honda UK teamed up with Team Dynamics to re-engineer this lawn mower, the Honda HF2620, that has an all-new chassis. It comes with a 1000cc engine that comes from a Honda VTR Firestorm motorcycle, which produces 109hp. Thanks to this engine, the lawn mower can reach 62mph in four seconds. It’s top speed is 130 mph, and it comes with a paddle-shift six-speed gearbox.
The HF2620 can still mow your lawn, but at only 15mph. Well, at least you can get around pretty fast!
Forget robotic drones; Honda’s new lawnmower can turn a dreary task into an X Games sport. Honda aptly calls it the Mean Mower and claims it can reach speeds up to 130MPH and can go from 0 to 60MPH in just four seconds. For a lawnmower to reach those staggering numbers, the company’s UK arm reached out to Team Dynamics, its British Touring Car Championship partner. They redesigned one of the company’s machines, equipped it with a motorcycle engine to make it more powerful and replaced some of its parts with fiberglass to shave off some of its weight. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean you can cut grass while speeding and drifting like Vin Diesel — its cutting cables only work if you slow it down to 15MPH. No word yet on whether the Mean Mower will hit the market, but speed devils can live theirFast and Furious lawnmowing dreams vicariously through the driver in the clip below.
Mowing the lawn is something most people dread, especially if they’re attempting to survive while living through a 100+ degree heatwave. The last thing we all want to do is spend an hour rolling out lawnmower over our lawn every […]
Some students at the LeCroy Career Technical Center have created an automated lawn mower for a national robotics competition. I say they just didn’t want to mow the lawn anymore. But no matter the reason, they have made a pretty cool lawnmower. Having it do all of the work is a nice bonus though.
This Ardumower was made from a motorized wheelchair, a push mower, an Arduino mini-computer, sensors and other parts. First they disassembled the wheelchair, then created the metal frame and then fitted the programmable hardware that allowed them to autonomously or remotely operate it.
They used Google Maps as the coordinate locater, so that they could program the Arduino to cut grass all by itself. They have to work on obstacle avoidance next.
Or if they had about $3000 lying around, they could just go for one of these.
Honda will release the MIIMO robotic lawnmower in Europe starting 2013. This robotic lawnmower is designed to cut 2-3mm of grass at a time, ensuring your lawn is always beautifully cut. The MIIMO also supports self-charging. The device constantly monitors the levels of its lithium-ion battery and automatically returns to the docking station when it needs to recharge. The MIIMO will be available in two versions such as the MIIMO 300 and MIIMO 500. As its name suggests, the MIIMO 300 offers a maximum perimeter cut of 300m, while the MIIMO 500 has a maximum perimeter cut of 500m. Sadly, there is no info on pricing or availability so far. [Newlaunches]
If you’re looking to plan ahead for next summer’s grueling yard chores, Honda has something that will help you sweat a bit less. The company has unveiled Miimo, a robotic lawn mower that trims 2-3mm of grass in several shifts during the course of a week. The green-thumbed robot navigates with a combination of controls, timers and sensors while working inside the constraints of a buried boundary wire. As you might expect, you’ll be able to ditch the gas can as well thanks to a lithium-ion battery and docking station (similar to a Roomba). If you’re worried about adjustments, cutting height can be set between 20mm (0.79 inches) and 60mm (2.36 inches) with three operation modes will suite the size of each job. When the unit arrives in Europe in early 2013, 300 and 500 models will be available sporting monikers that indicate their respective maximum cut perimeter in meters (about 328 yard for the former and 547 yards for the latter). For a few more details, head on past the break for the full PR.
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