(PCM) iRobot, the company that created and introduced the world (and all of its’ cats) to the Roomba, a hands-free robotic vacuum cleaner shaped like a small disc that whisks around the floors of your home cleaning whatever is in its’ path, have now received clearance from the FCC to design and market a robotic lawnmower. The lawnmower would work much the same as the Roomba and will truly be a lazy person’s dream come true.
The reason for the FCC’s involvement is due to the fact that iRobot plans to have the lawnmowers operate via radio frequency which have the potential to interfere with other wireless technology. It is said that generally the FCC will not grant license to unlicensed fixed outdoor infrastructures that operate on radio frequencies, but for iRobot and the robot lawnmower they have made an exception.
Sounds great to us, right? Well, one group of people are not very pleased with the FCC’s leniency. The staff at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory are complaining because they feel that the new device and its’ radio frequency signals could possibly disrupt the use of radio-based telescopes. The FCC has ultimately dismissed the astronomers concerns and given the go ahead to iRobot to proceed with the project.