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RobotShop And PulsedLight Announce Distribution Network Expansion

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RobotShop And PulsedLight Announce Distribution Network Expansion

RobotShop.com, the world's leading robot store for all your robotic needs, announced today that it has partnered with PulsedLight in order to become a master distributor of the popular LIDAR-Lite optical distance measurement sensor and future technology developed by PulsedLight, a manufacturer of fast, accurate and powerful optical distance measurement solutions.

LIDAR-Lite Optical Distance Sensor

As of July 1, 2015 all PulsedLight's smaller distribution partners will process their orders through RobotShop. This enables PulsedLight to centralize logistics and optimize service to its distributors. With warehouses in Canada, USA and Europe, and soon in other parts of the world, RobotShop will provide PulsedLight's distribution partners with ready access to PulsedLight's products and unparalleled logistics support.

Distribution partners will profit from RobotShop's dealer program by obtaining optimized pricing directly in their online account, free shipping in North America, France and the UK as well as easy exchanges and returns.

"We feel this change will benefit our smaller distribution partners who will now be able to take advantage of lower minimum order requirements as well as reduced shipping costs." Indicates Dennis Corey, President at PulsedLight, Inc.

RobotShop has been selling the popular Lidar-Lite sensor since it first went into production in 2014. It has proven to be a popular product and has been successfully used in many applications worldwide.

Lidar-Lite is a powerful, highly configurable, cost effective laser based optical measurement solution supporting a wide variety of applications (e.g. drones, general robotics, industrial sensing and more). Its innovative signal processing technology enables distance, proximity and velocity measurement to cooperative and non cooperative targets at distances from zero to more than 40 meters. PulsedLight has created a technology that, unlike competitive solutions, is revolutionary not evolutionary. It combines the attributes of high performance, low hardware complexity, smallest possible size and lowest cost available in a single beam ranging sensor in its class.

"RobotShop is proud to be able to provide an easy access to PulsedLight's products to distributors worldwide" Says Julie Gendron, VP Consumer Robots Division at RobotShop. "We have believed in the potential of this product for our customers since the beginning and are excited to further expand the availability of this product through our network of resellers."

PulsedLight is also launching a new version of their standard LIDAR-Lite product, which includes improvements in its signal processing reducing measurement times to allow measurement speeds of up to 500Hz. Other improvements include updates to the I2C communications and LIDAR-Lite now has user assignable I2C addressing for applications using multiple sensors. These performance improvements and new features make LIDAR-Lite even more powerful while continuing to keep prices low for consumers and provide new opportunities for our distribution partners.

For more information about PulsedLight and RobotShop, see the official press release.

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Robomow RS630 Robot Lawn Mower Review

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Robomow RS630 Robot Lawn Mower Review

Willingly or not, the grass is growing and needs to be cut. Time to put those grass cutting shoes and pants, get the lawn mower ready for use and all this under sweating temperatures. You’re thinking of all the other things you could be enjoying at that moment while cutting the grass, or you’re just pushing away the job until your lawn looks like a corn field. Whether you’re tired of cutting your grass or you’re a robotic enthusiast who automates their home, a robotic lawn mower is a must have.

We have evaluated the Robomow RS630 robotic lawn mower and will be providing you with our impressions. First a glimpse of the Robomow:

Robomow RS630 Front view

Robomow RS630 Side view

Robomow RS630 Back view

Robomow RS630 Side view on charging base

Here is an idea of the accessories included, perimeter wire and pegs to secure the wire in place:

Robomow RS630 Perimeter wire and pegs

This is what the charging base looks like:

Robomow RS630 Charging base

Here is a look at those blades under the mower:

Robomow RS630 Under view of the blades

The RS630 includes the following features amongst others:

Rain sensors detect if it is raining so the robotic mower will stop cutting the grass if there is too much water accumulation, it can be left outside under the rain on its charging base because it is 100% waterproof although, we would not recommend installing this where a puddle of water could form as it would damage the unit.
Mowing height is easily adjustable, simply open the cover and top and turn the knob to the desired mowing height.
Robomow can mow areas inside the working area with slopes of up to 35 percent
Robomow can handle gardens with several zones and mow each one individually
Robomow is the only robotic mower with blades that reach to the very borders of its base. It is also the only one that has a special Edge mode, in which it follows the perimeter wire for complete coverage of the lawn edges.
Bluetooth connectivity for Robomow App remote control. From there you have control of the schedule, you can verify the battery life and you can take control of your mower for missed spots or harder to reach areas. Here is a look at the remote control in the app.

Robomow App iPhone Android

We have tested the mower on an area of the grass at our headquarters:

The RS630 like any other robotic lawnmower is great to maintain grass. It is not supposed to cut the grass like a conventional mower and should never have to. We have remarked that it does not pass everywhere in one pass, if it is programmed 2 to 3 times a week, you will never see your grass overgrow.

Is it safe? The mower speed is to be taken in consideration, the mower is slow but this is for safety, it has a bumper sensor for obstacle detection and tilt sensor so if the mower is lifted the blades will stop turning. It also has an emergency stop bar on top of the mower. Robomow has made sure that it is 100% safe before launching it to the market.

Advantages:

Autonomous and does not require human intervention for you to spend more time on what counts for you.
Easy to install and program. Once set up it requires little maintenance.
Mower is very quiet.
Uses batteries for emission-free work
Low engery consumption

Possible Disadvantages:

Costly. But, the price compared to a lawn tractor, is very similar. So why buy the Robomow if you can get a lawn tractor? Time is money, time is not only money but, is all the other things you can be enjoying rather than mowing your lawn, with a lawn tractor you still have to take it out to mow the lawn. The only time you will be spending on the Robomow is for the setup then only a few hours trough the year for maintenance. Take your hourly salary and multiply it by the number of hours spent mowing your lawn with a conventional mower, plus the time for maintenance and gas, in the first year you have paid your robot lawnmower, by saving all the labor time and using this time for a better quality of life.
Battery life. You may be fooled by some reviews that the battery life is not long enough but, this robot uses very good quality batteries and if maintenance recommendations are followed they can last 3 to 5 years depending on usage, even if at the third year it is not giving as much mow time than it did in the beginning, it will go back to its charging base and finish the job after it has charged. Battery life is not an issue.
Blade life. Blades are recommended to be replaced every year accordingly to the user manual. They definitely can go more than one year, but for optimal performance we would advise to follow recommendations. They can be purchased from RobotShop.
Perimeter wire installation. Even though the perimeter wire installation might seem harsh, in the end it is not that bad at all. Installing the wire will take you about the same time as to mow your lawn with a conventional mower. Since it has a flash green color it tends to show up on your lawn. In a few weeks it will be well hidden under fresh new grass.
Noisy. Not at all, it makes less noise than a pool motor pump, or a car driving by. You could be reading a book and not be distracted by the mower. If you start it mowing very early in the morning or at night it would not drive the neighbors crazy.

Go ahead and try your Robomow today.

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IEEE Spectrum

New AI Safety Projects Get Funding from Elon Musk
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New AI Safety Projects Get Funding from Elon Musk

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