Yes, it is a advertising gimmick. Sure, it is form of hokey. But darn it if this does not unexpectedly pull on the heartstrings.
Husqvarna, the maker of autonomous dwelling garden mowers that look one thing like RC tactical assault automobiles from Mad Max occasions, is releasing an uncommon software program replace to have a good time a lonely robotic hundreds of miles away. In early August, the Curiosity Mars rover will flip 10 years outdated. Following the software program replace, some 100,000 Husqvarna Automowers all over the world will be capable to sing Happy Birthday to the intrepid explorer.
There’s some backstory right here (and, in fact, a video). The engineers behind Curiosity clearly had some enjoyable. They programmed the superior knowledge assortment robotic to sing Happy Birthday to itself, which it did on its first birthday in Space. But saving batteries took priority on subsequent birthdays and the rover, which remains to be in operation, has not had any birthday magic since.Â
Rovers have lengthy held a singular area in fashionable creativeness, and whereas anthropomorphizing a machine is all the time questionable these Rovers (and the crew behind them) are worthy of celebration. My youngsters love a ebook referred to as Good Night Oppy, concerning the Opportunity rover, and there are comparable titles about Curiosity.
“For us, this can be a technique to pay homage to the nice engineering work of NASA, and that of our in depth crew of robotic consultants, by letting our robotic mowers have a good time a fellow robotic … no person ought to should sing Happy Birthday to themselves, proper?” requested Björn Mannefred, Robotics Software Manager at Husqvarna.
Husqvarna has been forward of the pack in working with IoT and exterior third-party options, together with Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and IFTTT. This newest software program replace is out there on August 5 and has a little bit of Elon Musk aptitude to it. If you may have an Automower, the replace is out there to fashions 405X, 415X, and 435X AWD and can develop into obtainable completely in September for Automower homeowners to be used of their future birthday celebrations.