For those of us Baby-Boomer who made our spending money cutting neighbors’ lawns on hot Mid-west summer afternoons, the following does not even seem fair. Husqvarna, the maker of autonomous home lawn mowers https://www.husqvarna.com/us/robotic-lawn-mowers/ that look something like RC tactical assault vehicles, is releasing an unusual software update to celebrate a lonely robot thousands of miles away. In early August 2022, the Curiosity Mars rover will turn ten years old. Following the software update, some 100,000 Husqvarna Automowers worldwide will be able to sing Happy Birthday to the intrepid explorer.
The engineers behind Curiosity obviously had a sense of humor. They programmed the advanced data collection robot to sing Happy Birthday to itself, which it did on its first birthday in Space. But saving batteries took precedence on subsequent birthdays and the rover, which is still in operation, has not had any birthday magic since.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0_RPlSe344&t=87s
Rovers have long held a unique space in the popular imagination, and while anthropomorphizing a machine is always questionable, these Rovers (and the team behind them) are worthy of celebration. There is a children’s book titled Good Night Oppy about the Opportunity Rover, and there are similar titles about Curiosity. "For us, this is a way to pay homage to the great engineering work of NASA, and that of our extensive team of robotic experts, by letting our robotic mowers celebrate a fellow robot … nobody should have to sing Happy Birthday to themselves, right?" asked Björn Mannefred, Robotics Software Manager at Husqvarna.
Husqvarna has been ahead of the pack in working with IoT and external third-party solutions, including Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and IFTTT. This latest software update is available on August 5 and has a bit of Elon Musk flair to it. If you have an Automower, the update is available to models 405X, 415X, and 435X AWD and will become available permanently in September 2022 for Automower owners for use in their future birthday celebrations.
Don’t get mad and yell at your Automower; it may take it out on your partner's flower garden…
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