Lawn-Mowing Robots Approved by FCC
Lawn-mower robots got a nod of approval from the FCC. The Office of Engineering and Technology approved a waiver request filed by iRobot allowing certification of its robotic lawn mowers that make use of the 6240-6740 MHz range. “Granting this…
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waiver is in the public interest because it will enable iRobot to market its robotic lawn mower without posing a significant risk of harmful interference to authorized users of the radio spectrum,” OET said Wednesday. The device uses stakes with attached transmitters to be placed in the ground to establish the robot's mowing pattern. The rules prohibit the use of fixed wireless infrastructure otherwise prohibited for Part 15 devices, which necessitated a waiver, OET said. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory objected to iRobot’s waiver request, saying it could be an interference threat to radio astronomy operations in the 5925-6700 MHz band (see 1503060069). IRobot’s business plan “including the use of low-to-the-ground transmitters pointing horizontally -- and its focus on marketing for non-commercial residential use” should minimize this threat, OET said. “Because the NRAO analysis looked at line-of-sight separation distances, it has greatly overestimated the interference potential of transmitters that are located less than two feet above the ground.”