I-Shovel Robotic Snow Shovel
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 23 of January , 2009 at 12:13 am
Here in the San Francisco, where the weather is always a balmy 72 degrees, we have no need for a robot to deal with this stuff that you northern heathens call snow. That said, if I lived somewhere crazy like Toronto or Montreal, I’d sure as heck want a robot to shovel the driveway for me. The I-Shovel is a completely automatic snow shovel, able to cover about 800 square feet in 15 minutes all by itself.
The I-Shovel sits in your driveway and waits in sleep mode; when it detects more than 1″ of snow, it goes to work. The robot goes back and forth across your driveway (after you’ve marked it off with metallic tape) pushing snow to the sides. When it’s finished, it goes back to sleep until it detects another inch of snow, and then repeats the process. An onboard battery keeps it shoveling for about 4,000 square feet, which would cover the average driveway at least 4 times. There’s room in the bot for three more of those batteries if you live in a palace or something.
The I-Shovel is currently only a prototype, but it’s supposed to be commercially available within a year at a price that “will be VERY affordable and comparable to gasoline powered snow throwers in the market.” I’ve still got a few questions, like how well it deals with wind, ice, subzero temperatures, and other things that might make you not want to shovel the driveway yourself. Also, there’s no mention of a charging dock, which I think would be an important feature. Even so, it looks promising… I’m just happy to live in California where I’ll never need one.
[ I-Shovel ]
Thanks Ironman!
Comments (7)
Category: Consumer
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Comment by Fred
Made Friday, 23 of January , 2009 at 2:16 am
After about 50 inches of accumulated snowfall, I have a four foot high snowbank on either side of the driveway. I don’t think this little guy can handle that.
Comment by TheophileEscargot
Made Friday, 23 of January , 2009 at 4:07 am
Should really be the “I-Snowbot.”
Comment by Evan Ackerman
Made Friday, 23 of January , 2009 at 5:59 am
I think the idea is that if you get 50 inches of snowfall the bot will have shoveled your driveway 50 times, staying ahead of the pileup… But yeah, I’m not sure what it does when there’s no place left to push the snow on the sides of the driveway.
Comment by Ironman
Made Friday, 23 of January , 2009 at 2:03 pm
it’s got the whole lift and push thing going on.
so it can push towards the top of the snow pile and push the top back.
keeping the pile at a manageable height.
Comment by Cire
Made Saturday, 24 of January , 2009 at 2:35 pm
Good idea, but like most robots that do service it only works in a certain enviorment. we easily get 10ft high snow banks on driveways here because there is a lot of snow and not much room to put it. Also I wonder how it works on ice!
Comment by eGFI
Made Friday, 18 of December , 2009 at 1:47 pm
The twitter account for eGFI, an engineering magazine for K-12 students run by the American Society for Engineering Education, tweeted this post in preparation for the big D.C. area snow storm. Check it out: http://twitter.com/egfi/status/6809275250
Comment by big bob
Made Wednesday, 23 of November , 2011 at 10:33 pm
This is my first time visit at here and i am really impressed to read all at single place.
