YESTERDAY’S POST ON THE ROBOT LAWN MOWER inspired this email from reader Reid Reynolds (no relation) who owns one:

It’s been almost 3 years since you posted my review, and 5 years since I bought the gadget. Perusing the Amazon site, I see people have had mixed experiences, but positive overall. My RL800 is still going strong. I’ve had to replace the battery a couple of times and the blades, but it was still gettin’ ‘er done at the end of last season. We’ll see how “Herbie” made it through the most winter in the next few weeks.

I can’t believe how expensive these things have become. I bought mine for $699 in 2003, but the newer model is about 3 times that. I guess demand grew as word got out. Amazon also links to what appears to me to be a new competitor at http://www.lawnbotts.com/lawnbott.html which has both cheaper and more expensive models.

I just wish they could make it more convenient. Laying down perimeter wire is hard work and, as it sinks into the ground over time, it becomes virtually impossible to find a break if it occurs and you just have to lay new line. Additionally, the random mowing pattern makes it take a long time to finish, and even then it can miss some spots, especially if you let it out after dark and you can’t see what it missed when you think it’s done – though being able to let it out in the dark is one of the greatest advantages to it.

I wish someone would create a system that utilzed a set of beacons that you could locate in the corners of the plot you want to mow. The mower would sense its distance to the beacons like your standard GPS receiver and triangulate its position. It would then know precisely where it was and could mow a specific pattern to finish the job as quickly as possible. If you post any of this, and assuming nobody else has already filed for intellectual property rights on the idea, let me state to any party interested in pursuing it that I freely relinquish all rights and privileges to it. But, it would be gracious of that party to provide me with a free model when they start production.

Take it away, inventors. And I’d forgotten this robot roundup post.