Rebecca Reed, a Queen’s University Engineering student has a passion for robotics. This passion has led her to form the Great White North Robotics company where she is designing a new fully self-driving, self-navigating lawn mower. Rebecca plans on converting a John Deer Z355E lawn mower to be capable of autonomously navigating any lawn.
Rebecca created Great White North Robotics as a safer alternative than human driving lawnmowers. The Great White North Robotics can identify obstacles such as a fallen branch, a pet, or any object thing larger than a tennis ball. If the mower detects any suspicious objects, the mower will instantly stop. In addition, the mower will have other safety features, such as emergency stopping systems that will instantly react with any contact. It will detect objects in the grass before cutting an area.
The lawnmower is currently in the development stage and Rebecca is hoping she will have an autonomous lawnmower by end of summer.
“If it all goes smoothly enough for the rest of the summer, I’ll have an autonomous mower before going back to school in the fall,” said Rebecca Reed, owner.
As a participant in the Summer Company program, Rebecca has been working with the Cornwall Business Enterprise Centre in developing her business plan and furthering her education on the different aspects of running a business.
