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Technology isn’t always about big TVs, games consoles and robotic lawn mowers, it’s also great for simplifying some of those tasks which are just plain difficult. What I’m talking about will resonate with a lot of people up and down the land – getting around with multiple children, especially more than two, so you don’t have enough hands to keep hold of them!

We’ve had pushchairs for a long time, certainly since well before I was a twinkle in my parents’ eyes. They’re contraptions that go everywhere, from the daily school run and weekly supermarket visit, to the infrequent treks to the beach on the annual holiday, and out on that walk down the canal that Dad thought was a great idea. They’re the most inconvenient things to store, fold up and down, and cram into the back of the car, but parents will go nowhere without them.

So, what is it that technology has done to improve them sufficiently to talk about them on this website? Quite simply, they can now seat more than one child, and they’re smaller than you’ll remember, they incorporate features that were once considered impossible, and they’re cheaper than ever to boot. So, gong back to not having enough hands, it’s no longer a problem! As you’ll see from the reviews of double pushchairs that you’ll find if you do a quick web search, you can strap in up to three kids in seats, and even sit/stand an extra one on the back too in some cases. Marvellous, I’m sure any parent will agree.

Take a quick look at youtube, and you’ll even see examples of them being folded up and down…

…removing the long hours spent looking at the so-called manuals trying to work out which way up the diagram should be. No more looking for catches to release, getting fingers trapped in the mechanism, or tempers fraying because it really should be much easier. The world has moved on!

It sounds futuristic doesn’t it? But that future is here today. In fact, Amazon held their annual Prime Day a couple of days ago on the 12th July, and the first item to sell our on their ‘all day’ spotlight deals was exactly what we’re talking about today, so they’re going to be appearing all over the country very soon indeed. We actually had no idea that they were anywhere near advanced enough to roll out on this scale, but we’re clearly wrong.

A quick look at that model that sold out so quickly has shown that there’s entire websites dedicated to these devices, the intriguingly named robotic lawn mowers. Simply searching on Google for a Flymo 1200R brings back this website, which shows around ten models that are already available to be bought by the general public, and looking at what they’ve written about them, it seems that they’re already making good use of existing technology like GPS alongside their own software so that they don’t just head around your garden at random, they even plot their course algorithmically to make the best use of each charging cycle. Incredibly, they’ve been designed to be clever enough to wander back to their charging bases half way through a mow to recharge, and once done, head back out to finish the job off – that’s far better than a human – we’re far more likely to do the first half and intend to come back to finish off but never quite get around to it.

Rival to Flymo, Husqvana have some very impressive machines too – here’s an in depth comparison experiment highlighting some of the hurdles that the technology has been required to overcome along its development cycle:

As highlighted, there’s a lot more to creating a robotic lawn mower than simply creating something that will drive itself up and down a rectangular patch of grass every couple of weeks – there’s obstacles, slopes, boundaries, uneven surfaces and more to contend with. It’s going to be exciting to see how much further this can be taken – probably much farther than we could possibly imagine today!

Welcome to Vellum, our exhibition of modern technology.

Growing out of years of study from some of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world, we’re condensing it all into one small celebration of the achievements and technological advancements in one small website.

Have a look around, as we look at the history of inventions to what’s emerging into the market now and of course, what the future holds in robotics and gadgets to make our lives fast, simpler and more fruitful.

Just as a mobile phone looked so futuristic in 1979, who knows where we’ll be in another quarter of a century?