100,000 Robotic Lawnmowers to Sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Mars Rover

Robotic mowing company Husqvarna is ready to leverage 100,000 of its robotic lawn mowers to pay tribute to the Mars Curiosity rover, celebrating the robot’s 10th year in space by singing “Happy Birthday.” 

The Rover sang “Happy Birthday” to itself for its first year in space in 2012, but to save battery life the celebration has not yet been repeated. Husqvarna is stepping in to change this, and honor what they say is the “world’s loneliest robot” by developing singing capabilities for several models of its Automower robotic lawn mower, ready for download by customers via a software update.

“As our robots on earth are so loved and so much part of family life, we thought we´d extend that love all the way into space,” said Linda Lindqvist, product manager of robotics at Husqvarna. “From a choir of robots on earth to the loneliest robot in the universe – Happy Birthday!” 

“For us, this is a way to pay homage to the great engineering work of NASA, and that of our extensive team of robotic experts,” said Björn Mannefred, robotics software manager at Husqvarna. “By letting our robotic mowers celebrate a fellow robot…nobody should have to sing Happy Birthday to themselves, right?” 

The birthday celebration will take place on August 5, with Automower owners able to have their mowers join in by downloading the latest update and fitting their robotic mowers with singing capabilities. The “Happy Birthday” song will then become a permanent feature of these mowers as of September.