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Arthur Radebaugh was a futurist illustrator, airbrush artist, and industrial designer. He produced a significant body of work for automotive industry advertisements. He was noted for his artistic experimentation with fluorescent paint under black light, an interest that stemmed from his design work for the U.S. Army. From 1958 to 1962 he produced the syndicated Sunday comic strip "Closer Than We Think!".

from wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Radebaugh

see also http://arthur-radebaugh.blogspot.com.au/

Futuristic concept for Bohn from 1945.

COMING LAWNMOWERS

Power lawn-mowers of tomorrow will combine real beauty with utility. Lawn-mowers are only one of the products that will be made more attractive and more readily useable, through the use of light alloys in substitution for much heavier metals. Aluminum and magnesium alloys combine lightness with great strength and will supply the answer to many problems in design. Consider Bohn as the source to which you can come for advice and assistance in helping plan your new products to meet post-war requirements.
BOHN ALUMINUM AND BRASS CORPORATION – Detroit, Michigan.

See other early remote-controlled and robotic lawn mowers here.

Source: Life Magazine, 26 Jun 1950

WITH A REO SALESMAN AT THE REMOTE CONTROLS, THE MOWER DOES FIGURE EIGHTS AND LOOPS ON THE TURF AT MICHIGAN STATE COLLEGE'S STADIUM
LAZY MAN'S MOWER
It can cut a lawn or a figure 8, all by one-watt remote control

Partly to sound out the market and partly because it just sounded like a good lazy-summerafternoon idea, Chief Engineer Paul Rosenberg of Reo Motors' lawn mower division has for the last 18 months been developing a remote-control lawn mower. It consists of a 25-inch motor-driven blade with a radio receiver controlling a hydraulic mechanism. The transmitter, powered by storage battery, broadcasts a one-watt signal up to 500 yards, enabling a man to sit comfortably in his back yard while his mower whirls around the lawn at 3 mph, making 360deg. turns when necessary and cutting to within 1 1/4 inches of obstacles. One obstacle the mower will face if and when marketed is its probable price: around $850. But as an added attraction it will have a snowplow attachment which could permit sidewalk plowing from a blazing hearthside.

REMOTE CONTROL UNIT consists of 25-pound receiver mounted on the mower, 20-pound transmitter with turn-control knob and start-and-stop key.

SHARP TURNS of which the Reo mower is capable are shown in this repetitive flash night picture, during which it was sent around a triangular course.

R. E. OLDS, 86 years old, former chairman of Reo, who gave his name to two cars—Reo and Oldsmobile, delightedly tries mower on his lawn in Lansing.

See other early remote-controlled and robotic lawn mowers here.

Want to lie in your hammock and mow the lawn in repose? The Homko Robot mower can be maneuvered by a remote control panel, one lever for forward, stop and reverse, and another for right and left. Since the cord that attaches this brain to the mower is 40 feet long, you can mow 40 feet in any direction without getting up. You get exercise just the same—mental-from trying to keep the thing from cutting its own cord.
Text Source: Kiplinger's Personal Finance, April 1954.

See other early remote-controlled and robotic lawn mowers here.

William "Bill" M. Brobeck  joined the UC Berkeley lab in 1937 and moved several years later to Orinda with his late wife, Jane Knox.
Their home became a local landmark in the mid-1950s, after Mr. Brobeck used his engineering talents to build an automatic lawn mower.
Neighborhood kids would gather outside the couple's backyard to watch the lawn mower effortlessly trim two large patches of grass. Mr. Brobeck had buried wires beneath the lawn that guided the automatic mower.
After leaving the Berkeley lab in 1957, Mr. Brobeck formed his own engineering company, Brobeck & Associates, and later founded the Cyclotron Corp. in 1965. The Cyclotron Corp. helped create practical uses for cyclotrons in cancer treatment and other medical uses.
He retired in 1988, holding 22 patents and an honorary degree from UC Berkeley.
Mr. Brobeck is survived by his wife, Gloria Brown Brobeck of Orinda; a son, Bill Brobeck of Moraga; two daughters, Kathy Brobeck of Massachusetts and Betts Coury of Oregon; and two grandchildren.

Brobeck's professional interests and bursting ingenuity extended way beyond the field of accelerator design. In 1972, for instance, he was hired by the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop pollution-free vehicles. Even in his retirement years Brobeck continued to design gadgets that made him as famous in his neighborhood as accelerators did in the world of science. Among them: an automated lawn mower that could start up by itself, head out onto the lawn and mow it before going back, turning itself off and recharging its battery. He also invented an automatic record changer and a car that ran on both gas and electricity.

The May 1955 issue of Popular Mechanics (p155)  featured William Brobeck's lawn mower.

Self-Guided Mower Follows Electrical Cord Laid in Lawn
Electrical cord laid in the lawn guides an automatic lawn mower built by William Brobeck of Orinda, Calif. Separate motors supplied by another cord attached to a reel on the mower drive the two wheels. Each motor is connected to a coil that picks up the induced current from the electric cord. The coils, wound in opposite directions, cancel each other out if the mower exactly straddles the electric cord. If the mower goes off to one side, one of the motors is checked long enough to bring the machine back into line. The mower, which will cut an entire lawn without attention, cuts alternate swaths as it moves in toward the center of the lawn and mows the remaining portions on its return trip. Additional coils, an audio amplifier, a transformer, sensitive switches and relays are used in the system.
 

Bill's son William I. Brobeck has followed in his father's footstep by designing and patenting an automatic tennis court drying machine:

US 7454846 B2

Publication number US7454846 B2
Publication date Nov 25, 2008
Filing date Apr 10, 2007
Priority date Apr 11, 2006

Abstract

An apparatus and method for automatically drying a tennis court or other flat surface after rainfall is provided. A robotic vehicle cooperates with a sensing unit preferably mounted on a fence adjacent the court or other paved surface. A sensing unit detects the onset and cessation of rain and then waits a predetermined amount of time. After waiting, the sensing unit transmits a signal to the robotic vehicle which actuates the vehicle. The robotic vehicle includes an on-board controller which is internally programmed with a map of the court including obstructions. The robotic vehicle automatically sponge rolls the entire court. A thermal imaging camera connected to the sensing unit then scans the court to determine if any wet spots remain. The location of any remaining wet spots is recorded and transmitted to the on-board controller of the robotic vehicle. The robotic vehicle then returns to the location of the wet spots and automatically sponge rolls and fan dries those remaining wet spots. The robotic vehicle then returns to a storage unit on or adjacent the paved surface where it is recharged and waits for further use.

See other early remote-controlled and robotic lawn mowers here.

The gasoline-powered Fairbanks-Morse Grass Finder has no cord. Run it around the outside of your lawn once to give it the feel of things and from then on it runs itself, feeling for the high uncut grass with its left hand, as it were, and following along the edge of the previous cut until it has spiraled into the center. At this point it runs in circles until someone comes.

Source: Wilwaukee Sentinel, 3 May 1953.

Grass Grows, Mower Mows –Which Lets You Doze

Save time and energy used in cutting the lawn, week after week after week, and you can keep those flower beds weeded, the car polished, the thousand and one around-the-house chores under control or you can just relax, play bridge, doze.
 It can now he done with the new "Grass Finder" lawn mower that cuts grass by itself with out so much as a finger of guidance. Powered by a gasoline engine, this automatic mower has feelers at the front that keep the machine operating through the uncut grass until the last blade has been cut and mulched.
Fairbanks, Morse & Co. has added this automatic model to its broad line of electric and gasoline-powered mowers to sell for under $300.00.
Any shape or size of lawn can be cut with this sensational new mower. The operator cuts a single strip around the area to be mowed, then sets the mower in automatic operation by pushing up the handle to a vertical position and lets it go to work. From then on the machine needs no touch from human hands.
Mechanical feelers guide the "Grass Finder" along the long grass line, around curves and corners, as it works in a clockwise direction toward the center of the plot.
The automatic "nose" of this new mower is a mechanical feeler device on the left front side which contacts the tall grass. This contact releases a brake and causes the mower to straighten out until the feeler reaches cut grass whereupon the mower again weaves to the right.
The machine is simple in design, wholly mechanical and sturdy. An extra dividend is that as grass is cut it is thrown to the right and the snips mulched and remulched so that no raking is necessary.
The mower cuts an 18-in. swath and can he used on grass 2 1/2 to 7 inches high. Cutting height can he adjusted from 1 1/23 to 2 2/3 inches. The machine can cut square corners, avoid flower beds, function automatically on grades up to 20 per cent. It makes lawn tending a pleasure.

Source: Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Apr 1954

The gasoline-powered Fairbanks-Morse Grass Finder has no cord. Run it around the outside of your lawn once to give it the feel of things and from then on it runs itself, feeling for the high uncut grass with its left hand, as it were, and following along the edge of the previous cut until it has spiraled into the center. At this point it runs in circles until someone comes.

See other early remote-controlled and robotic lawn mowers here.