Library:Testing the Impact of Robotic Lawn Mowers on European Hedgehogs and Designing a Safety Test (research)
Testing the Impact of Robotic Lawn Mowers on European Hedgehogs is a scientific article published in the journal Animals in 2024. The article was written by Sophie Lund Rasmussen, Bettina Thuland Schrøder, Anne Berger, Rahel Sollmann, David W. Macdonald, Cino Pertoldi, and Aage Kristian Olsen Alstrup, who are researchers from various institutions in Denmark, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The article reports on a study that investigated the effects of 19 models of robotic lawn mowers on European hedgehog cadavers, and proposed a protocol for a standardised safety test to measure the risk of injury to hedgehogs from robotic lawn mowers.
The main findings of the study were:
- Some models of robotic lawn mowers may injure hedgehogs, whereas others are not harmful to them.
- Larger hedgehog cadavers were less likely to be injured, with height being the most influential measure of size.
- The firmness of the hedgehog cadavers (frozen or thawed) did not influence the outcome of the collision tests.
- The position of the hedgehog cadavers and the selected technical features of the lawn mowers did not affect the probability of injury.
- A logistic regression model was used to estimate the probability of injury for each model of robotic lawn mower, and the optimal number of test repeats to characterise the risk of injury to hedgehogs.
- A standardised safety test protocol was designed, based on the results of the collision tests, to evaluate and approve new models of robotic lawn mowers for the market, in terms of hedgehog safety.