Local tech, big and small, answers winter’s call

Winter is coming, and with it the need for accurate weather forecasting, safety in the backcountry and a bit of labor saving as well. The Boulder Valley’s entrepreneurial appetite for advanced technology continues to answer the call.

The old snow shovel is just so 20th century. The self-driving SnowBot Pro from five-year-old and Longmont-based Left Hand Robotics is like a Roomba for a driveway, sidewalk or path, clearing snow away with a rotating brush. It uses GPS technology to follow a pattern its owner lays out, uses lasers and thermal imaging to avoid hitting obstacles, and sends out an alert to…