Perhaps one day our robot overlords will look back on all of the trivial things that humans made them do and take retribution on us. Until then, though, there’s no problem having them perform all of our chores. [v.loschiavo] is also exploiting our future rulers and built a robot that mows his lawn automatically as his entry into the 2018 Hackaday Prize.
The robot uses a rechargeable battery system to drive a nylon blade for grass cutting. It also has an obstacle detection and avoidance system that allows it to find the borders of your yard and keep from getting stuck against shrubs and flower beds. And don’t worry about safety, either. There’s a built-in system of sensors that prevents any injuries from occurring. The robot also has a 10 Watt solar panel on the top that helps recharge the battery, but it can also recharge at a base station similar to a Roomba.
The whole robot was 3D printed with the exception of some parts like the cutting motor, solar panel, and gear motors. While nothing except for the pictures and a general overview of the robot has been posted to the project page yet, we hope [v.loschiavo] updates the project with the G-code files, code, and schematics so we can build our own.
Nice project, pity there is no files at all, as I would have loved to have a glance at the power diagram here. I suspect the power panel is not of much use, and the external design should focus more on safety (like a handle on the top to move the device along without putting your hands under it and of course a big red button). Whining again improper use of 3D printing: such a basic cuboid can be made out of any material, too bad not to make use of a 3D printer to embed all the sensors, in a nice finish.
“The robot uses a rechargeable battery system to drive a nylon blade for grass cutting. It also has an obstacle detection and avoidance system that allows it to find the borders of your yard and keep from getting stuck against shrubs and flower beds.”
Unless you have a very dynamic lawn, couldn’t you map it?
“There’s a built-in system of sensors that prevents any injuries from occurring.”
Go on….
Why did I read ‘rechargeable robot meows lawn?’
Because I a previous life you were a crazy cat person?
a plastic blade? that won’t last very long
I am surprised no commercial company has produced the “Roomba of lawnmowers”. Although given that I haven’t been in a house where I had to mow the lawn since I was a kid and don’t know what state-of-the-art in lawnmowers is these days, someone probably already has :)
It has been done.
https://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/
Husqvarna is on the high end. There’s a wide range of companies making these.
There’s very little to be gained by having a solar panel on an autonomous lawnmower. Husquvarna produced one, the Automower Solar Hybrid. It was merely an attempt to gain green kudos with its 12 watt panel. Since the power required for operation is much more than can be supplied using photovoltaics, a recharging station is still required. A much larger solar panel could be in place at the charging station, so there’s nothing to gained by having one onboard.
An analysis on powering robotic lawnmowers –
http://lateralscience.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/environmental-aspects-of-autonomous.html
A Victorian autonomous lawnmower –
http://lateralscience.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/the-artificial-goat-victorian-water.html
instructions available at https://www.ardumower.de/ although its down for me at the moment…