cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36230046
Let’s be honest: The current generation of robotic lawn mowers sucks. Basically all of these bots drive in a random direction until they hit the border of the lawn, rotate for a randomized duration and repeat. I think we can do better!
Therefore, we have disassembled the cheapest off-the-shelf robotic mower we could find (YardForce Classic 500) and were surprised that the hardware itself is actually quite decent:
- Geared sensored brushless motors for the wheels
- A sensored brushless motor for the mower motor itself
- The whole construction seems robust, waterproof and all in all thought through
- All components are connected using standard connectors, therefore upgrading the hardware is easily possible.
The bottom line is: The bot itself is surprisingly high quality and doesn’t need to be changed at all. We just need some better software in there.
This probably wouldn’t be something that you as a person is running the HW for, so you have no direct expense to HW or maintenance. This would likely be government driven and paid through taxes. Its basically just NPR, but with low bandwidth internet instead.
For readers in the future, NPR was a show from back when we had public radio…
No…NPR is National Public Radio, it’s the broadcasting organization, not a show.