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OpenMower – Open-source robot lawn mower [video]

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Re: OpenMower – Open-source robot lawn mower [video]

#11

Post by krasin »

wcchandler wrote: post #10

This was a pitch of mine. Replace traditional lawn care with automated solutions. I would’ve distributed this to ~6 mowers. That was the easy part. The hard part was making it look nice. The people that pay high prices for lawn care want it to look it a certain way. I couldn’t get over that hurdle. I could but it would’ve been me driving over the already cut grass with specific grooming tools, and effectively negatin…

Good insight, thank you for sharing it. It didn't occur to me after I watched the OpenMower video.

A very small nitpick: OpenMower is not FOSS as it's restrictively licensed prohibiting commercial use (https://github.com/ClemensElflein/OpenMower/blob/main/LICENS...).

Re: OpenMower – Open-source robot lawn mower [video]

#12

Post by londons_explore »

bri3d wrote: post #7

Using slic3r as the coverage planner for mowing is an extremely cool and clever idea.

When you delve into the source code of 3d printer slicers, you realise the actual smart work really is done inside polygon libraries. Ie. 'take this polygon and inset it by 1mm, returning the smaller polygon and the old perimeter'.

Using that primitive, you can make a lawn mower.

Re: OpenMower – Open-source robot lawn mower [video]

#13

Post by londons_explore »

wcchandler wrote: post #10

This was a pitch of mine. Replace traditional lawn care with automated solutions. I would’ve distributed this to ~6 mowers. That was the easy part. The hard part was making it look nice. The people that pay high prices for lawn care want it to look it a certain way. I couldn’t get over that hurdle. I could but it would’ve been me driving over the already cut grass with specific grooming tools, and effectively negatin…

Why not simply build the roller into the mower?

Then use an algorithm to get the stripes in the right places.

Re: OpenMower – Open-source robot lawn mower [video]

#15

Post by voakbasda »

wcchandler wrote: post #10

This was a pitch of mine. Replace traditional lawn care with automated solutions. I would’ve distributed this to ~6 mowers. That was the easy part. The hard part was making it look nice. The people that pay high prices for lawn care want it to look it a certain way. I couldn’t get over that hurdle. I could but it would’ve been me driving over the already cut grass with specific grooming tools, and effectively negatin…

Wrong market. Make a model for farmers and rural citizens that don't care about the look of a rough cut. We just need to cut down a lot of grass regularly to prevent those areas from becoming a breeding ground for insects and rodents.

Then use your revenues to iterate on a version for people that want a lawn that looks like plastic.

Re: OpenMower – Open-source robot lawn mower [video]

#16

Post by denimnerd42 »

catmanjan wrote: post #14

RTK GPS is still too expensive for this to be affordable I think a sickle style mower is the future of electric mowers as they use less energy per blade of grass cut

what's affordable? You can buy corrections and a $300 GNSS receiver or buy two $300 GNSS receivers. That's not too bad for something like a robot mower.

Re: OpenMower – Open-source robot lawn mower [video]

#17

Post by mathgladiator »

voakbasda wrote: post #15
wcchandler wrote: post #10

This was a pitch of mine. Replace traditional lawn care with automated solutions. I would’ve distributed this to ~6 mowers. That was the easy part. The hard part was making it look nice. The people that pay high prices for lawn care want it to look it a certain way. I couldn’t get over that hurdle. I could but it would’ve been me driving over the already cut grass with specific grooming tools, and effectively negatin…

Wrong market. Make a model for farmers and rural citizens that don't care about the look of a rough cut. We just need to cut down a lot of grass regularly to prevent those areas from becoming a breeding ground for insects and rodents. Then use your revenues to iterate on a version for people that want a lawn that looks like plastic.

Bingo, when I had two acres, I would have installed a shed for the thing to home in on and then let it run every other day. I had lots of problems with some weeds which if were nipped in the bud early, then I'd have a nice yard.

The only downside is that I'd need decent monitoring to alert me that I need to intervene before a serious mow is needed.

Re: OpenMower – Open-source robot lawn mower [video]

#20

Post by bipson »

wcchandler wrote: post #10

This was a pitch of mine. Replace traditional lawn care with automated solutions. I would’ve distributed this to ~6 mowers. That was the easy part. The hard part was making it look nice. The people that pay high prices for lawn care want it to look it a certain way. I couldn’t get over that hurdle. I could but it would’ve been me driving over the already cut grass with specific grooming tools, and effectively negatin…

I don't understand this comment.

Autonomous lawn mowers are everywhere in my neighborhood, albeit being quite expensive. Some even have two for front and back.

Unless you have a very big yard or a very small yard it is quite literally "the thing to have" right now.

This is a huge market in central Europe.

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