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From: rutledge@enuxsa.eas.asu.edu (Shawn T. Rutledge)
Subject: Re: Robotic lawnmower
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Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 1995 00:16:57 GMT
References: <DA16Ju.AK6@cix.compulink.co.uk> <3rq56d$6gp@tabloid.amoco.com>
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Jack Coats (jocoats@amoco.com) wrote:
: In article AK6@cix.compulink.co.uk, swebb@cix.compulink.co.uk ("Simon Webb") writes:
: >I've been looking at building a robot lawn mower for a while now, and I 
: >am damn sure one could be made for significantly less than 2k.  Biggest 
: >problem I can see is boundary detection.  Are buried wires the best 
: >option?  I really don't fancy digging up the perimeter of the garden to 
: >put in a cable.
: [snip]
: >
: >If anyone would like to discuss this further, please email me.  
: >
: >Simon Webb
: >SW Systems

: try bumpers for the back yard (if it has a fence around it!)

Radio-Electronics had an article a couple years ago about the "Lawn Ranger",
basically a surprisingly dumb autonomous lawnmower that simply turned toward
grass which was high enough to fall in the path of its optical sensors.
So, if the grass was bounded, it worked well, and if not, then you simply
had to "bound" the area it was supposed to cut with a regular lawnmower.
Same for getting it to go around trees and other obstacles.  You would start
it on the edge of the boundary, and it would spiral round and round toward
the center, then stop when there was no more grass to cut.

--
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