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.
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.
This has been incorrect for what… 2 years now? RTK mowers have flooded the market.
Honestly, I prefer randomly moved lawn. The path based ones leave these regular stripes in the lawn making it look like a soccer field.
