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Lawn-Mover with BS2! Project page — Parallax Forums

Lawn-Mover with BS2! Project page

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2000-08-09 03:58 in General Discussion
Hi there!

Welcome to take a look at my lawn-mover "RoboCut"

It´s all written in Swedish, but you will most likeky get some
ideas
from all the schematics and images.

The machine is a small design, more like a trimmer, but i'ts supposed
to work hour after hour, and recharge itself when necessary. It
really works so the "minimalistic" strategy seems to be good, (in
fact, HUSQVARNAS commercial (approx $2000) works similar...

We are planning to translate the page to english in a near future.

Does anyone have some experience in a "buried cable fence" to keep the
mover away from the neighbours?

Check it out at http://www.robotshop.nu

Greetings

Hans Forsberg

mux@l...

Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-08-07 17:21
    For a buried cable fence,maybe the cheapest and easiest would be to get a
    buried cable electric dog fence.Use the collar on your lawn mower. These
    output a beep tone when dog is close to fence and a shock when they get to
    close. You can also set the range of activation easily with the fence/base
    unit (5 ft to 25 ft away from fence). Your robot could then have 2 safety
    signals, getting close, and outside its limits. It should be possible to get
    at the circuitry of the dog collar and have the beep and shock circuits trip
    a relay somehow.
    These systems run $99 for the least expensive(radiofence) and around $200
    for the real fancy ones(inotek). I use the radiofence for my dog and it
    certainly keeps him inside.
    Power wise the collar battery lasts 6 months, should not be a drain on your
    robots batteries at all.They come with 500ft of wire as well,Or you can use
    any 22-26 gauge wire.You can also kill the signal in places by twisting the
    cable back on itself.You could make zones that the robot could cross over
    this way.
    I firmly believe dogs are less intelligent then robots at times HE HEE
    Good luck
    Kerry
    At 12:16 PM 8/7/2000 -0000, you wrote:
    >Hi there!
    >
    >Welcome to take a look at my lawn-mover "RoboCut"
    >
    >It´s all written in Swedish, but you will most likeky get some
    >ideas
    >from all the schematics and images.
    >
    >The machine is a small design, more like a trimmer, but i'ts supposed
    >to work hour after hour, and recharge itself when necessary. It
    >really works so the "minimalistic" strategy seems to be good, (in
    >fact, HUSQVARNAS commercial (approx $2000) works similar...
    >
    >We are planning to translate the page to english in a near future.
    >
    >Does anyone have some experience in a "buried cable fence" to keep the
    >mover away from the neighbours?
    >
    >Check it out at http://www.robotshop.nu
    >
    >Greetings
    >
    >Hans Forsberg
    >
    >mux@l...
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    Sincerely
    Kerry
    Admin@M...
    WWW server hosting
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  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-08-07 17:38
    I would be very interested in how you made your robot go to the charger
    system using the IR sensor. I look forward to your english translation I
    hope that will have some further information. I also wonder how well your
    obstacle avoidance works? I built an indoor robot using IR obstacle
    avoidance and it still has problems getting caught behind chair legs,rolling
    under a rocker,things like that. Normal walls and large chairs are easily
    avoided of course. I am curious about outdoors with tree branchs and strange
    situations such as that,how you handled things. I am a begginer so any help
    is always appreciated.
    You may email me directly if you wish Admin@m...
    Thankyou

    Sincerely
    Kerry
    Admin@M...
    WWW server hosting
    [url=Http://mntnweb.com]Http://mntnweb.com[/url]
    Binghamton online Webcam [url=Http://MntnWeb.Com/bing.htm]Http://MntnWeb.Com/bing.htm[/url]
    CHRISTMAS Web Page [url=Http://mntnweb.com/xmas.htm]Http://mntnweb.com/xmas.htm[/url]
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-08-09 03:58
    You can get some good documentation from the manufacturers web site.
    http://www.pet-products.com/index.htm
    <http://www.pet-products.com/index.htm>





    Original Message
    From: mux@l... [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=DmITq_Pgw_E1pP3nLzhSG2YskKjQ4f9oOinaX4Doaay0yD27LJH-b9wfOe6YiuQ7ja4]mux@l...[/url
    Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 2:04 AM
    To: 'basicstamps@egroups.com'
    Subject: SV: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Lawn-Mover with BS2!
    Project page

    Hi Kerry

    Many thanx for your tips...have read about radio-fences
    before, but never hear of real-life experience of them...

    Sounds like the perfect solution for me BUT! Since i'm kind
    of a nerd, and also has a large number of peaople following my RoboCut
    project AND a really would like to know HOW such a fence works...

    I hold a masters degree in electronics and Computer science
    so i think i should be able to build a simple circuitry on my own, but of
    great help would be a good starting point regarding the frequency, voltage
    etc on the commonly used Radio fences.

    Is the cable an ordinary cable, is there an coil OR some
    sort of antenna in the dog-collar, What is the Voltage and frequency of the
    signal in the buried cable etc...


    Now your questions about my project!

    Regarding the IR-navigation, there is another project on my
    site describing an IR-navigtion/self-charging system for a small bot, the
    GROWBOT have a look at

    http://www.lls.se/~mux/micro/take_home.html

    However, the arrangement with the lens will not be used on
    the lawnmover. Instead, the mover will rotate in small steps while looking
    for the IR signal, when signal is detected it will continu to rotate until
    the signal is lost...Now the mover knows the "detecting angle" and rotate
    half the angle in reverse direction which ends up with surprisingly
    precision! Pretty smart or...

    The IR-navigation for the mover is right now under
    development.

    Obstacle avoidance with two IROD-modules works well,
    overall, my feeling is that this is an easier task outdoors than
    indoors...and one more thing, i always program my bots with some form of
    random/unexpected manouvers...this seems to be the best way to get out of
    trouble...suddenly backing in Zick Zack patterns or similar, and make sure
    you use a random trigger!



    Ursprungligt meddelande
    Fr
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