RC Lawnmower + APM

If anybody has read the Make Magazine issue about how to make an RC lawnmowe, I was wondering if it would be possible to hook an APM up to that. I understand that the ArduRover project is currently being worked on and for a lawnmower to work it would need modified code for ground operations but is it possible or is there a better solution to create an autonomys lawnmover. If any ideas are about I would love to hear them. The final results of that ( to me at least) would be so rewarding and helpful.

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  • Hi, Matt.  Hopefully you don't mind me pitching in this late in the game.

     

    I am currently working on a telepresence RC mower/utility vehicle, and was considering adding autonomous capabilities at a later date.  The trick, in my eyes at least, is obstacle detection and avoidance.  GPS guidance would probably work for large objects, but then there's the little things: critters, trash, large rocks or newly planted shrubs.  A vision system like the Kinect might help here...or you could go in the opposite direction and use touch or ultrasonic proximity sensors and a very simple AI like bugbots use.

     

    If I were going the full autonomous mode, I'd look toward the touch / ultrasonic method and design the vehicle to have great endurance, knowing bugbot AI tends to make the vehicle wander around the yard.  If you're good with developing AI, you might be able to make a system that uses both GPS and bugbot obstacle avoidance.

     

    Have you started work on the vehicle yet?

  • Whoops... Several spelling errors. Dumb iPad.
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