Robot mowers (and other robots)

[dickm]

OK, the unbelievable has happened and I'm thinking of buying something new, not secondhand. Back has been playing up lately and heaving our 17" Hayter around big lawn doesn't help. At the Black Isle show a few weeks back, had a look at the Husqvarna robot mower, and began to think maybe one would be a good idea. Not cheap, by a long way, so wondered if anyone on here had any experience of robot mowers in general and any recommendations.

Quite coincidentally, daughter got a bonus from her employers for the first time for several years, and she decided to spend some of it on presents for family, which included a robot vacuum cleaner for us (think she feels our house isn't spotless enought for her!). I thought it wouldn't be any use at all, as we have mostly wooden floors with a variety of loose rugs and too much furniture. So was very sceptical when we set it loose in our kitchen. But then spent ten minutes absolutely fascinated as it scuttled around over rugs, round and under chairs and under our big sideboard which is difficult to clean with normal vacuum. it then escaped through the open door into the hall, and spent some time doing a very thorough job on the large front door mat. Actually very impressed, so began to think more seriously about robot mowers.
(Mind you, it scares the bejasus out of our elderly cat.)

 

[Fitzroy]

Chap at work has one and says it's the best thing ever, not sure of the make but will ask. Apparently took the wildlife a couple of weeks to get used to it but now birds will even sit on it as it trundles around. He also has a webcam so can watch it work, or show it off to people more the case.

F.

 

[RobinBHM]

They are clever, they live in a kennel, and park themselves in it and connect themselves to the charger.

Argos and Amazon sell them so you might find some good reviews.

I believe they can only cut a few mm's at a time, but of coursd can cut the grass daily.

 

[Leon1984]

I sell robots for a living (sadly software robots nothing physical) and the technology is moving at such a rapid pace.

Anyone doing manual unskilled labor is very much at risk in the next 10 years.

What happens with grass collection with a robot mower?

 

[novocaine]

mulch.
it leaves it on the grass. so in 10 years time (after the mower has died a few times) your lawn is 1cm higher than when you started.

bother in law has one, it's a gadget, it does work, but it can't drive itself round to the front to mow that. it also got full of "bugs" and had to be sent back and sealed up by the manufacturer.

it's getting there, few more years yet though. buy yourself a battery powered mower and enjoy the cash instead.

as no one else has said it yet. come up the uprising I don't want robots to have sharp blades.

 

[Leon1984]

as no one else has said it yet. come up the uprising I don't want robots to have sharp blades.

haha. Facebook recently set up it's latest AI testing between two different sets of Robots in which they had to exchange things between them looking for the best possible result, effectively testing negotiation intelligence. They had to stop the test, as extremely quickly the robots had created their own way of communicating (IE a more efficient language that Facebook couldn't understand) - have to admit if that is happening this early on, it is quite worrying!

Secondly, the noted that the robots learned the basics of deceit. Initially they would bargain hard on a first trade to realise it impacted future trades, so they started lying about what it was they wanted and doing cheap trades to get access to better rates further down the line.

All pretty fascinating stuff

 

[Mark Hancock]

My workshop landlord has one of the robotic mowers. It's fascinating to watch and does a great job. When it gets stuck it sends out a message so where ever the landlord is, say a board meeting in the middle east, he just texts the wife and she sorts it out

 

[dickm]

it's getting there, few more years yet though. buy yourself a battery powered mower and enjoy the cash instead.

as no one else has said it yet. come up the uprising I don't want robots to have sharp blades.

Suspect you are right that they aren't quite there yet, hence asking for any real experience.
Battery mower isn't really a solution; we did the classic retirement thing of moving to a larger garden ten years ago and have about 800sq metres of complicated shaped grass round fruit trees and the like. Which, paradoxically, seems to be what these robots are meant to be good at.
Husband of an old colleague works on agricultural robots, mainly in the arable crop sector and they will probably completely change the face of crop protection in a very short time. But suspect you can't downscale the harvesting operation so there will still be 6m cut John Deere combines terrorising our local narrow roads for a while!

 

[novocaine]

with his breaking down within a year due to stuff getting in it (it's a flymo one, not cheap) I'm not willing just yet to accept they are ready for the real world. fine on a nice flat lawn that's nice a square.

setup (I had to help him with this) is to put up a ring of wire round the lawn and any obstacles then set it running for a few hours so it can find it's edges. this is fine for him and his nice square lawn in his 4 bedroom new build. be a pain in the arse at our place with it's wiggle edges and stuff in the way, not to mention that it doesn't like lumps and bumps, so we had to level bits of his grass for it to work.
he has done his front lawn too now, but as it's rather expensive, he has to sit and watch it do the front, it takes about an hour to do it and it wouldn't say it was that big of a space.

oh, and it doesn't do stripes.

 

[MattRoberts]

I have a robot vacuum, a Eufy (we call it Doofy). It's absolutely brilliant. The main benefit is that it just maintains cleanliness on a daily basis.

I imagine that the robot lawnmowers would be the same - they won't do well if your grass is 10cm tall, but they will be brilliant at maintaining a freshly cut lawn so it always looks freshly cut.

I did think about buying one myself, but we have three huge oak trees next to our garden, so the lawn is a minefield of acorns, branches and leaves

 

[transatlantic]

I'm currentlying trying to build an RC lawn mower.

 

[dickm]

Oddly enough, last week the various reps finally got round to coming to look at the space to be mown, and reckoned that there'd be no problem (apart from the cost!!) for the front lawn. But the back "lawn" has three lines of fruit trees with about 2.5 m between the lines and each tree has the requisite 0.5m bare ground round it, so there are lots of roughly 1.5m strips. Both reps reckoned this would probably stymie all but the most expensive mowers, as they need well over 1m between the control wires and there would have to be one down each side of the fruited strips. Apparently the top-of-the-range ones (the £3000 jobs :roll: ) have built in GPS, so can be told where to go rather than relying always on the control wires.

Back to the Hayter, methinks!

 

[Sawdust Sam]

I have a robot vacuum, a Eufy (we call it Doofy). It's absolutely brilliant. The main benefit is that it just maintains cleanliness on a daily basis.

I imagine that the robot lawnmowers would be the same - they won't do well if your grass is 10cm tall, but they will be brilliant at maintaining a freshly cut lawn so it always looks freshly cut.

I did think about buying one myself, but we have three huge oak trees next to our garden, so the lawn is a minefield of acorns, branches and leaves

Does it do carpets and hard floors, what model do you have ?

 

[MattRoberts]

Yep, carpet and hard floors just fine. The amount of stuff it picks up on a daily basis is eye opening.

It's the Eufy Robovac 11.

 

[fezman]

I stayed in a hotel a few years ago that had one. They left it out all the time, and it got nicked. Stupid thief didnt realise it had GPS, so local constabulary traced it and found it in his shed Thief got nicked and hotel got their mower back.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Robot lawnmowers?

I thought there were two basic types, known as 'sheep' and 'goats'. Unfortunately, nobody has yet found a way to programme them not to eat flowers, shrubs and trees as well as excess grass, which perhaps explains why they haven't caught on everywhere. Very effective in the right place though.

Oh - and roast electronic robot is not very appetising.

 

[ColeyS1]

Yep, carpet and hard floors just fine. The amount of stuff it picks up on a daily basis is eye opening.

It's the Eufy Robovac 11.

Any idea if it would go over a small step like a threshold - perhaps 8-10mm ?
Thanks

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[MattRoberts]

Yep, carpet and hard floors just fine. The amount of stuff it picks up on a daily basis is eye opening.

It's the Eufy Robovac 11.

Any idea if it would go over a small step like a threshold - perhaps 8-10mm ?
Thanks

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

It will mount small height differences fine - it climbs from a hard floor onto a thick pile rug about 10mm thick with no problems. It's obviously quite a rounded step change though, not sure how it would do if it was a sharp edge

 

[ColeyS1]

Yep, carpet and hard floors just fine. The amount of stuff it picks up on a daily basis is eye opening.

It's the Eufy Robovac 11.

Any idea if it would go over a small step like a threshold - perhaps 8-10mm ?
Thanks

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

It will mount small height differences fine - it climbs from a hard floor onto a thick pile rug about 10mm thick with no problems. It's obviously quite a rounded step change though, not sure how it would do if it was a sharp edge

I think I need one in my life :lol:

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[MattRoberts]

We've found it brilliant to be honest. It's super dumb though, so you need to make sure the floor is clear of stuff (difficult when you have an 18 month old!) to avoid him getting stuck on things, but other than that and emptying his bottom every couple of days, you don't really need to think about him. He just does his thing