Re: [mowbot] guidance

Ron Woodward (RWoodward nospam at gnn.com)
Sat, 28 Sep 1996 13:45:06

>RWoodward nospam at gnn.com (Ron Woodward) wrote:
>> What difference does it make if its concrete or mowed grass? We don't
>> want the robot to spend much time on either. As soon as it detects the
>> absence of mowable (tall) grass it changes direction to go find some.

>Robin wrote:
>The difference is that Mowbot should be free to wander over already-mowed
>grass in search of a better area to cut, but not free to cross the tarmac
>leading to the public highway or the paving stones leading to the vegetable
>patch.
>
>Ideally, the boundaries of the mowable area should consist only
>of things that are in the environment anyway. There needs to be an
>additional mechanism for marking otherwise ``invisible'' boundaries in
>a Mowbot-friendly way, but on the princliple of maximal laziness, there
>should be no requirement to reinforce boundaries that are already there.
>

This would only apply if we had no other method of determining location.
If we use passive beacons or Vision or something else thaose can easily
provide the "boundaries" needed to keep us out of the street.

We will have to have at least one method to find where we are that does not
rely on physical boundries (like between my yard and my neighbors) If we already
have one method of finding where we are that can keep us out of trouble I don't
see why we need another. We are working to a budget sort of.