I don't think it's valid either. I can imagine it making multiple passes
outside my bedroom window at night, waking me each pass :-(
>
> > A large part of my lawn is at 30deg, and on a brief tour of other lawns in
> > my neighborhood, I found slopes up to 50deg in some places.
> 50 degrees is *very* steep. I wouldn't want to try designing Mowbot to
> cope with this---except to stop and back up while it still could!
The 50deg was part of a nature strip. It would seem stupid if a lawn was
considered off limits to Mowbot because part of it was difficult. 50deg
can be dealt with, Mowbot doesn't have to travel on the slope, it could
be travelling sideways along the the slope.
>
> > It has no memory of where it has cut. The mower is totally random,
> > except when it reaches long grass, it then cuts the patch in a square
> > pattern much as the Lawnranger did.
> I wonder how well this strategy works. Can we simulate it somehow?
It seems sound to me, except for the fact that it has to run into long
grass just by luck, it can't seek it out, and it has no way of knowing
if it's covered all areas. I'm not necessarily talking of mapping each
square inch of the lawn, but more about designing the sensing and motion
behaviours so the robot 'naturally' covers all area.
-- Dave Everett Email: deverett nospam at idx.com.au (c) 1996 - Copyright remains with the author unless explicitly stated