RE: [mowbot] Software discussion

Dave Everett (deverett nospam at idx.com.au)
Thu, 23 Sep 1999 09:35:33 +1000

At 10:24 22-09-99 -0400, Raymond Skarratt wrote:
>The problem that I have at my current house is that I have a
>very steep drop-off on the edge of my property (~50 degrees).

That sounds perfect for what I'm proposing. I should have mentioned this in
the first post, my IR fingers will extend about 1.5" outside the wheelline
on each side so the lack of grass would be detected before the wheels get
near the edge and the robot would steer away.

I'm not saying this is a perfect solution, there are other problems like,
what if the robot is backing up and goes over the edge? How will it detect
that?

It might not be the problem I imagine as I don't intend my robot to go
backward any distance, just backup perhaps 1cm to keep feeling it's way
around an obstacle.

I've got the design pretty much complete, I am waiting on an XYZ machine so
I can machine out the molds. I'm casting most of the parts in plastic and I
have a unique cutter arrangement to keep the wheelbase very short.

Dave Everett

Domestic Droids Website
http://members.xoom.com/Mowbot/