4 ms·

I'm extremely interested in using autonomous driving and computer vision for a lawnmower. I hate mowing my lawn. I hate mowing my lawn enough to program a rob

I'm extremely interested in using autonomous driving and computer vision for a lawnmower. I hate mowing my lawn. I hate mowing my lawn enough to program a robot to mow it for me.

nitrogen 10y ago
Since you control the machine and your yard, you can use cameras mounted to your house for tracking. You don't want smart, you want dumb and predictable. But good luck making something with a rapidly spinning blade safe while unsupervised. It's probably cheaper to hire a landscape maintenance company, or a neighborhood teenager.
- j_s 10y ago
  good luck making something with a rapidly spinning blade safe while unsupervised Then don't! If it's autonomous it can be out there all the time rather than once a week/whatever, no spinning blade needed. Plan B? Buy a goat.
  - dualogy 10y ago
    > Buy a goat Nah. What we really want and need is a robot that while it mows the lawn, turns it into: its entire energy source, its entire pool of building blocks for daily (nightly?) self-repairs, for reproduction, for producing oh maybe fluffy warm wool and delicious milk/cheese/butter as a side product, and fertilizes the land from the occasional .. discharge resulting from perpetual energy production-consumption and internal cleanups/repairs, finally as it still does wear down as all physical assemblages are wont to with time, it leaves behind highly durable inputs for sturdy clothing and stylish home decoration (horns, hides, leather etc)! All from a friggin lawn. Roboruminant 2.0 baby. Need to reinvent mammalian evolution before we can really reinvent the wheel!
  - slightlyCyborg 10y ago
    Plan C, turn the yard into a garden.
  - germinalphrase 10y ago
    If only goats would refrain from eating everything in a yard. Like flower gardens? Plant a tree sapling? Bushes?
  - knicholes 10y ago
    Which is awesome because there is no long lawn on Friday nights. It can be continually mowed.
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
  Lawn mowers are already safe enough to operate in nothing but your underwear while drinking a beer. I know this because I've seen people do it. I'd call that safe enough to operate unsupervised in an enclosed yard.
  - dualogy 10y ago
    > Lawn mowers are already safe enough to operate in nothing but your underwear And if in doubt, just wear under-armour instead..
- arnarbi 10y ago
  > You don't want smart, you want dumb and predictable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMOASdSu9YU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMOASdSu9YU
  - knicholes 10y ago
    I'd be worried about the rope breaking! Sitting there watching it mow is better than actually mowing myself, but I mostly want the time back. My yard is way too big for my self-propelled electric lawn mower. I don't want to spend 1.5 hours every Saturday anymore.
    - arnarbi 10y ago
      Get an electric one and use the cord instead of the rope.
abraae 10y ago
I would hate to live next door to you and your intelligent, self-aware lawnmower.
- augbot 10y ago
  Now I want to watch the movie Lawnmower Man, lol
  - ge96 10y ago
    Oh yeahhhhh..... that chick
    - ge96 10y ago
      To clarify: it's that sound/guy saying "Oh yeah..." in slow-motion, sexy hahaha, greased up lawn mower guy and Pierce Brosnan, no sun laser for this guy.
- chipperyman573 10y ago
  How come? Genuine question, I've been living in an apartment for a while.
- knicholes 10y ago
  You'd be super jealous! I'd share, though.
semi-extrinsic 10y ago
If you hate it so much, I would recommend instead buying one of the autonomous lawn mowers that have been on the market for years now, set it and forget it. (Maybe take it in for the winter.) I've heard good things about the Husqvarna 450 especially. Spoiler alert: there is no computer vision involved, still works perfectly even for large lawns; our local university even uses them in campus parks. http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/ http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/
- anotherevan 10y ago
  A series of video blogs about the Husqvarna lawn mower by all around nice bloke and home automation guy, Jon Oxer. http://www.superhouse.tv/19-husqvarna-automower-basics/ http://www.superhouse.tv/19-husqvarna-automower-basics/ http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-47-husqvarna-automower-power-failure-behaviour/ http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-47-husqvarna-automo... http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-48-pausing-the-husqvarna-automower-in-bad-weather/ http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-48-pausing-the-husq... http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-49-automower-security-features/ http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-49-automower-securi...
divanvisagie 10y ago
There seem to be a lot of these on the market already https://www.amazon.com/Roomba-Lawn-Mower/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ARoomba%20Lawn%20Mower https://www.amazon.com/Roomba-Lawn-Mower/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh...
NicoJuicy 10y ago
Here is a library that just been submitted : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13498219 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13498219 Donkey: a self driving library and control platform for small scale DIY vehicles
dtparr 10y ago
I realize the point of the article and many of the comments are about using homebrew ML/computer vision, but if you want something quick and easy, commercially available robot lawn mowers already exist. However, they tend to use boundary wires rather than any sort of vision system (some have gps, but I'm not sure if that's supplemental or can be used alone) though I think some have obstacle sensors for safety. http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/ http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/ http://www.deere.com/en_INT/products/equipment/robotic_mower/robotic_mower.page http://www.deere.com/en_INT/products/equipment/robotic_mower...? http://www.honda.co.uk/lawn-and-garden/products/miimo-2015/overview.html http://www.honda.co.uk/lawn-and-garden/products/miimo-2015/o...

I'm extremely interested in using autonomous driving and computer vision for a lawnmower. I hate mowing my lawn. I hate mowing my lawn enough to program a robot to mow it for me.

nitrogen 10y ago

Since you control the machine and your yard, you can use cameras mounted to your house for tracking. You don't want smart, you want dumb and predictable. But good luck making something with a rapidly spinning blade safe while unsupervised. It's probably cheaper to hire a landscape maintenance company, or a neighborhood teenager.

j_s 10y ago
good luck making something with a rapidly spinning blade safe while unsupervised Then don't! If it's autonomous it can be out there all the time rather than once a week/whatever, no spinning blade needed. Plan B? Buy a goat.
- dualogy 10y ago
  > Buy a goat Nah. What we really want and need is a robot that while it mows the lawn, turns it into: its entire energy source, its entire pool of building blocks for daily (nightly?) self-repairs, for reproduction, for producing oh maybe fluffy warm wool and delicious milk/cheese/butter as a side product, and fertilizes the land from the occasional .. discharge resulting from perpetual energy production-consumption and internal cleanups/repairs, finally as it still does wear down as all physical assemblages are wont to with time, it leaves behind highly durable inputs for sturdy clothing and stylish home decoration (horns, hides, leather etc)! All from a friggin lawn. Roboruminant 2.0 baby. Need to reinvent mammalian evolution before we can really reinvent the wheel!
- slightlyCyborg 10y ago
  Plan C, turn the yard into a garden.
- germinalphrase 10y ago
  If only goats would refrain from eating everything in a yard. Like flower gardens? Plant a tree sapling? Bushes?
- knicholes 10y ago
  Which is awesome because there is no long lawn on Friday nights. It can be continually mowed.
TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
Lawn mowers are already safe enough to operate in nothing but your underwear while drinking a beer. I know this because I've seen people do it. I'd call that safe enough to operate unsupervised in an enclosed yard.
- dualogy 10y ago
  > Lawn mowers are already safe enough to operate in nothing but your underwear And if in doubt, just wear under-armour instead..
arnarbi 10y ago
> You don't want smart, you want dumb and predictable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMOASdSu9YU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMOASdSu9YU
- knicholes 10y ago
  I'd be worried about the rope breaking! Sitting there watching it mow is better than actually mowing myself, but I mostly want the time back. My yard is way too big for my self-propelled electric lawn mower. I don't want to spend 1.5 hours every Saturday anymore.
  - arnarbi 10y ago
    Get an electric one and use the cord instead of the rope.

abraae 10y ago

I would hate to live next door to you and your intelligent, self-aware lawnmower.

augbot 10y ago
Now I want to watch the movie Lawnmower Man, lol
- ge96 10y ago
  Oh yeahhhhh..... that chick
  - ge96 10y ago
    To clarify: it's that sound/guy saying "Oh yeah..." in slow-motion, sexy hahaha, greased up lawn mower guy and Pierce Brosnan, no sun laser for this guy.
chipperyman573 10y ago
How come? Genuine question, I've been living in an apartment for a while.
knicholes 10y ago
You'd be super jealous! I'd share, though.

semi-extrinsic 10y ago

If you hate it so much, I would recommend instead buying one of the autonomous lawn mowers that have been on the market for years now, set it and forget it. (Maybe take it in for the winter.) I've heard good things about the Husqvarna 450 especially. Spoiler alert: there is no computer vision involved, still works perfectly even for large lawns; our local university even uses them in campus parks. http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/ http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/

anotherevan 10y ago
A series of video blogs about the Husqvarna lawn mower by all around nice bloke and home automation guy, Jon Oxer. http://www.superhouse.tv/19-husqvarna-automower-basics/ http://www.superhouse.tv/19-husqvarna-automower-basics/ http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-47-husqvarna-automower-power-failure-behaviour/ http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-47-husqvarna-automo... http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-48-pausing-the-husqvarna-automower-in-bad-weather/ http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-48-pausing-the-husq... http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-49-automower-security-features/ http://www.superhouse.tv/superhouse-vlog-49-automower-securi...

divanvisagie 10y ago

There seem to be a lot of these on the market already https://www.amazon.com/Roomba-Lawn-Mower/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ARoomba%20Lawn%20Mower https://www.amazon.com/Roomba-Lawn-Mower/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh...

NicoJuicy 10y ago

Here is a library that just been submitted : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13498219 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13498219 Donkey: a self driving library and control platform for small scale DIY vehicles

dtparr 10y ago

I realize the point of the article and many of the comments are about using homebrew ML/computer vision, but if you want something quick and easy, commercially available robot lawn mowers already exist. However, they tend to use boundary wires rather than any sort of vision system (some have gps, but I'm not sure if that's supplemental or can be used alone) though I think some have obstacle sensors for safety. http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/ http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/ http://www.deere.com/en_INT/products/equipment/robotic_mower/robotic_mower.page http://www.deere.com/en_INT/products/equipment/robotic_mower...? http://www.honda.co.uk/lawn-and-garden/products/miimo-2015/overview.html http://www.honda.co.uk/lawn-and-garden/products/miimo-2015/o...