alternate robots!!

[Andrew Dahl]

I am in the process of using old parts (the van door motors)
to make my lawn mower remote controlled (it hot out in the sun!!!)

has anyone else tried goofing around woith some of the parts to do fun stuff like that



dahl

[Joel J]

Haven't done anything that zany, but that remote control lawnmower doesn't sound like such a bad idea. Maybe I could do the same to the snow plow during the winter time.

How exactly do you plan on making the lawnmower remote control?...

[Tom Schindler]

Hmm.... that sounds like a very good idea....

then you record the inputs you make, and have it repeat them.... so you don't have to drive it every time... not sure if there is a way to do this on the Innovation FIRST controller... anyone know of a way? plus you'd have to account for things such as battery voltage or other factors.... oh well, a human-drive lawnmower is still a cool idea

Tom Schindler
Team 177

[Gui Cavalcanti]

Go down to your local hobby store and pick up a model airplane starter kit and two victor 883s for those motors. If you use the airplane reciever PWM outputs to wire the Victors up, you can contol two motors via remote control. It'd be fun, but you'd ned a steady power source, and I think a 12 volt battery source would weigh a lawnmower down...

[stillnotelf]

are you trying to use the motors to drive the lawnmower, or the steering column? if it's a rider, you can control the steering column no problem. weight isn't an issue, mowers can carry several hundred pounds, you could put this year's robot on one just fine. my mower has a slot for a car battery, which is 12 volts, which is of course the right voltage for the robotic add-ons. of course, it's got all sorts of complicated gear-change and blade-engaging levers, it would be difficult to control them remotely.

[Nate Smith]

Originally posted by Andrew Dahl
I am in the process of using old parts (the van door motors)
to make my lawn mower remote controlled (it hot out in the sun!!!)

has anyone else tried goofing around woith some of the parts to do fun stuff like that



dahl

One of my team leaders on a former team(74) actually did this...last I knew, he had an entire electronic drive system set up, but because of the amount of space it took, wasn't able to actually have the blade running(if i remember correctly, he used part of the discharge chute to store the electronics)...just used a standard RC car controller...

[Andrew Dahl]

its a regular push mower

the control system would be on the pushbar (thats folded back over the body

i would use-
battery
two victors
and two drive motors

the motor would connect to the back wheels and drive via
3/8 chain-
connecting the front and back wheels (outside the body)

I should have plans up here in the next couple of weeks
school is over soon and I have to do teacher like things to wrap up the year


dahl

[Elgin Clock]

HI

[robahimian]

The lawn mower idea has been done countless times before. Search the web and you are bound to find tons of info on it. The only trick is adapting it to FIRST equipment but it doesnt seem too hard to do. However doing it safley is another question. In fact, Sharper Image sells an automatic lawn mower. I believe it uses under ground wiring (similair to an electric fence) to control itself. The blade cover goes all the way to the ground and there are sensors all over the thing to prevent it from running over someones foot. It's pretty cool. It's programable too. So you can tell it how and when to cut the grass. The only problem with it, just like everything else at Sharper Image, is the price.

[Kris Verdeyen]

Here's a website with a creative non-electrical solution to the robotic lawn mower idea:
http://www.execpc.com/~dsmith/HomeAuto/Mower/

This guy took a large spool of rope, and let a walk-behind self-propelled mower just go in circles around it, with the spool taking in the rope as it went. He matched the width of the spool to that of the mower deck, so that there was minimal overlap.

[mike o'leary]

hmmmm
the other cool thing about doing it that way is that it would make crazy patterns in the grass...

[David Kelly]

robotics mowers is what you call "laziness". it's not really that hard, this is comming from someone who works for a lawn mowing business.

But they are cool

[Carolyn Duncan]

I too know about cutting grass, my mom owns a landscape company which provides grass cutting in the summer. I've cut grass every summer for the last 4 years. It's really not that bad. Think of it this way, sun tan, sauna like, and counts as your day's exersize. Robahimian, are you talking about that little yellow thing that looks like there is a giant bug running around in your yard?
C~ya,
Carolyn