Building A Homebrew Robotic Lawnmower?

mmonkey writes "With the seemingly small amount of summer we get here in the UK, the last thing I want to be doing on a sunny day is mow the lawn. So I started thinking "surely a light-ish lawnmower could 'gain' a couple of motors, and suddenly be computer-controlled?". Then I started thinking about stuff like obstacle avoidance, optimum path planning, guidance system, how to get pretty-looking stripes, and I realised that it's actually a potentially complex (read: fun) thing to do. So, have any Slashdotters done this before? Did you modify an existing lawnmower or build a whole new one from scratch? What motors work best? For that matter, what type of mower works best? I know you can already get these, but that detracts from both my geek-drive and my wallet, both of which I'd prefer to keep as full as possible."

Comments

Re:Electric sheep

[TheoMurpse]

"You could get a nasty robot bite, but it wouldn't require a trip to the neurosurgeon."

yeah, cuz man! when you stick your BRAIN/SPINE into the thing.....

neurosurgeon?!? ^_~