Cheap DIY Robot Lawn Mower - IndyMower #1

The first 500 people to use my link skl.sh/nikodembartnik06241 will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare premium!

Even remote controlling a mower without any automation seems so much more fun than pushing one, very cool project!

Others have said this, but I'll add to it: put the twin drive wheels at the front, so you're dragging the swivel wheel. This is called a "tadpole" for motor-trikes and pedal trikes, and it is both much more stable and means you're not jamming that single wheel into the ground and having to push past it. Putting it at the rear will drag it over the bumps instead of pushing it into the bumps.

Great Project. Robot Mowers are VERY EXPENSIVE so it makes sense to DIY. I'll be watching !

I've had a lawn mower robot for the past 7 years now (an husqvarna automower 315) and I can say it's a game changer. The garden is always tidy and we make no noise (vs my neighbors who uses their gas mowers every other weekend, and have their grass always high until next cut). What I can also say, though, is that the perimeter line is a pain. If at the time I bought my mower there was a GPS one at a similar price, I would have bought it without thinking a second. So, good work for now, if needed as a proof of concept, keep working on the perimeter-limited style mower, but think about rtk, it's on another level!

After you tackle this, id love to see a diy roomba!

Ohey! I love making little robot designs like this that require rugged durability, and I have two big recommendations right off the bat for this based on my own experiences! When 3D printing discs that need to spin without exploding, using the concentric fill for layers is super useful! If you use the default zigzag, your prints have a specific weakness in one horizontal direction, similar to layer separation problems. It can be particularly noticed when 3D printing gears. The proper solution to this, of course, is to waterjet some aluminum or other metal so you don't have a crucial part like that 3D printed! Additionally, when dealing with high-speed rotation, a very quick and easy self-diagnostic method the robot can use to ensure it's not damaged or malfunctioning is an accelerometer! In the case of a sawblade (or the saw-adjacent rotary hinged blades on your grass cutter mechanism) it's quite standard to include an accelerometer near the center of rotation, on a stationary part of the robot. This way, the signal can be quickly checked to see if there's any unexpected wobble or vibration each time the device spins up to speed, ensuring there's not unexpected friction (things caught in the bearing or mechanism!) or wobble (blade missing, broken, etc!) Hope these tips help! I love the idea of open source designs like this and I think youtube is a great community platform that allows creators to spread brilliant ideas :)

when your motors don't have enough torque you can always reduce the wheel size, just like you did later on ^^ make a huge difference

Congratulations! I once wanted to make such a robot, but I don't know enough about electronics to make one that works with the boundary wire. I saw on the internet that most people make robotic mowers with RTK GPS, which is quite expensive. I can't wait for the second part! Powodzenia :)

Windshield wipers motors, used, cost like 10€ and have ridiculus torque. Paired with 2 BTS7960B( 6-7€) makes cheap very strong drivetrain - I've used them for exactly same project. For blades I've used disposable blades for tape knife - some have hole premade and are very sharp. Be careful however, my main fear that stopped me from finishing project was my kids safety - If you could think about it in next video I would be very intrested to see your ideas

I have the mower you took pictures of. It had a problem driving on surfaces with slopes > 45%. The solution was to buy sprockets, you can find them as "landroid wheel spikes". In the more expensive version, these are a combined 3 sprockets per wheel. Not only does the robot drive up steep inclines, it also performs better when the grass is longer and doesn't leave "trampled" wheel tracks on the grass, this is especially noticeable when driving along the cable towards the charging station. Good luck with the project.

Awesome project! I’ve wanted to automate this task (because I’m lazy) for a long time. Cool to see someone do it!

cool project! some things i would suggest (using lawn robots since 8 years now): Make the not moved wheel in the back - so motors in the front with most of the weight. also bigger wheels if possible. also 4 wheels if possible. :D

Very cool project. Did something very similar some weeks ago (didn't do a video on it yet). I started with a defective mower from ebay (mainboard was dead) and converted it to remote control. While watching I'm printing a new blade disk. Looking forward to the next part :)

I look forward to seeing your progress on making this autonomous. A good start might be running the code with it communicating to a base station while you tweak the inputs, then transitioning to something that follows the guide line to build out a map. Keep up the good work!

Awesome project - not a big fan of the perimeter wire myself, but that's because my ground is really rocky. Keeping the weight close to the driving wheels will help with traction, as would small spikes on them. Keep up the good work

I started (but never really finished) a very similar project a few years ago. In order to avoid expensive motor drivers, I DIYed some crude H-bridges with relays. The controllability of such a driver isn't great: the motors can only run at 100% power forwards or 100% backwards, nothing in between. But because all the current passes through simple relay leads, such a setup can handle a lot of power easily. For the relatively slow, highly geared down motors, the crappy controllability wasn't really an issue.

So undervalued channel!! Keep up the good work!!

I was surprised when you made smaller wheels. Won’t larger wheels move better through grass? What about using the swivel wheel in the rear? So cool! Congrats on the shed!!!

Looking forward to your next video! Do you have any plans on giving it adjustable cutting height?