I’m currently seeing a patch of dead grass (or weeds!) in front of my docking station. The issue seems to be twofold:
While Yarbo is about 4’ away from the docking station, it stops and performs a zero-turn movement to align itself. This is most likely related to the consistent end point of my routes. Or perhaps it’s a programming requirement to align the mower to the docking station. However, the zero-turn maneuvers grind up the grass there. Perhaps perform one of two things? A) Create a end point circle that can be customized by the user to define an area that the Yarbo will randomly enter into and perform it’s zero-turn manuever? Basically, the endpoint of the route would drop into this circle, and the Yarbo would decide if it’s going to go slightly past the docking station (and therefore approach at a 10 degree angle) this time. Next time, it might approach at a 20 deg angle and, at the last second, re-align itself to the docking station?
The distance off the docking station when automatically departing is consistent. This creates a wear point as Yarbo always turns at the same point, destroying the lawn. Again, create a randomized distance departure to minimize the wear on the grass.
I’ve mentioned this before but the real answer for me is for it to smart turn in front of the pathway to the dock (in a known area) and then back up the entire pathway and straight onto the dock. There is no good reason that it needs to zero turn to enter that pathway. And depending on where it’s coming from the turning with smart turn would be randomized based on its approach angle.
YES!! I would be so happy if we could optionally have Yarbo drive X number of feet off the dock to acquire GPS. Seems like an easy thing to implement. And they could use the cameras to ensure no obstacles are in the way before moving.
There are a lot of benefits and yes it would. The only downside to this behavior is it would most likely not allow for correcting map drift since the docking station won’t have a good enough signal if the users install it in a garage, dog house, too close to the house, etc. BUT, they are working on VIO and VSLAM and have a proof of concept visual only docking video posted so I feel like these things can hopefully be solved for.
Mine just bumps it 14,000 times spinning in circles around the object and then darts in another direction and eventually comes back to finish another 14,000 bumps and dart in another direction. It’s very efficient.
Indeed. It’s smart enough to have built a map of the house but my wife hasn’t done anything with the app other than set a schedule. Maybe if he had some support and encouragement he’d be a little smarter about it. Much like Yarbo, you have to put in some time and effort to tweak it and get it just right for you, your yard, and your preferences. But hey, I don’t mess with her robot vacuum and she doesn’t mess with my yard robot.
