Yeah unfortunately I think it’s only designed to go side to side and there isn’t anything you can set differently at this point, I don’t believe. You would need to define some sidewalks along the edge you want cleared and arguably around the deposit areas around the entire area and use the snow blower to clean it all up.
2 Likes
I did quick test. It works to both directions, no Reverse Plowing. Looks like this part will not be fully automated at this point with Plow mode and I will work together with Yarbo with snow shovel or Yarbo in manual mode.
2 Likes
I have a section of driveway with a sunken part of concrete, so I ended up making a custom Sidewalk where I told Yarbo the direction to plow (up and down vs left and right). I don’t see a “functional” limit to the length of a sidewalk, but if you want it to plow a set direction and can’t get it to do it via normal area planning, you can just do multiple smaller sidewalks that overlap, or it looks like you could do 1 really long one with u-turns in it
3 Likes
Today I performed Plow Mode test for the first time with the real snow.
I am noting down all my observations now, some point I would like to share.
-
Plow mode is not working in a boundary to boundary mode and leaves space (gap) ~0.3m on each side. I was expecting to perform boundary to boundary Plowing. For users who are interested in the gap should be parameter in the Area Plow mode Settings - the same like for Snow Blower settings. Otherwise I need to map area by going for the same distance outside the area (offroad), but this is not good idea and in many cases is not even possible.
-
Collision detected error without collision (few times). The worse thing is that I was not able to clean up the error. Clear error is not working on remote physical controller or App controller. Voice repeats Collision Detected Error in the loop (not once or twice) and you can do nothing about it.
The only way to get away from error was restart of the Yarbo. If somebody knows better way to clean up the error please advice.
3. Not following the surface. By current design Snow Blower Module is in the air. Height adjustment is done on the core. So module is not following surface and is not stable during manual control (dancing from side to side). This creates issues on non flat surfaces because for the case where surface goes down and goes up immediately - core is going down but snow module (plow) should already go up according to the surface but it continues goes down and collides with the surface (road) or cuts the ground. Maybe better design is to adjust height on snow shoes to allow snow module to follow the surface immediately.
1 Like
Usually to clear a collision error you just back up the core.
A floating deck would be cool. Are there any snow blowers that do this?
2 Likes
My wide shovel is doing this 
Double handled shovel in right hands overperformed Yarbo Plow today.
2 Likes
If I built an add on plow I was thinking to make the hinge have a small amount of up/down travel to contour to the surface better but still lift once the module gets high enough.
2 Likes
@jso Thanks for your detailed observations and suggestions.
I’ve passed your feedback about the gap near the boundary in Plow Mode to the relevant team for further evaluation.
Regarding the collision error issue, you can try the method Bryan suggested. If the problem continues to occur frequently, please feel free to submit a support ticket so we can look deeper into it and identify the cause.
As for the third point about the module not following the surface, I completely understand how this could be useful in uneven terrain, and I appreciate you sharing this idea.
Thanks again for taking the time to document your experience—your feedback is very valuable to us.
2 Likes
I added all details to the case, including record issue.
This is real life example for scenarios where option to expand area borders is required (like for Lawn Mower).
Images attached:
- mapped border - 1 block away from the lawn (to the track)
- plow mode limit - 4 blocks away from the lawn. So difference is 3 blocks, ~0.3m. If we take into account shape of the snowplow the difference will be 0.5m on one side, and 1m on both side of the road.
3 Likes