Feature Request: Lidar assisted parking, mapping and gps recovery

Suggestion and Feature Requests
1

Hello Yarbo Team and Community,

I’d like to propose a critical feature enhancement for the Yarbo platform: integrating Lidar-assisted parking, mapping, and GPS recovery. While the existing system works well under ideal conditions, many users (myself included) have encountered frequent challenges in real-world environments that compromise performance and even risk damage to the unit or property.

1. Lidar-Assisted Parking for Safe Docking
Due to Yarbo’s weight, its attempts to return to the charging station can become clumsy and even destructive—especially when GPS blackouts occur. In these situations, the robot may scrape, bump, or grind against obstacles as it struggles to park. Currently, Yarbo relies on GPS and VSLAM, but both are error-prone in confined or obstructed areas. By using Lidar to lock in on the charging station at close range, Yarbo could dock precisely and gently, even when GPS or VSLAM data is unreliable.

2. Reliable Mapping in Large or Obstructed Areas
Mapping large yards is a significant challenge. During mapping runs, GPS signal often fluctuates from strong to weak—or disappears entirely—even when the robot is stationary. Tree cover, fencing, and even overcast skies can degrade the signal, causing Yarbo to miss or skip sections of the yard. With Lidar integration, Yarbo could build a more reliable spatial model independent of signal strength, greatly improving coverage and map accuracy.

3. GPS Recovery and Smart Navigation Using Lidar
In many cases, once GPS is lost near a tree or building, it never recovers. This causes Yarbo to freeze indefinitely, drain its battery, or get caught in bad weather. A Lidar-assisted navigation fallback system could help Yarbo either:

  • Safely backtrack to a location with known good GPS signal
  • Or navigate all the way back to the charging station using Lidar and onboard cameras, even in a complete GPS blackout or power outage.

This would drastically improve Yarbo’s autonomy, safety, and reliability in real-world environments.

Thanks for considering this feature request, and I’d love to hear from others in the community who’ve faced similar challenges.

1 Like
2

Lidar is expensive from what their engineers have told me. Not sure the viability of adding this to the current hardware, but if it’s cheap enough and able to be used on the existing core or mower module then that would be great. It wouldn’t work well for the snow blower though. Even vision for that is going to be a struggle.

Yarbo doesn’t actually use VSLAM yet. It’s on the road map. It currently relies on RTK to get to the dock, turn around, and then it relies on its magnetic sensors to detect its location on the docking station. It will periodically check the GPS to confirm it’s where it thinks it is. If it’s too far off course or doesn’t detect the magnetic fields, it will pull forward off the dock and reset and try again.

I think if they were to better integrate the existing sensors and IMU into the firmwares, that it would be more reliable when there is loss of GPS. This is something they continue to work on and improve. I expect this will only get better with each update. Same when they release VSLAM. You add all of their sensors and capabilities into a blended sensor fusion, losing any one of the sensor signals (like RTK) shouldn’t matter so much.

I would like to see more simple sensors retrofitted, personally. Like Ultrasonics and bumpers on the core and the SAM.

2 Likes
3

Needs landing lights on the charging pad and vision to see them. Sometimes it does a dance to find its spot.

2 Likes
4

Could be interesting in the snow. This is why they went with the magnetic sensors. Nothing to snag when it cleans off the dock and in a snow storm, it can’t rely on vision.

1 Like
5

From what I have heard, Lidar costs is as low as $25 these days. Nearly every robo vac sold these days has it and there are already 2025 mower models that have them. I would happily pay for a Lidar addon module if Yarbo decides to make it.

2 Likes
6

Hmm, I observed some VSLAM-like behavior today with the mower attached. I thought the mower still used cameras but I watched it bump it’s way out of a corner just like my Roomba used to do with almost no awareness of its surrounding. I’m still getting used to how everything works so maybe I have to tinker with more settings.

As far as lidar… Yes, they do get pricey but since this would only be a supplemental sensor it wouldn’t need to be a dear-killer like the Livox Mid-360. I would imagine something that can be found on mouser and digi-key can be sourced in China without a huge bump to the core module’s MSRP?

1 Like
7

I was surprised infrared landing lights weren’t used in the first place!

8

Snow and ice would scatter that and make it unreliable. Mud, grass, and other debris from the tracks could as well.

9

I keep forgetting how nice I’ve got it here in GA! And there are many features that don’t translate well from indoor to austere outdoor applications.

1 Like
10

Thank you for sharing your thoughtful suggestion—we truly appreciate the time and insight you’ve put into it. I’ve passed your feedback along to our product team for consideration.

We agree that Lidar integration could offer valuable improvements, especially in addressing challenges caused by unstable GPS signals. It has the potential to enhance Yarbo’s precision, safety, and reliability in real-world conditions.

That said, implementing such a feature would require careful evaluation and development time if we decide to move forward in this direction.

Thanks again for your input—it’s feedback like yours that helps us continue improving Yarbo for everyone.

2 Likes
11

I feel that’s applicable to the current camera setup as well.
If the camera and ultrasonic detection algorithms are baked in properly by Yarbo, we may not need Lidar at all.

2 Likes