Shaping the Yarbo Trimmer: We Need Your Input

[Yarbo-Forum]

Hi Yarbo family,

We’re currently refining the software and app for the Yarbo Trimmer to enhance its performance in real-world conditions, especially in tricky, complex scenarios. To make the Trimmer smarter for yards like yours, we’d love your help. Share photos, stories, and examples from your lawn to help us understand the edge cases that matter most to you.

Feel free to share:

• Tricky spots to trim in your yard

• No-go zone trimming challenges: Many users need to trim around no-go zones, and we want to understand what challenges you face in those areas

• Pathways and dead-ends, especially narrow ones (feel free to share photos or descriptions to help us visualize trimming in such spaces)

• Would you consider creating a dedicated trimming map? A custom trimming map could help improve precision beyond the current mowing map

We truly appreciate your valuable input in helping us improve the product.

Best regards,

Team Yarbo

[Ken]

I was wondering how Yarbo was going to be doing a lot of this – we’ve heard Area boundaries, No-go Zones, but nothing else. That won’t suffice for me, TBH. And y’all have been thinking the same – cool!

A separate Trimming Map is not needed. The current mapping strategy has everything needed, just need a few tweaks.

• Trimmer Settings should include height and reach. Not sure what else. Not sure what kind of reach would be good for a product of this type. The GF is the expert. If I said half a meter (foot and a half) would I be crazy?

• The snowblower has “Snow Throw Direction” you draw on your mapped items, and the Trimmer could have similar “Trimming Zones” for all mapped items, and these zones would be lines drawn on the mapped item to direct the Trimmer where to to turn ON/OFF.

• “Trimmer Area” where you run the rover back and forth while moving the rover over and/or the Trimmer outward to decimate a bunch of tall grass (more of a brainstorm thing, I guess…LOL!)

• Because Area Boundaries and No-go Zones would only do part of the job, allow all modules to have the snowblower’s Sidewalks, which are zero-turn, out-and-reverse, out-turn-return, and one-way (go through like a Pathway from any mapped item to any other mapped item). As with the snowblower’s Snow Throw Direction, you would draw a line on the Sidewalk to stop/start the Trimmer. (In fact, you can replace Pathways and Deadends with Sidewalks – Sidewalks do it all.)

• Expose the settings for all modules attached to the rover (mower, Trimmer). You may want the mower to run while in a Trimmer Zone, maybe not.

• “Trimmer Go Zone.” Sometimes you’ll want the rover to nudge up a little closer to something for trimming it. Where you have the Trimmer ON on your map, have a setting that moves the Trimmer outward and another setting to tell the rover to shift over a little as it’s driving by.

• “Intelligent Auto-trim.” I have No-go Zones that are too big to make sure the rover stays away during mowing, but I would like the rover + trimmer to mow/trim completely around what’s in there – a tree, a T-post. I’d like to tell the rover and trimmer combination to do that somehow, mow the grass up to the object and trim around it. Tall order, I know. Perhaps the Trimmer can have a sensor on it that senses the object, and that’s how close the rover goes to it, and the Trimmer does the rest of the job. Wow, I’d love this, actually. I have a few T-posts surrounded by tall grass crying out for this!

• You’d have to give thought to how you map your Trimmer Zones and ON/OFF locations – where EXACTLY it turns the Trimmer on and off so it gets grass and not flowers! Snow Throw Direction doesn’t have to be exact, Trimming does.

Sorry, I’m just dumping here, some of this is inconsistent, and I will probably think of more and may grab some pictures later. Having pictures of what oddities we’d all like to run the Trimmer on will really help.

OK, breakfast, please. Can ya tell I’ve already had coffee?

[Arnaud]

I want to use the trimmer arround nogo zone (not all ex flower or small tree

) and for some but not all zone i’ve made.
Ex some edge of zone are in the next zone, so don’t need to be trimm. (And also don’t need the 2 turns at slow speed at the end of zone mowing).
I don’t need to trimm as often as mowing. So i think i’ll remove the trimmer and put only some times.
BTW how smart detect will work. I’ll but somme example of zone were rover don’t go because of branche.

I want to use it for edge like this

[1396781167]

Around the trees you wanna trim, have you already set as a NoGoZone？

[Arnaud]

Yes but some time Yarbo stop before because of small branch.

[kroseberry331]

I would particularly like the trimmer for my property edge and no go zones.

But the tricky part is that some of these zones are under very tall trees with very dense canopies, so the GPS signal is weak.

While I’m ok with using the current boundary, it would be beneficial for low gps areas to have a dedicated trimmer path, where the Yarbo knows to use alternative positioning strategies like it’s camera, rtk, etc.

The trickiest area in my yard is a large mulch bed that is edges by rocks (~12" in diameter) of all different shapes and sizes. The trimmer will have to angle down and hit the base of all these rocks to get the weeds.

[Alan]

We may not need a dedicated trimmer map, I’m not sure. With my property, i have a few NGZ, but for the most parts, i let vision handle trees and alike. I would like the trimmer to trim around detected obstacles , as well as boundaries, but not sure the best way to accomplish that.

[tbailey]

I am just generally curious how the yard trimmer currently is designed to work. It currently looks like it pressing against surfaces in order to trim and uses some sort of spring or force mechanism.
If this is true repeatedly working around any surface, tree, fence, concrete wall will cause wear and tear on the trimmer and the object being rubbed against. Understanding how the accessory functions I believe will help me better understand where I will be able to use it unless you are looking to completely change your current product.

Thanks

[edgeradio34]

I would agree with the above. Having a mowe path option where you can set the entry and exit would be awesome. Also like said start and stop points on the boundaries/nogo arias would be best. Not knowing if the arm is fixed or movable (manually or automatically) would be a big help in further suggestions. Some times you may not be able to weed eat at aria with the unit stuck on one side only.

[mangiapane.sal]

Besides all the great ideas. I plan to use mine along a split rail fence line.

[pete]

the trimmer turns Yarbo into the first Robot Fence Mower - with long narrow zones

[pete]

I forgot to reply to the last OP question,
yes I would be completely willing to do separate ‘trim maps’. Seems like that would enable more control. Ideally the mower could still mow in the ‘trim map’, mowing-while trimming.

[bryan.wheeler]

I would not mind the option of a dedicated trimming map, but I believe this should not be required and I should be able to define trim zones like snow throw zones along existing area maps, NGZ’s, pathways, sidewalks (if they existed for the mower), etc.

There should also be the addition of No Trim Zones. The idea here would be to keep the trimmer away from the area and to ensure it remains off in this zone. Example for this is I have garden beds with shrubs the spill over into the lawn area. This hasn’t been an issue for the mower, but the trimmer would annihilate these shrubs. I would want to drop a no trim zone where these shrubs are to make sure that the trimmer isn’t overhanging and hitting these shrubs. Maybe in this zone Yarbo mows closely to the boundary but from the left side and not the right but will trim at the edge of the zone.

[Ken]

@Yarbo-Forum - Regarding a separate Trimmer map: Let me rephrase. I think the Trimmer is very closely associated with the mower, so having a WORKABLE, EASILY EDITABLE single map makes sense. Existing mapped items would get settings to control the Trimmer per my thinking earlier, but because a Trimmer would get its own mapped item from time to time, a separate map may be desirable by some customers who wish to have an uncluttered UX.

In my use case of sharing a map with the snowblower and mower, no, it is NOT WORKABLE and NOT FULLY EDITABLE. I am unable to manage Pathways, and the behavior when the rover is on top of overlapped Areas is unpredictable.*

Therefore if Yarbo is considering having multiple maps available in some fashion, even as an option, PLEASE GO AHEAD and include other modules in that planning. I need to have the mapped items for my snowblower available to me and completely editable again when the snow flies in October-November.

---

* - Unpredictable Area example: Yesterday I was mapping a Deadend near an overlapped Area and moved the rover nearby into the overlap when I finished mapping. I told the rover to mow the Deadend, which was about 2 meters from the rover. The rover proceeded to drive away, using the navigation in the “underneath” Area of the overlap, which is there for the snowblower. The rover would have had to go back to the Docking Station and then return along another navigation path entirely just to move a few feet. I do not want to add a Pathway from the snowblower Area to the mower Area. I would likely be unable to add that Pathway anyway, as the mower Area overlaps the snowblower Area, and the new Pathway may or may not work.

[Ken]

@Yarbo-Forum - What you’ve been anxiously awaiting: PICTURES!

I discovered a use case while reviewing my pictures: Deadends and Pathways may have the trimmer on the wrong side, so the Deadends would need “reverse,” and the Pathways may need a “go THIS direction.” For Deadends you’d likely back all the way in, then position and start the Trimmer and drive forward – I’m sure the Trimmer won’t like operating backwards!

Example 1: No-go Zone border around a round wall. Need to be able to get a rover’s width of trimming…hmmm…a half meter to extend the Trimmer may not be crazy after all.

Example 2: Tree / “don’t trim my GF’s hostas!” (Trimmer OFF there) / irregular-shaped rock. As this is mowed by a Deadend, it would have to be done in reverse, as the Start of the Deadend is beyond the tree in the mowing Area. This one would be tricky.

Example 3: “The Peanut.” Very low border, irregular shape, inside a No-go Zone.

Examples 4, 5: Fairly straight Area Border along firewood stacks and Area Borders straight along a Fence, but I’ll be putting a Deadend on the right side of the fence into a pocket, so it’ll need to do the Deadend in reverse, as the Trimmer will be on the wrong side.

Example 6: Pathway along a wire fence. As the rover can only Trim in one direction, we may need a way to tell the rover to “take the Pathway so it can be Trimmed.” The Deadend that goes by the pups has the Trimmer on the wrong side, so it would have to be done in reverse. WOOF!

Examples 7, 8: No-go Zones that are too big. We’re told to make them about a foot “too big” to accommodate the rover’s movements. It would be nice to clean these No-go Zones up.

Example 9: A slight slope up to a stump and an azalea on an Area boundary – what can we do here? The Trimmer will need to be able to deal with chicken wire as well. I use Deadends to trim next to that, so one Deadend will have to be done in reverse or Start at the other end (which in this case is open, unlike other cases).

Example 10 (final one!): Grass tucked under our Christmas Trees. This is where I’ve always hated to run the push mower, and now the rover does a reasonable job of getting close. It would be nice if it could trim underneath these branches without snagging them with the rover or the Trimmer – or breaking off an antenna.

[bryan.wheeler]

A no trim zone like I described above could help protect your hostas and other tricky areas.

Shaping the Yarbo Trimmer: We Need Your Input

I would not mind the option of a dedicated trimming map, but I believe this should not be required and I should be able to define trim zones like snow throw zones along existing area maps, NGZ’s, pathways, sidewalks (if they existed for the mower), etc. There should also be the addition of No Trim Zones. The idea here would be to keep the trimmer away from the area and to ensure it remains off in this zone. Example for this is I have garden beds with shrubs the spill over into the lawn area. …

[james1]

Along the fence line

[james1]

And this fence line both sides of the driveway

[james1]

[Joshua]

@Ken, lol! You’re write-up cracked me up.

I honestly don’t want to attempt to create another map for this. The GPS signal is so sketchy for me and typically only works (for mapping purposes) in the middle of the day (which isn’t feasible most of the time since I have a job). I have a whole side of my yard that isn’t even mapped at this point because the signal drops out EVERY SINGLE TIME I try to map it. Mapping my entire property took SEVERAL attempts over several days because of the specific timing Yarbo needs to get the GPS signal (ridiculous!). For me, I’d prefer to not have to create a new map for the trimmer (unless Yarbo finds a way for me to do it with my phone WITHOUT the Core Module).