Snow Blower "tweaks"

IMO, we ABSOLUTELY need the ability to adjust driving route angle for the snowblower similar to the lawn mower system. Part of my driveway/yard is very long, and Yarbo refuses to drive the path length wise no matter which side/sides I set the snow throwing to(even when using Circle path?!?!?!). Yarbo wants to zig-zag left/right 10,000 times while leaving clumps of snow at each turn location. Most of this would be negated if I could simply tell Yarbo to make long paths from one end of the driveway to the other by modifying the auto path by 90 degrees. This would reduce the time taken to clear this particular area by atleast 50%.

Another setting I would like to see is the ability to set any # of perimeter passes like the lawn mower has, or at the very least, the ability to run a couple final passes over the areas that had lots of zero turn maneuvers to clean up the mess/clumps caused by these zero turns. As a workaround, I’ve added extra Pathways to clean these areas after the main work area is complete.

I think it would also be wise to allow adjustment to the pathing algorithm to add extra overlap to in certain situations rather than depending on equally spaced overlap at all times. Example> In a couple areas of my driveway, the area is slightly wider(maybe 2ft wider in total) at one end than it is on the other….. Right now, Yarbo does a ton of zig-zag zero turn manuvers on each side and 4-5 straight paths down the middle, when it would be better for Yarbo to simply add slight extra overlap to 2-3 paths on each side… This would allow yarbo to to clear the whole area maintaining long smooth paths, rather than adding 50 un-needed zero turn manuvers causing 30-50% longer run time and a bunch of zero turn snow clumps left behind…. I understand that this would probably make the pathing algo much more complex, so maybe the extra overlap would be only needed/added to the multiple perimeter pass function I spoke of above. Extra perimeter passes with variable overlap could help reduce zero turn manuvers needed in many non parallel shaped areas. I’d prefer to see the extra overlap ability be added to the entire path system tho. I’ve drawn a picture to help show what I mean(please don’t make fun of my beautiful drawing :stuck_out_tongue: )

Also, tweaking the turn around manuver would probably help a lot… The core needs to move 25%-50% farther into the previously cleared areas before rotating… In current form, the sides of Snow blower module plows into uncleared snow at EVERY turn, thus leaving the dreaded zero turn clumps in previously cleared areas :frowning:

I understand that the path algo in combo with throwing direction is what controls path direction, but allowing us to tweak the parameters to achieve different path options for our particular needs is a MUST HAVE imo. On 2nd thought, Maybe allowing us to draw our own custom paths would be the easiest way to adapt to this problem. There has been many times already where I’ve thought “Dammit! I wish I could just tell this thing how to do it!!!” :stuck_out_tongue:

Not everyone has a flat square work area, so some software modifications are needed help make it more efficient for those of us with large weirdly shaped work areas and those of us that get LOTS of snow…

Thanks for listening

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Hi there, thank you for taking the time to share such a detailed and thoughtful suggestion, and for including the picture as well—it really helps us better understand your ideas.

I’ll definitely share your feedback with our product team, especially your request around adjustable driving angles and configurable perimeter passes, which you explained very clearly. As for the other suggestions, such as path overlap adjustments, turn-around behavior, and custom path options, these will need to be evaluated by our product team to assess feasibility and prioritization.

We truly appreciate you sharing your real-world experience and insights. Feedback like this is extremely valuable to us as we continue improving the system. Thanks again for taking the time to write this up and for listening.

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I agree - being able to tweak the pattern and overlaps while having the ability to combine patterns would be very helpful. Even on a rectangular driveway, I find myself wanting to clear the top one way and the bottom another due to snow drifts and road plow deposits.

One way around this that I’ve been using is multiple areas, paths, and sidewalks added to a work plan. However not being able to set a direction is challenging (slope mode helps but that is also limited for obvious reasons)

I’m not sure if this would help you- but could you try adding overlapping paths around the flared perimeter and placing rectangular area in the middle? Just tie them together in a work plan.

Essentially, make the rectangle as wide as the narrowest part of your driveway so that it runs parallel patterns and use overlapping paths to clear where it gets wider.

I REALLY wish we could add shapes for work areas like no go zones. Would make tweaking maps VERY easy. It would need to function like the inverse of a no go zone so there still is a referenced RTK path to prevent users adding work areas in places that can’t be traversed (like into the side of the house).

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Great ideas.