Just because the corporation short-circuited their project for it doesn't mean I can't use one at home - and it's a pretty robust little octocore monster! I love it - although for some applications it's like bringing a nuke to a slap fight...
I'm currently developing a mowbot (actually, it's more like a small squad of mowbots, if you must know) that - with the help of a base station computer and the packet cluster protocol - quietly and efficiently knock out 2 acres of mowing without human intervention.
Finished the base station programming, zipped down the comms protocol to a very simplified tokenized multi-node net, allowing the various mowbots the capacity to "report in" with their location, progress, that sort of thing, and the "mother brain" then takes those updates into consideration while transmitting updated instructions to the mowbots, enabling them to operate in concert.
Since they're armed with driven reel cutters (like the ones we used to push, only actively powered by a 6VDC motor and a small geartrain) similar to what is used on a golf course, they are almost perfectly silent. That means I can deploy them at 0300 without fear of disturbing the neighbors.
Well, that's the plan, anyway. Got enough hardware to build one fully, but enough "brains" to outfit four; guess this will be a long-time/long-term build. But it will be worth it.
...nah, I can't give it up: I'm going to keep developing. I just don't talk about it much, because if/when I fail (it happens quite often, but I keep coming back) I tend to get discouraged, and nobody *likes* to admit they screwed the pooch... ...I'm sure you get what I'm saying/admitting, here...
...but thanks for asking. It's incredible that anybody 'out here' is interested. I thought DIY was pretty much dead. At least, for the general populace at large, anyway... |
