Thoughts on this Yardroid

From what I have read it is a prototype and probably hyped up. At a projected price of US$2500 it seems rather cheap. 

Having a robot to maintain the garden seems like a great idea. Can it prune the roses?

However destroying insects is a bad thing, turning your ecologically balanced backyard into a dystopian wasteland. Why would you want to shoo away birds? I encourage them with bird baths and a garden with flowering plants and trees to create an environment for a thriving host of insects for birds to feed on. I love the bees buzzing about pollinating the plants and producing honey. I encourage insect life and frogs to thrive in the garden. Spider webs to capture mozzies and provide nesting material for the willie wagtail.

Instead of weedicides you should use hot water it works just as well. Also you can cover the ground with rich organic matter to suppress weed growth.

If people hate nature that much they should just cover their yard with green cement and be done with it. Buy some plastic plants and flowers, that will save water. People's hateful destruction of the natural world is awful. The desire to only retain animals we can eat or keep as pets and kill the rest of them as pests while we all live in sterile boxes devoid of these "nasties".

@robotbuilder

You made many salient points, but what I didn't mention is that I want this for my 86 year old mother, in the hopes that it will discourage her from mowing the lawn, and the only critters she wants shooed away are the rabbits that chow down on her vegetable garden, and the squirrels who steal the seed from the half dozen bird feeders she's got out there. The ads on the actual website (not the kickstarter one) claim it has an AI, which, one would think, could distinguish birds from rabbits, and she doesn't really care about bugs, unless they get in the house, then they drive her crazy

Yes, I do mow the lawn for her, but, I also have a job, and if she gets it into her head that she wants the lawn mowed right now, she just goes out and does it, even tho she knows that I'll do it when I get there, and if the robot will keep the lawn mowed, she won't feel the need to do it herself

As for the garden, it's meticulous. She spends all day cultivating it, so weeds aren't an issue... ever

My main goal is to have the lawn mowed before she gets it into her head to do it herself, keep the critters out of her veggies, and leave the bird feeders to the birds

@spyder

I wouldn't discourage old people from physical activity. As we get older muscle is replaced with fat and bones lose their strength but this can be reversed a little bit by exercise.

Unlike our mechanical robots a human is a colony of specialized cells. Osteoclasts dissolve bone and osteoblasts (trigged in part by mechanical stress) build bone. The same is true with the muscle to fat ratio. Exercise is also good for the cardiovascular system (high blood pressure, cholesterol). The idea is never to overdo it and end up with physical damage.

Perhaps as you get older a self propelled mower would be suitable particularly as you say your Mother is still capable of mowing the lawn. Something to hang onto while you get exercise walking without being over stressed by the hard work of pushing the mower.

There are probably mechanical solutions to squirrels (who can't fly) with regards to bird feeders and fencing can exclude rabbits.

However I would love to build my own little lawn robot lawn mower 🙂

https://www.open-electronics.org/a-robotic-lawn-mowers-powered-by-solar-energy-with-an-arduino-heart/

@robotbuilder

That is an extremely interesting project !

Posted by: @robotbuilder

I wouldn't discourage old people from physical activity

Yea, well, she fell 3 weeks ago and broke her pelvis, and, unlike a hip, the pelvis can't be replaced or fixed surgically, so, for the time being, convincing her to NOT mow the lawn is something of a priority as she's terribly stubborn and absolutely refuses to get the rest she needs in order to heal up enough to be able to go out and start mowing the lawn again

I think I might like to look into building this project, but her back yard is not simple. The flower bed around the perimeter is easy to avoid with the signal wire included in the project, but the main section is divided into 2 sections by a walkway bounded by a flower bed which would need to be crossed somehow (unless I pick the thing up and carry it over the walkway) Then, of course, there's the front yard, which is also divided into 2 sections by a fence bounded by some tallish bushy thingies

I would just say the heck with it and just keep mowing it myself, but, I can't trust her to wait the extra few hours for me to get over there to do it. It would kinda suck to come over and find that she fell in the back yard cuz she couldn't wait a few hours

And that still doesn't address the rabbits and squirrels. I saw a rabbit the other day in her vegetable garden, and she hasn't even planted anything yet, like he was waiting for the buffet to be served

@spyder

Yea, well, she fell 3 weeks ago and broke her pelvis,

Ok. A serious and common injury in older people.  Maybe take the spark plug or some other essential part of the mower so it will not go until you arrive with the part and pretend to "fix" it each time?  I assume you have no lawn yourself.  I would keep the lawn mower and ask my Mother to let me know when to bring it around for another mow. Or just make a regular schedule to mow the lawn before it gets too long.  There are other alternative like replace the grass with bark chips and plants or maybe some kind of low growing ground cover?

The Yardroid is not going to deter squirrels,  or I suspect rabbits,  with a squirt of water.