Autonomous Mowing - Autonomous 36, 48, or bigger machine - would this have a need / interest for folks, or no?

[candersen10]

I posted this in an older thread, but am adding here also, with some added color

On my family farm, we have 200 acres, and about $400K on mowers/mowing machines. Everything from a 1025R and several Kubota BXs and ZDs up to a Deere 6430 Premium with a 10 footer, Deere 3720, Deere 5325 with a 6 footer, Deere 333E with a 72 inch ambusher, Kubota 4 ton excavator with hydraulic mower, etc. In short, I'm SICK of sitting on a mower. Sure, fun for 500 hours maybe, or maybe 1000, but it's endless and doesn't get done.

In paralell, I spent about 4 years after business school working for Case New Holland (CNHi), then left in 2017 to start a robotics comapny (www.burro.ai). Today, we have over 350 of our Burro robots running in paid commerical use, often as harvest assist aids carrying berries and grapes alongside people, as towing vehicles replacing small tractors and operators towing trailers in nurseries, and as autonomous patrol vehicles, docking to charge, then driving around sending alerts when people/thieves are seen.

Customers of mine keep putting weird mowers behind our Burros to try to autonomously mow, then my team keeps thinking there is a use and trying things out. I have a small Burro (about 4 Hp, 500 lbs, big enough to tow a 36 inch fixed mount mower) and a larger Burro Grande (about 12 hp, 1200 lbs, big enough to tow a 48 inch fixed mount mower or maybe larger).

Would anyone in their right mind want a mower that autonomously docked to charge, then repalced a BX or 1025R sized machine and mowed areas / rows autonomously on a continous cycle? To me, it sounds amazing - buys me about 50 hours a week of labor during the summer / or about $2k/week just in labor. What do people think? Here also is a survey - would LOVE any feedback positive or negative!)!

Some pics below also for context:

 

[dadohead]

To answer that question, I would look at Europe. Because of sound regulations (can't mow during evening or weekends) Europe has very much adopted robotic mowing for residential use. In those applications, robots can 'wonder' continously and cover a property. A border wire installation maintains the periphery. Small rechargeable mowers/blades minimize the risk of thrown objects and contact with unknown objects/pets/humans.

Commercial use seems like a whole different animal. Mowers would have to be 'taught' the patterns and borders at each site. Powerful gas mowers could also really do damage/injury if one 'got away'. Insurance/liability issues would have to be factored in. Again.... I would look to Europe and see if it's being done successfully there. Good luck!

 

[ning]

It strikes me that an autonomous mower has serious liability concerns, whether or not it's self-motivated or towed. And, being pulled by an autonomous tractor (like your burro), if the seller of the autonomous tractor doesn't strongly advise against its use in pulling a mower, the seller is opening themselves up to huge liability IMO.

[Note: regardless of who is liable, I'm such a rare mower that I'm not a potential customer, FYI]

My I use a rotary mower behind my tractor, or ride my lawn tractor, the slightest thing goes wrong and I can make the decision right away to stop the mower... and if I don't, that responsibility is entirely on me (unless the mower self-destructs due to manufacturing defect, of course). If the blades grab a hose (like they did last time I was using the rotary in meter-high grasses), I shut it down. Is the burro going to listen for strange sounds? Is it going to notice that it's slinging gravel at the nearby building and vehicles? Is it going to shut down and refuse to pull a mower if there are people nearby?

I'm not saying don't do it, but if you do, for your own sake and the sake of others I sure open you think about the responsibilities of the mower.

 

[oldnslo]

How well does the guidance work under tree canopies, around buildings, etc. how would you control power to the mower if being towed and has its own separate power source?

Out of curiosity, why are you mowing 200 acres of farm and not using for animal feed or planting some other crop?

 

[candersen10]

How well does the guidance work under tree canopies, around buildings, etc. how would you control power to the mower if being towed and has its own separate power source?

Out of curiosity, why are you mowing 200 acres of farm and not using for animal feed or planting some other crop?

Burros (my team's prodcut) have 400,000+ hours of operation at this point, near people, inside buildings and outdoors, on over 380+ systems running in paid commerical use. We use 3D Lidar, RTK GPS, and 12 cameras on every Burro, plus about 400 watts of compute power and a bunch of other stuff. In short, we are pretty good at setting up and running missions / routes etc. under canopies and near / inside buildings.

We're antipating an electric mower that is controlled by the robot, and powered off the robot or off of added battery packs. This would enable docking to charge / running autonomously.

Re: 200 acre farm, we are about 110 acres in livestock/open areas/tress, 40 acres in vegetables, and the remainder in apples/grapes/berries (i.e. rows). Obviously we aren't clear mowing 200 acres - but it ends up being edges of fields for weed control, row centers, etc. - likely the end amount is about 30-40% of those 200 acreas should get mowed on a continuous basis (6-8 times a year), then 20-30% gets mowed 1-2 times a year, and the remainder is not.

In my view, if there was a dock / run to mow / dock / run to mow system that could mow continously, it could be huggely valuable.

 

[plowhog]

it could be huggely valuable.

It would be nice to learn ballpark cost to determine how closely the huge value is matched by huge upfront expense, and ongoing battery expense.

I see the labor savings value for mowing my 15-20 acres. But since I am not running a business, the cost of this piece of machinery is likely far out of consideration compared to a bit of my time and a jug of diesel. If I was a commercial operating the device 12hrs day 6 days per week that could be different.

 

[Fixastuff]

There is a dude near me that uses a Roomba style mowers for his commercial business. I think at first he had to put in perimeter wires but his new machine doesn't require them.

 

[Fixastuff]

There is a dude near me that uses a Roomba style mowers for his commercial business. I think at first he had to put in perimeter wires but his new machine doesn't require them.

At first he asked me about boring driveways for the wire but I was way to expensive. Lol.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I think about this every time I get on my mower!

If you're mowing just for weed control and appearance, I think there's a lot of advantages to making the mower smaller rather than larger. It's less dangerous and less costly.

I don't see any reason why a robot mower couldn't mow in the dark. So if you have to do 40 acres a week and have 168 hours to do it in, that's about a quarter acre an hour, or 10,000 square feet. If you have a mower that's 12" wide it has to travel 10,000 feet per hour, or slightly under 2 MPH. That's a pretty modest machine.

Probably the biggest challenge would be figuring out how to keep the batteries charged. Maybe have a second robot that just ferries batteries out to the mower?

 

[CliffordK]

I don't relish mowing. But, I'm currently working on expanding the area accessible to mowing. Which means that the mower needs to be stable on a 30° to 45° slope.

So, perhaps one should consider a tracked mower.

However, I think that one is simple remote control, not fully autonomous.

It might be nice if the mowing extended beyond the tracks, but really that is only needed along fence lines.