Robot mowers

[MaineBarn]

For those of you with current robotic mowers, how is the mapping and ability for the mower to follow a plan? How about not going over certain things? Like can you draw a flower bed on a map and it won't drive there?

I'm asking because my property is divided into four sections. The house/driveway/fence in the back essentially splits the property in half. One of the halves is divided by a crushed stone driveway lined with granite pavers that a robot couldn't go over. The other half has a fence/shed/garden the robot possibly couldn't navigate.

The two front halves could be considered joined as there is only a driveway intersecting it and that's level with the grass. If there was a way to map the areas and then almost draw a "line to follow" then one mower could reach everywhere.

I made a quick map of it below. The yellow, purple, and green sections are lawn. The brown gravel section nothing could go over. In an ideal world, I could draw a line from the purple to the front green (about 15' on a residential neighborhood road), it could drive over to the other green, and then, to get to the yellow section, it could drive under the fence (blue line) that runs near the edge of the property. Once it's done, it would do the reverse and drive back around the entire house and recharge in the purple section. The back fence is too close to the ground so it couldn't drive from yellow to purple.

The property is only 0.6acres so not a large area. I just know with the inside robotic vacuums they can't be "directed" to do things and will only do their automatically created motions. If it couldn't be set to drive along the road, I could potentially get two with a base station in the yellow area. That would only work if the machine can drive under a fence though. I assume it doesn't have overhead sensors? The one from the yellow section could do yellow and the two green sections. A small one with a base in the purple section could exclusively do that area. However, if they don't respect no-go zones for gardens, this is all a non-start.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[doneill127]

Seriously thinking about these. Nagging question I can’t seem to find anything on is how do they handle leaves as they’re starting to fall around here. Anyone have first hand experience?

 

[litework]

Seriously thinking about these. Nagging question I can’t seem to find anything on is how do they handle leaves as they’re starting to fall around here. Anyone have first hand experience?

It's too early for significant fall in my area. Just giving you a bump really. We haven't had a lot of rain so I used my mower, a Navimow I-series, for the first time in over a week. There were a few leaves on the ground and the mower had no issue with them. It didn't view a leaf as an obstacle. It just ran over them. I don't expect this mower to see a lot of leaves actually. It's used in a small, fenced section of my yard with no trees inside the fence. I usually stop mowing prior to the big leaf fall anyway. I did some aerating on Friday and some limited over seeding yesterday. I won't mow those areas again until the spring.

My example is probably not very useful to you.

 

[Fixastuff]

For those of you with current robotic mowers, how is the mapping and ability for the mower to follow a plan? How about not going over certain things? Like can you draw a flower bed on a map and it won't drive there?

I'm asking because my property is divided into four sections. The house/driveway/fence in the back essentially splits the property in half. One of the halves is divided by a crushed stone driveway lined with granite pavers that a robot couldn't go over. The other half has a fence/shed/garden the robot possibly couldn't navigate.

The two front halves could be considered joined as there is only a driveway intersecting it and that's level with the grass. If there was a way to map the areas and then almost draw a "line to follow" then one mower could reach everywhere.

I made a quick map of it below. The yellow, purple, and green sections are lawn. The brown gravel section nothing could go over. In an ideal world, I could draw a line from the purple to the front green (about 15' on a residential neighborhood road), it could drive over to the other green, and then, to get to the yellow section, it could drive under the fence (blue line) that runs near the edge of the property. Once it's done, it would do the reverse and drive back around the entire house and recharge in the purple section. The back fence is too close to the ground so it couldn't drive from yellow to purple.

The property is only 0.6acres so not a large area. I just know with the inside robotic vacuums they can't be "directed" to do things and will only do their automatically created motions. If it couldn't be set to drive along the road, I could potentially get two with a base station in the yellow area. That would only work if the machine can drive under a fence though. I assume it doesn't have overhead sensors? The one from the yellow section could do yellow and the two green sections. A small one with a base in the purple section could exclusively do that area. However, if they don't respect no-go zones for gardens, this is all a non-start.

Thanks for any advice!

Good. Good. Yes. It has over head sensors but they turn off while driving on paths between zones. You can also run it in bumper only mode, not smart avoidance.

 

[candersen10]

Here are some clips of the ones I run fwiw!

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Will they cut grass 4" tall? Cool season grasses in hot summers are best left tall to shade the roots.

Looks like the Yarbo will cut 4" high. Less costly than a zero turn. Up to 6 acres. I'll put that on my old man list.

 

[RjCorazza]

The two mowers I seem to always come back to are Lymow and Yarbo. I have a hard time with the price of the Yarbo, and it seems the Lymow is living up to the manufacturers claims.

 

[doneill127]

I bought a Lymow and it was delivered in Oct. Had about 2 months of use and am very happy with it so far. Didn’t use the tractor with mmm during that time. So far I’ve mapped out about 33,000 sq ft. Have about another 10,000 to add.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I bought a Lymow and it was delivered in Oct. Had about 2 months of use and am very happy with it so far. Didn’t use the tractor with mmm during that time. So far I’ve mapped out about 33,000 sq ft. Have about another 10,000 to add.

What's the tallest grass it can handle?

 

[doneill127]

I actually don’t know that yet. I was using it once a week cutting at 3 inches but it was the tail end of the mowing season so growth wasn’t that heavy. Springtime with cool season grasses will be a better test.
Someone posted earlier that you might have to mow more often especially with the mowers that use the razor type blades. This one has a more traditional style set of mower blades. Will find out if that makes a difference.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

What I'd be curious to see is whether in tall grass it can "nibble" -- take passes at half the width of the cutting deck, the way you would if you were mowing grass that was more than your mower could handle.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

In the wetter seasons, my grass will grow 4" in about 5 days. It may have to be constantly mowing

 

[Fixastuff]

This thing had been great. Riding mower went to my other property and Lymow took care of bidness all summer. 1.45 acres with some steep slopes. The slopes are why I went with this one.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Every video I see, these things are in shirt grass. The SHORTEST mine is ever, is 4". Its probably 6"+ when I mow. How will that affect it?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Yarbo seems to be the premium option right now. The quality of cut on taller cool season grasses is not as good as a proper ZTR with high lift blades. If I were older and less likely to do work in hot weather, it would be a great option. I’d make the quality of cut concession.

 

[Fixastuff]

These are not for cutting tall grass to short in one mow. That is one of the things I love about it. It cuts so often there is no noticeable grass clippings.

When I used to cut once a week with the rider the clippings were so thick and long they would kill the lawn in spots.

While the Lymow can make tall grass short, it takes multiple passes taking off a little at a time and that’s not what it’s made for. It is made to keep grass at the same length and looking almost perfect all the time.

So what if it cuts daily during the peak of summer? It’s quiet and enjoyable to watch go around.