Robotic Following Cart to Replace Light Duty Tractor Tasks?

[candersen10]

Early version of mowing raise/lower hitch prototype:

Ignore ductape and chewing gum nature. Will be refined shortly.

Can be paired with a docking station, so run/dock to charge/run
Compatible with all the BCS / Zanon / walk behind tractor attachments

 

[MossRoad]

Does the mower deck float or fixed in position?

 

[candersen10]

Standardized mount with EPTO for any BCS/Zanon/Grillo style attachment

Mechanism can:
1. Raises/lowers
2. Can tilt
3. Can float, or can be set to rigid with some floating or rigid slots

Set up initially to mow, but could do other things in time

Will have better imagery in time also. Below kind of gives you an idea though (early prototype).

 

[Xfaxman]

Can you program it to run the other direction?

I prefer to have the mower deck out front so the machines tires don't mash the weeds down to where it does not get cut by the trailing mower.

 

[candersen10]

as a retired insurance underwriter, my major concern is having a automated mower working in or near a residential environment, kids, pets, toys, etc.
they have made Roomba like mowers for a while and none have really caught on.
it's one thing to have a machine operating in a field, like the gps driven tractors do, another thing in an area with more hazards
to navigation.
if mower was used in an orchard, everything in predictable rows, which I'm guessing is the intention, where the landscape doesn't move or change, makes sense.

congratulations on achieving what you have so far, very impressive.
and thanks for taking us along for the ride.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349501902_A_remote-controlled_flail_mower_work-related_death_who_did_handle_the_controller

the track record for lawn mowers is interesting, lot of folks get hurt even while driving their own mower

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352587821000437

autonomous mowers are certainly out there, 65 grand for this one. That's a bump of 45k over a good ZT, so you are paying 45k to save labor.
I guess financially you can depreciate the equipment, that's a plus. Note the 200 dollar monthly "connection" fee.

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Bottom line is if you can't get help, and that seems to be more and more of a problem, this may be a great solution.

Daugen,

Thanks for thoughts - GPS is a fickle thing when in rows, so we have a bunch of other autonomy under the hood (each Burro processes 2TB of imagery per hour of runtime) to operate. We have 280,000 hours of operation across hundreds of systems, with over 25 autonomous miles per user intervention (scenarios where a user must intervene remotely to get system to resume). At this point, have seen many of the scenarios one encounters in areas, row to row, and other mowing type scenarios.

In my view, use case here:
1. Docking station for charging
2. Roughly a 33 inch mower deck (Fairly small)
3. Create routes / mowed traversals online once, mower runs on a 30%-50% / 70%-50% duty cycle (running / charging) but does it all the time
4. Able to cover about 20 acres continuously with a system

Useful especially in permanent crops (berries, tree fruit, etc.), then nurseries, and otehr areas where vegetation management is a nonstop task.

Could anyone imagine paying for autonomous mowing with a system that just does it all the time, and runs from an electric dock? That's what we have here.

 

[candersen10]

 

[candersen10]

Here it is running a bit:

 

[Williy]

IMHO I would never have a use for something like that

willy

 

[candersen10]

IMHO I would never have a use for something like that

willy

Can I ask why not?

On most of my customer operations today, they have millions of dollars in mowing machinery and annual spend to ahve people run it. Wouldn't you have a use for a roomba - like mowing machine that mows for you in rows/areas/otherwise on farm?

if not, why no?

 

[candersen10]

Larger Burro (Burro Grande) coming soon. Shifts from People scale (5hp, carry 500 lbs, tow 1000 lbs) to Pallet Scale (12 HP, rated to tow 3000 lbs on gravel/dirt, 5000 lbs on concrete, and will eventually have a cat 0 3 point with EPTO). Compatible with autonomous docking.