Mowing the lawn is a chore that serves as an excellent character building excercise for a growing child. However, children are expensive and the maintenance requirements can be prohibitive. Many instead turn to robots to lend a hand, and [Rue Mohr] is no exception.
[Rue]'s creation goes by the name Mowerbot, and was first built way back in 1998. Steel angle and brushed DC motors are the order of the day, helping the 'bot get around the garden and chop the grass down to size. Being of such a vintage, there's no Raspberry Pi or Arduino running the show here. No, this rig runs on the venerable 386, chosen primarily as it can run off just 5 V. The original build ran off a 5 1/4″ floppy, though it was later upgraded to CF card storage instead.
It's not the first robot mower we've seen, but is likely one of the longest serving. It's still in use today, though [Rue] reports it's due for some new batteries. Given it's been chewing up the grass for over two decades now, that's fairly impressive performance. We hope to see this 386-driven beast still cutting away long into the future.
via http://bit.ly/2UUPb7R
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