Zig-Zag up a hill

[moti]

Has anyone experimented with wire layout when trying to get the robot to climb a steeper hill?

I have some fairly steep hills, and sometimes moti rips up the lawn along his wire (he has spiked wheels : - ) . Once the lawn gets ripped up, things just keep getting worse. Instead of laying the wire straight up the slope, I was thinking of trying a kind of zig-zag pattern - with rounded edges of course - so that moti traverses rather than climbs the slope.

Has anyone come up with an optimal wire placement for climbing a hill?

[toolbelt]

I think part of your problem is the spiked wheels.  Those wheels act more like saw blades than traction blades.  If a tank had wheels like the spiked wheels instead of tank treads how far do you think it would get, not far, right!  I removed mine and the hill climbing got a lot better.

If the distant he has to travel when going up hill is not great you may want to consider pinning down a row of rubber mats that is wide enough for him to travel on.  They sell mats that have holes all over them which would allow the grass to grow up through.  After a while it would almost be hidden but give the robot a lot of traction.

[RobotLady]

Hi, I've done it. 

First of all, you will never get it to go past 30 degrees with the post-recall motherboard.  The blade shuts off after 30 degrees tilt, even from the side.

If you are trying just get a degree or two more than spec, or get it to stop doing wheelies, it may work.

What is your objective?

Robotlady

[moti]

Thanks for the replies.

I dont think any of my hills exceed 30 degrees... but there are spots where moti gets stuck. He does better on the hills when not follwing the wire - but when the wire is along a steeper grade, he often slips. We've put in a paver border, and that helps a bit. Its just that, once the lawn starts getting ripped up along an area of wire, the only way I've found to repair it is to dig up and re-locate the wire so that the lawn has time to regrow without disturbance.

I was thinking that maybe a zug-zag would be better than a striaght path.

I'm trying moti without the spikes for a while as toolbelt suggests. I haven't tried the wheelie bars because they got mixed reviews.

[shep874]

There are mats made for grass parking lots that  I have looked at but they are expensive. Here is one that I have looked at..  http://www.sitefabric.com/tufftrack_grass_pavers.htm It sure would be nice if we could find an economical way of doing something like this for the perimeter wire, to get rid of that  awful path compaction.

[RobotLady]

Hi Mel, great idea - I like those grass pavers...  BTW - there is a new feature coming called V-Meter.  V-Meter has the robot drive back in a variable pattern.  It was supposed to be offered on the new LB1500, but I will need to check that it actually made it into the software.  They talked about having it in the other models, too, but I don't think it's ready or I would have heard something.

Having the wire on a slope is always challenging for the robot.  If you check the manual, you will see it says not to do that.  However, it is completely impractical in some circumstances (as you are aware).  Check into the grass pavers suggested by Mel.  If that won't work, tell me more about where the robot goes off the wire and let's see if we can figure something out.

RobotLady

[moti]

Well it turns out that the uphill is not so bad. If the grass is worn or not full, the robot gets limited traction, even with the spiked wheels. So sometimes a zig-zag pattern helps.

Where we really have a problem is when the robot follows the wire downhill. As we expand to multiple zones, we have problems with this. Our perimeter areas are hilly, and the Evolution can only follow the wire in a clockwise direction. Thus, following the wire downhill is unavoidable. This seems to be especially difficult on complex slopes - when the wire is not pointing straight down a hill. Luckily, the steepest of areas is in the last zone, so we can get the robot to come off the wire early... but there is always the possibility that, with a low battery condition, he will seek out the wire at the top of the hill and follow it downward.

With the downhill, I was hoping to use the zig-zag in a manner similar to traversing a mountain while skiing - softening the steep spots and limiting the speed by going across the slope. However, the zig-zag rarely works, and the robot spins out on the turns and goes out of bounds. Even a 20 degree slope is tough.

The only way I have found to deal with this is to keep relocating the wire until the robot seems under control on the downhill.

Overall, the robot does better with the spiked wheels then without them. I still want to try the wheelie bars - as there are some spots where he pops a wheelie - shuts off the blade, climbs a bit and then stops... then he turns on the blade and repeats the wheelie.

[toolbelt]

Would a quick return placed in the wire help?  Have it above the down hill area such that he cuts across the lawn to find the wire on the other side to continue on back.

toolbelt