Robots by Hubert – Solar Lawnmower and Mop Bot

Tired of building projects that need a programmer for the microcontroller and data books for all the chips. Why not keep it simple? That is what Hubert did when he built these two robots.

Solar Lawnmower:
“Cutting the grass can be boring…. You can buy a commercial robot… But you must spend about 3000 $ and install special cables…
This one works alone, your grass must be surrounded with a, at least 10 cm high border. Then the robot will go everywhere, cutting the grass and, once the job done, it charges itself freely with the sun!

A plywood chassis is equipped with the cutting motor attached to a standard (in Europe) 310 mm metal sawblade: you can easily find another one and change it if break down. There are 4 x 12 V reductor motors, each one equipped with a children toy wheel. An internal 12V 2Ah NiCd rechargeable battery power it. A front bumper (in wood and gray plastic) can move and actuate 2 switches: when robots meets an obstacle, it can avoid it. Hard to program microprocessor? complex computer? No! just few relays: simple and no bugs!”

Mop Robot:
“Washing the floor with mop can be boring…. Here we design a little very very simple and stupid robot which can efficiency (and quietly) wash floors. No microprocessor! no computer! only one relay (that can perhaps being suppressedt!)

There are 2 x 12V DC motors, each one attached to one wheel. There are also rechargeable batteries, a plug and some components for charging, a (brown) plastic box to receive a normal standard sponge. Another translucid plastic box to receive water and liquid soap (empty on the picture). The 2 boxes (glued) are connected together through a hole partially closed with a screw in such a way soap water pour drop by drop to the sponge.”

28 Comments


  1. Does the CD have the install software for it to clean your PC too? πŸ˜›

    Maybe I can use the mop bot after my roomba died


  2. I like the lawnmower….but it doesnt stand a chance against my yard. The neighbor kids always leave shoes and toys in the yard. I fail to see how they have any shoes left.


  3. I really like that lawnmower idea. I’ve got a fenced-in back yard that is pretty small, so something like this might make a neat project. If you were willing to do a bit of microcontroller work, you could make the unit stop and start automatically when the batteries are discharged/charged and also add-in a tilt sensor cutoff (in case it’s picked-up), etc. In my case, if I built it waterproof with auto charging control, I could just leave it in the backyard all the time doing its thing. My kind of yardwork!! πŸ˜‰


  4. Nice work!!

    Quote: “No! just few relays: simple and no bugs!”
    I had to laugh, because historically the first bug was a moth trapped in a relay πŸ™‚





  5. the first advantage of Robots by Hubert – Solar Lawnmower and Mop Bot is that they work on solar energy , this means that they are free from fule like gasoline or petrol etc. But the disadvantage is that the robot is totaly open,it should be covered properly & it is too small in size……But rather it is a nice idea…:):)



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