The Vector WD2.0 autonomous tool carrier with cutting deck is in the final development phase. After many tests, the first models will soon be delivered. But as with everything, the start has gone through trial and error. How did the Vector WD2.0 come about in the first place and with what idea?
The story of the development of our autonomous mowing machine began 2,5 years ago. After Sander Steegstra sold his company and had been driving a Husqvarna boundary wire robot mower criss-cross through his garden for 10 years, the question arose whether this could be done differently.
Sander went looking and came across a hobby project in Germany with a DIY kit with GPS RTK. By means of the real-time kinematics system, you can mow straight lines with your mowing robot with an accuracy of 2 cm without wire.
Autonomous grass cutting under solar panels
Sander then came across Jan-Dirk v/d Tol, who has been selling RC-controlled tool carriers for years, including for solar park maintenance. Jan-Dirk customers have been asking for years if they are tool carrier under solar panels also autonomously mow grass can. However, this turned out not to be possible. That's how they got the idea self-propelled lawnmower for large areas to develop.
The idea of the smart lawnmower was born. Jan-Dirk immediately had an idea of what the tool carrier's hardware should look like. The biggest stumbling block turned out to be the wheel motors. Because a zero-turn operating principle is preferred, the wheel motors had to be strong enough to deliver enough power on a slope.
First test of autonomous lawn mowing
It was developed and the 1e The type of engine was strong enough, but it soon turned out that the transmission via a toothed belt was not strong enough. After a lot of searching and testing, we found the right solution. Beforehand we said how difficult can it be, 2 motors, a battery and a GPS that controls the motors. However, this turned out to be seriously underestimated. Finally, after 1,5 years, we managed to get the mowing robot to mow straight paths without wire on GPS. However, our customers want to mow grass under solar panels. We recently wrote about the added value of an autonomous mowing machine for solar parks.
Smart robot mowing large area developed
For this we have selected an extremely accurate lidar that works together with the GPS RTK system to be able to mow the lawn completely autonomously under solar panels. The next step is to make the lawnmower so smart with an app that it recognizes objects and animals so that it can calculate other routes itself.
Our solution makes solar park maintenance much easier and cheaper. The price of an autonomous lawnmower is certainly not cheap, but because it can work day and night, the cost per hectare is often 50% lower than when maintenance of the solar park is carried out in a traditional way.
Now that we have sold a number of smart mowing robots, we are also coming into contact with other applications for our autonomous tool carrier. For example, we are developing a swivel hoe together with ODV in order to be able to do 2 operations with our robot. Initially you will have to replace the implement, but at a later stage we want to combine the cutting deck and the swing hoe so that you can do 2 operations in 1 pass.
We now notice that there is a real clear need for our product because personnel is scarce, costs can be greatly reduced and electric autonomous grass mowing a lot more environmentally friendly than with diesel tractors.