This Terrifying Robotic Lawnmower Is Controllable Through VR

I know there are a lot of you who enjoy mowing your lawns, but, with all due respect, you are wrong. Pushing a lawnmower around in the hot sun while staining your sneakers green is an objectively terrible experience. It is an experience that sane people avoid and we are lucky enough to have Roomba-like robotic lawn mowers today to help us do so. But those start at around a thousand dollars, which is a lot more than most people want to spend. YouTuber I did a thing saved money by building his own lawnmower robot that is controllable through VR and documented the process in a hilarious video.

This project came to fruition with the help of YouTuber Maker's Muse, who has experience building robots — including the wobbly-wheeled robot that we covered here a couple of months ago. Together they wanted to build a robot that was more than a practical remote-controlled appliance. They also wanted to make lawn maintenance the kind of fun and rewarding experience that suburban dads claim that it is. To accomplish that, they added a FPV (First-Person View) camera that is viewable through a VR (Virtual Reality) headset. There is only a single GoPro camera and so that isn't a true 3D VR view, but it does let them pretend that they're a hungry lawnmower eager to chow down on some tasty grass.

The build started with an old, beat-up lawnmower, like the kind that you could leave sitting on your curb with a "free" sign for days before a scrapper hauled it away. To everyone's surprise, that lawnmower started up after a quick air filter replacement. The engine, blade, and body were then melded with a disused mobility scooter, which had valuable electric motors and steerable wheels. Standard RC components, including a radio receiver, ESCs (Electronic Speed Controllers), and LiPo batteries, drive those motors. A hobby radio transmitter provides the operator with control over the steering and throttle. GoPro cameras have a handy feature that lets them send live video feed over WiFi, so no complicated FPV video transmission system is needed in small yards with solid wireless coverage. Now I did a thing can sit in the comfort of a shaded patio while piloting his lawnmower around the grass.