I have a robot that clears snow on my driveway (it’s a diy build,). One winter, we were having problems with a couple teenage boys chucking snowballs at cars.

Their dads conspired to teach them a lesson.

They recruited me and S5-SY (the robot, pronounced “Sassy”,).

So they played some mind games to get the kids to think it was their idea to record themselves-live- chucking snowballs at the “defenseless” robot.

In the video, the robot turned to face them, drove itself into the snow bank and turned on its sweeper to give them the worst white wash of their lives.

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 9 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I'm sorry, you can't just say "I built a robot that clears snow", like it's no big deal! Do you have more details? Also, please link the video of it blizzarding the teens!

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 7 points 13 hours ago

I don't have the video (and wouldn't link other people's kids anyhow.), sorry.

In any case, I'd drop a how-to, except that it's actually rather kludgey. just getting a driveway dialed in took about two weeks. (movement is largely dead reckoning in similar manner to using an FDM printer in relative mode.)

her working-side is a snow sweeper brush- you can buy replacement brushes online and not the whole snow sweeper, for the record. the big drum-shaped brushes. she uses a hub-mounted motor to drive that and her two driving wheels. a couple car batteries and and her control box provide counterbalance and mass (for traction,) while her 3rd wheel is a caster wheel.

she uses an inductive charger in a cradle, with everything basically sealed in a water proof enclosure/chasis that was 3d printed.

there's a base station that's mounted high up under the garage's eaves that has a camera deciding when it's time to go out. (she struggles with heavy, wet, snow, but this gets compensated for by going out more often when it's warmer. the base station also provides localization and object avoidance.

building was simple enough. I've a giant home-build 3d printer, PETG works, Polycarb is better if you can afford it. For sealing the enclosures, I made my own silicone rubber gaskets using silicone caulk and aquarium tubing (force the caulk into the tubing using the caulking gun. if you want it hollow, use an air compressor blower nozzle to blow out the tubing after it's full, if you want it solid, don't, but after it's cured in the tubing, use the blower nozzle to get it out, either way.)

the other thing to consider is the sweeper arm. It can just be set rigidly for simplicity (and that's a 100% valid and probably smart choice to make...) or if you add the ability to extend on both sides, you can give the brush a cant so it pushes the snow to one side or the other... reducing how many trails you leave.

Some flashy lights are important (and raised up so people can see them in cars!)

Oh. also. she hums like R2D2 when she's working.

[–] brisk@aussie.zone 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Is the lesson "why throw snowballs at cars when you could be having a snowball fight with a robot instead?"

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

actually, I'm pretty sure the lesson they learned was they got more of the attention they wanted when they were funny rather than jerks.

Their friends thought the were in on it and were laughing. not sure how they passed that off, since their faces were 1 part confusion 1 part shock and 2 parts "fuck that's cold"