Lawn robot wheel hole filler

thingiverse

Some robotic lawn mowers (specifically my Redback RM-18 <staring disappontedly out towards the garden>) have a tendency to dig holes and get themselves stuck in certain places with a sandy upper layer. This quick-an-dirty design was inspired by the large hexagonal plastic plates for grass reinforcement that I use in my driveway to avoid puddles. The idea is that the thing virtually disappears from sight once new grass grows through the holes, while the wheels of the mower still get a solid grip instead of digging. There are two versions: One is just the hexagonal plate, and the other has added pikes to give it a better grip in the ground. The latter is preferable if the hole is wide enough for the robot to be able to push the thing away. Tip: If your holes are in "solid" grass, i.e. surrounded on all sides by grass, you might want to try a thin layer by simply aborting the print after a few millimetres. This seems to work just as well as a much thicker model. You should be able to use your coarsest print settings, since the thing should not end up being visible. I used green filament to help camouflaging it, and PLA due to the (in theory) biological degradeability. Sketchup source included if you want to adjust things - the current one fits "my" wheel holes, but fine-tuning of the height and so on might be an advantage for your own use.