Lawn Art

Add a power height adjustment to the wheels of a mower and contol the grass height as a function of location. Just imagine - Your favorite team is playing this week? Make a lawn logo and some words of encouragement. How about a weekly lawn maze for the kids? Why not have a Japanese lawn garden with grass rippling away from trees? The neighbors would certainly enjoy the latest Playboy cover etched into your lawn. Morning and evening will provide the best contrast for this weeky canvas.

A binary (high/low) system should be adequate for most pictures. I envision a 1"-2" height variation. Use a computer to generate a desired picture that is downloaded into the computerized mower. Then just cut the lawn as usual and the mower pops up and down as necessary to vary the heights according to the picture. It will feel like running over virtual bumps in the lawn to the person mowing. Note that the resolution of the picture is only limited by the size of the mower (and the time you're willing to invest mowing). My 10' x 10' lawn would need about a 6" width mower to make an interesting picture.

The height control should be straightforward with electric actuators. The position sensor may be challenging. GPS is unlikely to have sufficient resolution. Several acoustic sensors could triangulate the position from the mower sounds (see shotspotter.com) but walls or hills might pose a problem. An arrangement of carefully located RF transmitters around the lawn and a receiver on the mower would probably be most reliable and accurate.