Progress on detecting a robot so the robot can mow lawns without moving out of the lawn area. Instead of burying a wire or just using barriers that the robot bumps into. There are two methods of video detection demonstrated here. One involves looking at every pixel and testing for changes. the other method requires the operator to select an object [balloon in this case] and the system just looks around the vicinity of the object.
Ball Detection Files @ https://gum.co/LwDqh
Motion/Object Detection https://gum.co/gBKXk
Daniel Shiffman’s book, Learning Processing, https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Processing-Second-Programming-Interaction/dp/0123944430/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468438654&sr=8-1&keywords=daniel+shiffman
, https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-RvcH2ARXG0/hqdefault.jpg
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I have thought about something like this but then I realized, under no circumstances would I ever go off and leave my lawnmower to mow the grass. So then I thought, why go thru all the trouble. The main purpose is to have a lawnmower cut the grass without breaking a sweat. So my idea was just to have the robot go in a straight line and turn around while the user does the heavy thinking when it comes to trees, etc. hmc5883 compass will take care of this. Also a ping sensor could detect when objects are in the way. Your idea is interesting but very difficult to implement, it would be something if you get it to work. good luck