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Why won't my Yarbo go back to its dock?

A finished job leaves the robot one destination, so a spell of driving that gets no closer to the dock is unambiguous. Either it cannot find the way, or something is in it.

The short answer Going home is the one journey where the robot's intent is not in doubt. If it drove for six minutes and ended no nearer the dock than it started, that is a real problem and it is worth knowing where it happened.

What usually goes wrong

It lost its position on the waySIGNAL
The route home often crosses ground the mowing plan avoids: down a shaded drive, past a building. A robot that cannot place itself cannot navigate to a point.
Something is across the routeCOMMON
A gate closed since this morning, a car on the drive, a bin left out. The robot tries, backs off, tries again.
It ran the battery too lowPOWER
A long return from the far end of a big property is a real distance. If it set off late, it may not make it.

Reading the journey

Yardstick lists these per journey rather than per place, because a return trip either worked or it did not.

Trouble getting back to the dock: one line per journey, with how far it drove and whether it arrived.
Trouble getting back to the dock. One line per journey, with the date, how far it drove, how long it took, and whether it made any progress towards home.

A line like drove 195 ft in 6.7 minutes without getting closer to the dock, 134 ft short of it needs no interpretation. Compare it with a journey that says it got there eventually, and you have the two ends of the problem.

This one needs no repeat visits to be believed Most trouble reporting waits for a pattern before saying anything, because one bad reading proves nothing. A failed journey home is different: there was one destination and the robot did not reach it.

What to do about it

  1. Look at where it gave up

    The distance from the dock tells you whether it failed at the far end of the property or twenty feet from home. Those are different problems.

  2. Walk the route it takes home

    Gates, cars and bins are the usual answer, and they are only there at the time of day the robot travels.

  3. Bring the job forward

    If the failures are late in a long run, the robot is arriving at the return with too little left. Starting earlier, or splitting the yard into two jobs, gives it the margin.

Related

📅

The scheduler

Start jobs earlier, or split a long run in two.

📡

Signal problems

When the route home crosses ground it cannot place itself on.

📋

Plans

Run one part of the yard at a time.

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