> This will be like a pet turtle you have to keep flipping right side up, not like a roomba.
Having recently bought (and returned) the flagship Roomba, I struggle to see the difference between those two.
> This device is going to gum up
You say that like this device hasn't been around for years, accumulating revisions, upgrades, and user stories.
Look at the videos. That’s an outdoor laboratory environment.
Directly from article: "And because everything is made from aluminum, stainless steel, and UV resistant ABS, FarmBot will last for years in outdoor environments."
Aluminum needs to be replaced when damaged. It won’t rust at least, but that’s only if you don’t let it touch any chemicals or other metals.
And you can’t make a robot only out of aluminum, steel, and ABS plastic. Cmon, you know better than that. All it takes is failure of one of the parts they conveniently did not mention and you have an expensive doorstop.
There are untold number of videos out there that complain about lack of sufficient grommets and conduits for vehicle trailers, resulting in predictable shorts circuits. You’d like to think these are all solved problems, but they aren’t staying solved.
As someone who went through endurance sports, being the fix-it guy, and a CS program I always sort of had one foot in both worlds and didn't really engage in this kind of rhetoric.
But as I've been accumulating more woodworking tools and getting a lot of dirt under my nails building a giant garden, I'm starting to see their point.
This device is going to gum up, being exposed to UV all day, dust, wind, and rain. The tolerances on this device are way tighter than any in situ environment is going to allow. And you're going to kneel on that track and it's gonna hurt like a motherfucker.
This will be like a pet turtle you have to keep flipping right side up, not like a roomba.