"Mod" a Driveway Surface Cleaner

I’m looking to “Mod” my driveway surface cleaner and am looking for some input/thoughts/suggestions/problems.

Here is a picture of it:

amazon.com/clouddrive/share/crIja22NTtCEYmKxSxForSAVXO9zsZPWm9nyAAy4aPs

and

amazon.com/clouddrive/share/Ap1JXp0D7DC2j4J1GCOOlMC4AzEHfht54L7C3dGoJ_I

Essentially, its shaped like a Roomba and currently has a shaft/handle for pushing it and it rides on 4 castor wheels.

I’ll remove the shaft/handle so it’s just the circular cleaner, and am thinking of removing 2 of the castor wheels and replacing them with motorized wheels for control.

My questions involve the best way to have it “navigate” the driveway.

Right now, I’m thinking I will manually “cut in” all of the edges along the grass, garage and street to form a 2 or 3 foot wide edge around the driveway. This will leave approximately a 30 foot by 40 foot rectangle that needs to be cleaned by the “bot” with no obstacles in the way.

My goal is to simply start the cleaner in one corner of that rectangle and have it move up and down the driveway until it is cleaned. The unit will be supervised at all times, so I don’t need any complicated features to detect and avoid obstacles.

My thoughts were to make this a “line following” bot, where I can simply create a path for it to follow each time with chalk. I would line the driveway with chalk and simply have the cleaner follow the line until its done.

Do you think this is doable? Can a line following bot follow chalk?

Would you approach this differently?

Any suggestions or thoughts you might be able to share?

My ultimate goal is to have it accomplish this task of cleaning a large rectangle. I’m not looking for any other fancy features to start off with, unless there are some great ideas.

Thanks so much for any input you may have!!! I appreciate it!!

Of course!

Honestly no clue - needs to be tested. Solid white on fairly solid black should work, but asphalt is not pure black, and chalk is not solid.

Embedding wire would be ideal, but would require that you tear up the surface - not too practical.
Alternatively, if there are distinct edges (raised, or denoted using magnetic wire), you can implement a “Roomab-esque” pattern for cleaning.

Consider replacing all four wheels with motorized omniwheels; this way it can rotate on its center axis and the load will be more evenly distributed.