German YouTuber Nils built a custom 3D-printed autonomous robot mower. The design is inspired by the VW Golf MK2 GTI and comes with functional LEDs. It has a thermal camera to protect animals and earned official praise from VW. When nostalgia meets clever engineering, garden chores can get a lot more interesting. Driven by a passion for his father’s VW Golf MK2, German Youtuber Nils from Project Hunter built an autonomous robot mower from scratch, dressed like the classic hot hatch from the ’80s. The unique build is wrapped in 3D-printed body panels, mirroring the boxy design of the second generation of the VW Golf. The lawn mower might only have two wheels and a huge front overhang, but it’s black grille, round headlights, sporty bumper, flared fenders, BBS-style wheels, and functional taillights pay homage to the original. According to the Nils, the bodywork took more than 100 hours of print time to be completed. Under the GTI-inspired skin lies an aluminum frame and the necessary equipment for cutting grass and detecting obstacles. Project Hunter / YouTube The hood opens up providing access to the mowing mechanism. This uses a brushless drone motor driving a threaded rod through dual bearings to power a height-adjustable cutting disc. While this gets the job done, the most interesting part of the build is its autonomous function. More: The GTI Turns 50, And VW Is Teasing The Wild Cars It Never Built The robot mower is fitted with four ultrasonic sensors and contact switches on the bumpers, allowing it to detect obstacles and prevent damage. It also has onboard current sensor that detects electrical spikes triggering an emergency shutoff. Finally, it can detect small animals like hedgehogs thanks to a thermal imaging sensor coupled with an LED matrix, hitting the brakes before any harm is done. The three-wheeled vehicle can be managed remotely via a smartphone application, offering live camera feed, speed controls, battery monitoring, and switches for the lighting units and the horn. Nils has revealed that despite early software bugs, his GTI has already logged over 70 hours of operation, covering 60 km (37 miles) of autonomous lawn maintenance. The project caught the eye of Volkswagen itself, which sent an authentic GTI grille emblem to Nils for completing the build. The YouTuber even added a TUV inspection sticker on the license plate for fun’s sake. The automaker shared the build on its official Facebook page with the following caption: “Turning your garden into a Golf course – the GTI way. @theprojecthunter cooked up what is probably the coolest lawn mower you will ever see!” More: Honda’s Gas-Powered Lawn Mowers Are Toast, Meet Their Electric Successors Interestingly, the weird Golf II GTI homage is not the first hot-hatch-inspired lawn mower. A few years back, Honda unveiled a Civic Type R robot with grass-cutting abilities as part of its Miimo lineup in the UK market.
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