Hi everyone,
I’m excited to share a project I’ve been working on for the MoeBot robotic lawn mower: deswong/moebot.
I primarily created this for my own use. While the MoeBot comes with its own app, I found the automation options a bit restrictive. I wanted to move beyond basic scheduling and actually integrate the mower into my openHAB rules engine.
By building this as an MQTT Bridge, I’ve been able to move control out of a siloed app and into my primary dashboard. This allows for much more “intelligent” lawn care, such as:
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Weather-Driven Logic: Don’t just rely on the rain sensor—prevent the mower from starting if your openHAB weather binding predicts heavy rain or if the soil moisture is already too high.
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Safety & Presence: Automatically send the mower to the dock if the patio door is opened or if the kids are detected in the backyard.
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Unified Notifications: Get mower alerts (stuck, lifted, or battery low) through your existing openHAB notification system (Pushover, Telegram, etc.).
Technical Details
The bridge acts as a translator between the mower and an MQTT broker. Because it uses the MQTT standard, it is completely platform-agnostic. While I use it for openHAB, it works just as easily with Home Assistant, Node-RED, or IFTTT.
Key Features:
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Publishes real-time status (Battery, Mowing State, Errors).
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Accepts commands via MQTT topics to Start, Pause, or Dock.
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Local control focus (minimizing reliance on external cloud apps for daily automation).
I’d love to hear from any other MoeBot owners here. If you’ve been looking for a way to break your mower out of its standalone app and into your rules files, please give it a try!
GitHub Repository: https://github.com/deswong/moebot
Feedback and pull requests are very welcome.