Automated Grass Trimming Robot

We have mostly seen that the process of grass trimming is done by use of some manual grass cutters and fuel operated lawn mowers; there is a lack of precision and accuracy while using these machines due to human error. It is also difficult to implement patterns on the grass by using manual lawn mowe

Project Title

Automated Grass Trimming Robot

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

We have mostly seen that the process of grass trimming is done by use of some manual grass cutters and fuel operated lawn mowers; there is a lack of precision and accuracy while using these machines due to human error. It is also difficult to implement patterns on the grass by using manual lawn mowers. So, there is a need for an environment-friendly and user-friendly robot or a machine for automatic grass cutting as well as pattern implementation on grass without any human supervision.

A stepper motor can be used for up and down movement of the cutting blade to cut the grass at the desired length. In our case, a user interface is designed on an LCD screen that is compatible with raspberry pi. Arduino microcontroller is used as it is considered more suitable for motors control and providing required power to different modules. UART communication technique is applied to communicate both microcontrollers. A DC battery and a backup of a solar panel are mounted to make it energy efficient.

The main purpose of the project is to design a robot that can cut grass in two different patterns: a football ground pattern and a chessboard pattern. The dimensions of the working area of the grass field and pattern selection are taken through the user interface. If the robot experiences any kind of object detection, it will stop, and an alarm will start beeping until the object is removed. This project is the building block for the applications such as pattern following robots and autonomously moving robots.

Project Objectives

Technology is making progress day by day to help human beings to work less and get more accurate and precise results in less time duration from machines. The motivation behind working on this project is to contribute our efforts and work in the world of robotics. Also, we aim to help the gardeners’ community to ease their work by proposing them lightweight automatic grass cutters over heavyweight manual lawn mowers.

The main objective of this project is to design a cheap, autonomous, user-friendly, and environmentally friendly lawn mower to help the gardener’s community reduce their workload. To bring novelty to the recently used lawn mowers, we proposed an idea of a prototype for an autonomous lawn mower in which we can implement two different kinds of patterns on grass; one is football ground pattern, and the other is chess pattern. For energy efficiency, we are intended for the use of a solar panel with a lead-acid battery.

Lots of people get irritated by the noise of these machines. We know that the blades of diesel-powered, and manual lawn mowers make a lot of noise. Normally, such cases can be noticed in educational and government institutions where people feel disturbed by the sound of blades of grass cutting machines. We aim to design a user-friendly and environment-friendly lawn mower.

Project Implementation Method

To control the robot, we will be using Raspberry Pi and Arduino microcontrollers. We have used the UART communication technique to communicate both microcontrollers with each other. The use of microcontrollers is becoming very common for automation projects and robot controls. A Raspberry pi microcontroller is itself a computer. An LCD touch screen display is added for the user interface through which the user can enter the dimensions of the ground and select the pattern that he/she wants to implement in the lawn. A lead-acid battery will be used to power up the robot. We can notice that the use of python language is increasing rapidly in different fields and therefore, python language will be used in the coding of this project because of its compatibility with the raspberry pi microcontroller and easy syntax. Ultrasonic sensors will be used for obstacles detection to avoid any kind of potential damage to the object being detected. On object detection, the motor driving the blade along with the robot will stop until the object is removed. There will be an alarm to alert the user about the object in the way of the robot. The object must be removed so that the robot can finish the work. The robot chassis is made of aluminum material due to less weight and more durability. For the up-down movement of the cutting blade, a stepper motor will be used in the robot. Distance measuring sensors are not needed in the robot because the encoder motors that are used have hall sensors that count motor revolutions. We will also install a solar panel in our robot to make it solar powered and to charge the installed battery through sunlight energy.

Ground patterns:

Football ground pattern: First, the robot will complete grass trimming of the first line of dark stripes at a high level of the blade. After the length limit is reached, it will take either 180° turn to the right if it has started from the left side of the ground or 180° turn to the left if the robot began work from the right side of the ground shifting the blade level low to design the light stripe and vice versa.

Chess pattern: A chess pattern on grass is a loop of dark and light-squared blocks. The dark block is trimmed at the high level of the grass cutting blade while the light block is trimmed at the low level of the grass cutting blade. In nutshell, the height of the grass in dark blocks is maximum while in the case of light blocks, the grass height is minimum through blade level adjustment.

Benefits of the Project

While current lawn mowers perform the task of trimming lawns, their operations are escorted by health hazards. Being powered with a solar panel or battery, the automated grass trimming robot will not produce harmful and toxic gases. These gases are unhealthy for living beings as well as there will be no kind of noise pollution. This robot can be used for residential lawns, commercial lawns, parks, playgrounds, and many other green areas.

Trimming grass neatly and properly is a tough and expensive job for mankind. This robot is designed and manufactured according to the technology in both aspects; hardware and software, to be a helping hand for human wellbeing. Trimming football grounds in different patterns manually or with old trimmers is challenging work. This trimmer is created and programmed in such a way that the users only have to give instructions through the LCD user interface e.g., how much part of the ground they want to be trimmed and what kind of pattern they want to implement on the grass. Cutting the grass according to a given height is one of the best features of this robot as differs it from the previous trimmers whether they were operated automated or manual.

Some of the benefits of this project are:

• It is cost-effective and friendly in user as well as environmental aspects.
• Performs a task that may be considered boring and tiring for humans.
• Removes humans from exposure to dust, pollen and prevents from causing allergies.
• Prevents humans from the risk associated with sharp rotating blades.
• Can be used in unsafe environments such as radioactive storage locations near nuclear reactors. Green lands near radiation areas could be easily trimmed using a robotic lawn mower.
• Does not need to be paid to perform its task. It could trim large football fields where more labor would be required instead, which means more cost.
• The robotic lawn mower does not need breaks or leisure time. It could work continuously until it needs charging.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

To overcome the drawbacks and problems associated with existing lawn mowers, we had proposed an automated lawn mower which could automatically trim grass with very less human intervention. This will be fully autonomous robot which will move in predefined directions and cover all the grass field, cutting grass evenly throughout. This robot is mainly designed for trimming of football fields. As football fields are very large and it is very difficult for labor to maintain them on regular basis. Automated grass trimming robot is certainly the solution to this problem.

Environment-friendly:

In today’s world, health is a major concern and researchers are working hard to find the causes behind various diseases and how to prevent them to improve human health. In the past few years, the emission of greenhouse and other toxic gases has increased drastically which has therefore affected people in many ways. The temperature has increased across the world due to release of these harmful gases. So, we must think about solutions to cut off or at least minimize such gases.

This autonomous robot is fully electric as it will run on DC rechargeable battery. The advantage of using this robot will be to avoid the emission of harmful gases which are produced by using diesel powered machines to trim the grass. This has contributed mainly for air pollution throughout the world, leading to various respiratory diseases. Our electric grass trimming robot proves to be a best solution for the problems and drawbacks mentioned above.

User-friendly:

To make the robot user friendly, we have designed a GUI (graphical user interface) using an LCD screen on the robot. The users can easily select between the options mentioned in it and operate the robot according to their desire or requirement. The users can select type of grass cutting they want to implement in their grass fields. In addition, the user can enter the dimensions of ground as well as can select the height of the grass at which the user wants the grass to be trimmed. The robot is very easy to use and does not include any complicated functions. A wired connection will be installed with a remote to move the robot from one place to another. Thus, it is very easy to understand and operate this robot.

Grass patterns:

1. Normal grass cutting
2. Football ground pattern cutting
3. Chessboard pattern cutting

Power sources:

To design an environment friendly device, we will be using two different power sources.

1. DC battery
2. Solar panel

The world is progressing day by day in the field of solar energy. It is an efficient as well as cost effective power source. We are using solar panel as a backup source for dc battery. The solar panel will charge the battery using sunlight energy.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Manufacturing

Other Industries

Agriculture

Core Technology

Robotics

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com