Automated Lawn Mower

Project Title

Automated Lawn Mower

Project Area of Specialization Electrical/Electronic EngineeringProject Summary

Existing lawn cutting machines suffer from more than one of the following; high initial cost, high levels of engine noise, high running cost due to high fuel consumption rates, need for perimeter wires around the field to be trimmed and high operator’s fatigue in long-run due to vibration, noise and other characteristics caused by different types of lawn. Hence the need for a system that can achieve the same cutting effect as the existing lawn mowers with little or no operator’s fatigue, removing IC engine minimized noise pollution, reduced human effort, and running cost.

The objective of this project is to design and implement a Behavior-Based Lawn Mower Robot controller that can be used to mow grass from lawns and playgrounds autonomously. The controller uses a “sense-act” approach to work in a dynamic, unstructured, and unknown environment without having any reliance on surrounding world information. The controller is implemented using Motor Schema architecture, which uses continuous response encoding and cooperative coordination method for behavior coordination. A set of concurrently running behaviors are defined to perform the mowing operations. Sonar ranging is used to detect and avoid obstacles. Global Positioning System (GPS) is used for global positioning. The camera is used to detect grass field and utilized to differentiate between mown and un-mown grass.

Design and development of prototype model for automated lawn mower (ALM), that cut grass automatically with little human intervention using a linear blade driven by a robotic car which is powered by a battery. It can be operated in semi-autonomous and full autonomous mode with minimized running cost, no health hazard on the operator and it does not have any effect on the environment.

Project Objectives

• Mechanical Structure Design For Automated Lawn Mower
• Motor Selection and control for Grass cutting Blades
• Motor Selection and control for driving the wheels By using Arduino
• Selection of Battery and Power Calculations
• Complete Prototype

Project Implementation Method

A fully Automatic grass cutter machine is used to cut the grass at desire heights using rechargeable batteries. Two DC batteries are used along with two vehicle motors for forwarding movement of the cutter as well as for steering and a high-speed high torque DC motor for the cutter.

Phase I:

The first phase involves the configuration of sensors with Raspberry Pi.  

1. Sonar sensors to detect distance for collision warnings
2. IR sensors to detect grass length
3. Camera Interface involves image processing for Intelligent controlled of field parameters (AI, Machine learning, etc.).
4. Raspberry Pi interface

Phase II:

It includes the development and control of mechanical structure design (chassis)

1. Mechanical Structure Design For Automated Lawn Mower (ALM)
2. Motor controller for Grass cutting Blades (BLDC Motor) and driving the wheels (DC Servo Motor)
3. Raspberry Pi interface for automatic control of ALM
4. Selection of Battery and Power Calculations
5. Complete Prototype Test

Benefits of the Project

• Semi-autonomous and full autonomous mode
• Minimized running cost
• No IC Engine
• No health hazard
• No environment effect
• Reduce human effort

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

1. Cutting height between 2 to 4 inches
2. Maximum height of grass field for mover operation 8 inches  
3. BLDC 12V Motor
4. DC Servo motor 12V
5. Operating voltages: 12V.
6. Obstacle detection range: up to 5 meters
7. Mechanical structure design prototype.
8. Cut grass automatically with little human intervention.
9. Powered by a battery.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry AgricultureOther Industries Others Core Technology RoboticsOther Technologies OthersSustainable Development Goals Quality EducationRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	43493
BLDC Motor	Equipment	1	8999	8999
DC servo Motor	Equipment	2	4999	9998
Lithium ion Battery	Equipment	1	8999	8999
Drivers and controllers for motors	Equipment	2	6999	13998
Body Structure	Equipment	1	1499	1499