Content Summary

Problem

Problem Statement The challenge at hand is to develop quieter, safer, and more efficient lawn care alternatives that alleviate the noise disturbance, minimize time and effort requirements, and prioritize the well-being of individuals with disabilities.

Topics made about the problem:

• Traditional lawnmowers have now become sources of noise pollution.
• Traditional lawnmowers pose inherent dangers, with their sharp blades and the risk of accidents, often turning a routine chore into a hazardous task.
• For older individuals and those with disabilities, the physical demands of pushing, pulling, and maneuvering a lawn mower can be overwhelming, if not impossible.

Idea

Solution Statement Our project consists of an automatic lawnmower that memorizes and repeats routes and returns to the charging base on its own.

General Operation

In the first use, the user will control the robot via an app, giving commands such as go forward or make a turn, to set up a cutting path. This way, the robot will already know which path to take to cut the grass. The robot will have an internal battery and a charging base, at the end of the journey or when the battery is low the robot will automatically return to the base to recharge its battery, this base is waterproof and protects the robot from rain and wind.

In the app, the user can schedule the robot's work, see its operating history, information such as battery and the robot's operating status (if it is in the base, if it is working), and if the robot gets stuck while it is working, an alert will be issued in the app. In the app, users can also set up more than one route and see information such as the weather forecast, so they can schedule the lawn mowing for a more suitable day.

The charging base and the robot also have a rain sensor, so if it starts to rain in the middle of operation, the robot will return to the base to avoid damage.

For localization, the robot will have a built-in GPS and will come with a second GPS that must be positioned by the user in a fixed place, this second GPS cannot be moved, or the robot will not be able to follow the route. The GPSs are waterproof.

Route Recording by the User

Before the robot start to work, the user through the mobile app will connect his phone with the robot through WiFi or Bluetooth (still not defined). After this first step, the user will place the robot base at the initial position he wants the robot to start cutting the grass.

After that, with the robot started and connected to his phone, he will find, at the adequate place in the app, the option to record a route that he wants the robot to make to cut the grass. Then he will control the robot through his lawn, making the route he wants the robot to make by its own, also the user will be able to start or stop the blades that cut the grass at any time he wants while recording.

The question that still remains, is how we are going to make this route recording? So, we thought of some options for this.

• GPS Localization: the first we present here and probably the less accurate option, is to use a GPS localization to record points of the route and try to remake them every time the robot needs to cut the grass, as researched by the group with adequate conditions the GPS can achieve a precision of approximately 4.9 meters [1].