Team Lawn Stars
Modern technology has led to several advances in key areas, such as energy efficiency and autonomous behaviors. Invented in the early 19th century, the traditional lawn mower has faced continuous improvement, leading from purely mechanical mowers to more modern electric models. Today, the lawn mower faces yet another key modification: the transition from manual operation to full autonomy. This improvement provides complete freedom to the common lawn owner to maintain their grass simply, efficiently, effectively, and remotely.
Automated lawn mowers have been built in the past, but never with the user-programmable route functionality that the Mow-Bot provides. Automated lawn mowers of the past drove around randomly, bouncing off a boundary, until the entire lawn is covered. Mow-Bot efficiently, safely, and relatively quietly mows your lawn in the pattern you dictate at the time you desire. Automated lawnmowers typically cost around $2,000. The parts for the Mow-Bot cost around $1,300.
This project incorporates much of the knowledge we have learned throughout our respective electrical/computer engineering education. Understanding in fields of knowledge such as power management, motor control, wireless communication, phone app programming, micro- controllers, and integrating sensor peripherals were essential to get our project working. Also, some mechanical skills were implemented to get our Mow-Bot moving.