Design of an Autonomous Lawn Mower

University of California MAE Department, Davis, CA, USA

ID: MMA8

Relevant Skills: mechanical design, robotics, software

We are living in the era of Internet of Things. Every house has a lawn mower, but people are lazy to use them. I have heard a boy told his father when he asked him to mow the lawn: "this is your house, you do it." Therefore, I want to make an automatic solar power lawn mower.

The mower can detect if grass exists, move to that position with a weak motor (save energy), and then turn on a separately strong motor to cut grass. The solar power automatic lawn mower is extremely useful for 5+ acres land because it doesn't have to come back "home" for charging. Additionally, the solar panel can act as the weather protection for the machine.

TI CC3200 is my candidate for the microcontroler. According to TI's website, it is "industry’s first Wi-Fi CERTIFIED single-chip microcontroller unit (MCU) with built-in Wi-Fi connectivity." The whole system on a single chip lowers the cost for production, and leaves the further extension of products. It is a very low power consumption chip, which is critical in self-power devices.

This idea opens the bright future for agriculture industry with Wi-Fi capability. When I first came to the United States, I was impressed because I saw only 1 or 2 persons worked on a farm field, compared to that of my country. In the future, there is no human, only machines work on a farm field; while "we the people," just drinking and watching them!