Automatic Lawn Mower Project Report

DAV INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING
AND
TECHNOLOGY
MAJOR PROJECT REPORT

ON
AUTOMATIC LAWM MOWER

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENT FOR THE
AWARD OF DEGREE
IN
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
By
Jaswinder Singh Sodhi
Roll No. 524/12
Rishabh Sahejpal
Roll No. 542/12
Shanker Goyal
Roll No. 544/12
Sukhdeep Singh Brar
Roll No. 548/12
Under the Guidance of

Mr. Gagandeep Singh
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First we would like to offer our special thanks to our guide, Mr. Gagandeep Singh
for the help and guidance given throughout the preparation and conduction of this
project.
We would like to thank our teachers in the deptt. Of Mechanical Engineering,

DAVIET for their support and guidance given for the completetion of the project.
We would like to thank our families who has always support us over the years.
Their encouragement and love were really important for us in completing this
project successfully.
Last but not least, we would express my appreciation to all our friends who
supported us whether direct or in directly on this project. Their help was so
meaningful and supportive.
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ABSTRACT
An automatic lawn mower is a device or robot that help human to cut grass
automatically. Due to rapid development, many robots have turn into an
autonomous robot. In this project, an automatic lawn mower is developed with
several features such as detection of lifting, rain falls, day and night. The
movement or the path of the automatic lawn mower is based on a path planning
technique. Sensors are used to provide feedback from outside world. For this lawn
mower, Arduino UNO microcontroller is utilized as the microcontroller. Every
action of the lawn mower is monitored by the microcontroller with the help of the
sensor. Furthermore, CATIA as CAD software was used to design the structure of
the lawn mower.
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER
1.
TITLE
PAGE
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Index
List of Tables
List of Figures
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
11
1.2
Problem Statement
13
1.3
Objective of Project
13
1.4
Expectation from the Device
13
1.5
Outline of Project
14
2.
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Introduction
16
2.2
Background Research
16
2.3
Existing Technology
18
2.4
Disadvantages of existing technology 21
2.5
Motor and Battery Selection
22
2.6
Components
23
2.6.1
DC Motor
23
Page 4
2.6.2
Ultrasonic Sensor
24
2.6.3
Arduino UNO
25
2.6.4
Cutter
26
2.6.5
Battery
27
2.6.6
Wheels
28
2.7
Path Planning
29
2.7.1
Path Recording
29
2.7.2
Offline Programming
29
2.7.3
Joint Trajectory Programming
30
2.8
Computer Aided Software
30
2.8.1
CATIA
30
2.8.2
Arduino 1.0.5 IDE
31
2.9
Different Designs
33
2.10
Working of Device
34
Methodology
3.1
Introduction
38
3.2
Hardware Implementatation
38
3.2.1
DC Motor
40
3.2.2
Motor Controller
42
3.2.3
Sensor
44
3.2.4
Battery
44
3.2.5
Wheels
45
3.3
Software Implementation
46
Page 5
3.3.1
Modeling in CATIA
46
3.3.2
Programming and Algorithm
47
3.4
Summary
49
Results
4.1
Introduction
52
4.2
3D Model
52
4.3
Performance Factors
59
Project Management
5.1
Introduction
63
5.2
Bill of Material
63
Conclusion and Recommendations
6.1
Conclusion
66
6.2
Recommendations
66
6.3
Advantages
67
References
68
Sketch
70
Page 6
List of Tables
S.No
Table
Page No
2.1
Summary of Arduino Microcontroller board
26
2.2
Sample Arduino Library Code
52
5.1
Bill of Materials
63
Page 7
List of Figures
S.No
Figure
Page No
2.1
Robomow Lawn Mower
18
2.2
Criss Cross Pattern of Robomow
19
2.3
Random Cutting Pattern of Lawnbot
20
2.4
Pattern with st. path & semi circle curves
21
2.5
Motor Calculator
22
2.6
Battery Calculator
23
2.7
DC Motor
24
2.8
Ultrasonic Sensor Concept
24
2.9
Ultrasonic Sensor
25
2.10
Arduino UNO
26
2.11
Cutter
27
2.12
Battery
27
2.13
Wheels
28
2.14
CATIA Interface
31
2.15
User Interface of ARDUINO
32
3.1
Research Methodology Flow
38
3.3
DC Motor
40
3.4
Motor Controller Circuit diagram
40
3.5
B/D of Arduino UNO with Motor Controller
3.6
Ultrasonic Sensor
3.7
B/D of Ultrasonic Sensor with Arduino Uno 43
3.8
Battery
45
3.9
Wheel
46
41
42
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3.10
Arduino UNO
48
3.11
Circuit
49
4.1
Front View
52
4.2
Top View
53
4.3
Bottom View
54
4.4
Side View
55
4.5
Explode View
56
4.6
Assembly
56
4.7
Base Plate Dimensions
57
4.8
Front Wheel Dimensions
58
4.9
Back Wheel Dimensions
58
4.10
Path of Lawnmower 1
60
4.11
Graph 1 of grass cut
60
4.12
Path of Lawnmower 2
61
4.13
Graph 2 of grass cut
61
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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Page 10
1.1 Background
A lawn mower is a machine that uses one or more revolving blades to cut a lawn to
an even height. The blades may be powered either by hand; pushing the mower
forward to operate the mechanical blade(s), or may have an electric motor or
an internal combustion engine to spin their blades. There are several types of
mowers, each suited to a particular scale and purpose. The smallest types are
pushed by a human user and are suitable for small residential lawns and gardens.
Riding mowers are larger than push mowers and are suitable for large lawns. The
largest multi-gang mowers are mounted to tractors and are designed for large
expanses of grass such as golf courses and municipal parks. But with advancement
in technology and things being converted to mobile and automatic these days,
transition from traditional hand-guided or ride-on mowers to automatic electric
mowers is beginning to take place. In 2012, the growth of robotic lawn mower
sales was 15 times that of the traditional styles. It is predicted that if this growth
continues at this rate, automatic lawn mowers may even surpass the sales of
traditional lawn mowers in some places.
Automatic lawn mower is a machine that cut grass automatically. It can be stated
as a machine or robot that helps people to do cutting grass work. The automatic
lawn mower will do the cutting grass task with a preset setting by the user. Unlike
other robotic lawn mowers on the market, this design requires no perimeter wires
to maintain the robot within the lawn. Through an array of sensors, this robot will
not only stay on the lawn, it will avoid and detect objects and humans.
The concept of lawn mower started during the 19th century whereby the design of
grass cutter pulls by an animal such as cow or buffalo. This animal will pull the
grass cutter and the grass cutter will does its work cutting the grass along the way
the animal walk. Due to animal cannot work for a very long period, human start to
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reduce the usage of animal and building a machine. So various types of lawn
mower have been built over the course of time. Mostly theses have been manually
operated but corresponding to the advancing of technology, latest lawn mowers
work automatically. Sensor such as rain sensor, light sensor, ultrasonic sensor and
infrared sensor has widely been used nowadays to enable the lawn mower to be
more intelligent and work efficiently.
Automated lawn mowers have been made available to the general public for over
30 years but its widespread or public use on the other hand has been limited mainly
Due to the current costs of such devices. Existing technology sell at around 899
(INR 70000) or more (Lawn Mower Reviews, 2011) and considering the fact that
the manual versions of these devices, the standard lawn mowers, sell at around 86
(INR 5000) (Lawn Mower Reviews, 2011). Although the cost of labor would need
to be added to that of the equipment, the latter is still a current viable and
affordable option for most consumers will benefit from.
The reason for robotic lawn mowers are an interesting area of research and work
because there are numerous real-world benefits of having a machine that
autonomously cuts grass, these include:
Aid elderly users or those with disabilities who are unable to fulfill this task
themselves.
For users with a busy schedule and rarely find time to mow, etc.
Working range is increased due to absence of main supply wires.
It reduces human effort.
It is a device that can fit into just about everyone's lifestyle, therefore having a
device that costs less, whilst accomplishing the same task as the higher end models
is a great advantage in order to compete with the current market.
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1.2 Problem Statement

How can we develop an economic and friendly user automatic lawn mower?
1.3 Objective of Project
1. To build an economic automatic lawn mower.

2. To produce a user friendly automatic lawn mower.
3. To conduct and analyze the automatic lawn mower.
1.4 Expectations from the device

There are many desirable properties in this device some of which are listed as
Should be capable of cutting the grass properly: The device should be able
to cut the grass properly as it the primary requirement of the machine. The grass
should be cut uniformly and cuts should be clean.
Should operate automatically: As the name suggests, the device should be
able to operate automatically. It shall use the sensors and microcontroller to
formulate its path and its required work.
Should be lightweight: It should be light in weight due to energy consumption
issues. Lighter is the device, lesser will be the energy required to run it and hence
more will be its efficiency.
Should work effectively in sensing the obstacles: As the device is required to

run without a human operator, it must be capable of sensing and avoiding the
obstacles in its path.
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1.5 Outline of Project

This report consists of six chapters. The first chapter introduces the project. The
background of the project is discussed. Besides that, it contains the objective and
scope of the project. Problem statement and outline of the project also mentioned
in this chapter.
Chapter Two, discusses the literature review and the related works. Some
components like sensors, micro controller etc is discussed in this chapter.
Methodology will be discussed in the Chapter Three. In this chapter, it will discuss
about the method on hardware implementation of this project. It will show how a
lawn mower will be fabricated out and also how to design the circuit connection of
the component used.
Chapter Four discusses on the result of this project. It will show the performance of
the lawn mower. Several data collection from analyzing the performance was
located in this chapter.
Chapter Five discusses on the project management. In this section, the time line of
the project flow and the budget that needed for this project was listed out.
Last but not least, recommendation and conclusion is presented in the last chapter.
In this chapter several recommendation were pointed out in order for further
development of this project.
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Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Page 15
2.1 Introduction
This chapter studies various fields that are used for development of an automatic
lawn mower. Components such as power motor, ultrasonic sensor, battery used in
this project are discussed. These include software such as CATIA and Arduino
1.0.5 IDE which are used for design and programming. Several techniques for
robot routing are also presented in this chapter.
2.2 Background Research

1. Design and Implementation of Autonomous Lawn Mower Robot Controller
This paper basically focuses on designing an automated lawn mower controller
which can use to mower the grass at lawns and playground. It used the concept of
sense-act whereby it does not fully depend on the workspace surrounding. The
automated lawn mower has the feature of detecting the grass. Besides that it has
GPS system which allocated the path for the robot movement. Other than that,
some sensor such as sonar sensor which use to detect obstacles, encoder to
calculate the distance the lawn mower travel together with the GPS system. [1]
2. Design and Implementation of a Control Algorithm for an autonomous

lawn mower
This paper discuss on the way of implementing GPS system for automated lawn
mower path flow. Besides that it also stated there they used PID controller to
increase the performance of the motor speed which can provide better flow.
Besides that, their project also included encoder to calculate distance but their
encode was made by magnetic and hall sensor which placed around the wheel and
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it calculate the number of magnetic field strength while moving which will convert
the number of magnet to distance travelled. The lawn mower performance is being
watch throughout the whole working process at the base station using wireless
transmission. [2]
3. Modified Lawn Mower Search Pattern for Areas Comprised of Weighted
Regions
This paper discuses on the way the lawn mower move while it work. It used
weightage spot or region to determine the correct way of path. With this technique,
the lawn mower can find the most important place to cut the grass depending on
the amount of weight comprised in order to cover the maximum area and also to
minimize the time usage. The region with the most weight will be allocated first
followed by the second weight and so on. This is some sort of guided path system
whereby it move according to the weight given. With this technique, is able to
achieve a good result on area coverage. [3]
4. Design and Modeling a Prototype of a Robotic Lawn Mower

This paper discuss on how to develop a robotic lawn mower with several functions.
It objective is to build a lawn mower that do not go out of workspace, do not leave
any uncut area, able to avoid collision and the most important that is the robot must
be cheap and affordable to everyone. Basically it used PIC microcontroller to
perform the lawn mower working process or to run the lawn mower. [4]
5. Survey of Robotic Lawn Mowers
This paper discusses different types of Robotic Lawn Mowers present in the
market at present. It discusses different companies and their products and
compares them with others.
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2.3 Existing Technology
Some of the existing manufacturers of Robotic Lawn Mowers are:

Friendly Robotics (USA)
Husqvarna (Sweden)
SN Eno (France)
Technical Solutions (USA)
Weed Eater (USA)
Fig 2.1: Robomow Lawn Mower

Existing automated lawn mowers each have a distinct working principle, for
instance the Robomow from Friendly Robotics requires the user to perform a
onetime set up where the garden perimeter is set. The perimeter is set using a
battery powered wire that is laid around the outer edges of the garden and any area
where the robot is not to cover. Special sensors inside Robomow enable the wires
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to be recognized and the robot is therefore kept within the designated area. The
Robot travels on the garden in a systematic criss-cross pattern, several times from
side to side to ensure that the entire area is covered and that the grass is cut from
different angles.
Fig 2.2: Criss-Cross Cutting pattern of Robomow (Friendly Robotics)
Other technologies work around a similar principal as the Robomow, in the sense
that it requires a perimeter wire to limit its cutting area. A difference between them
may be added features and the cutting pattern, for instance the LawnBott of the
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Husqvarna have a random operating principle in the sense that they do not follow
any specific cutting pattern.
Fig 2.3: Random Cutting pattern of LawnBott (Husqvarna)

Another type of cutting pattern involves matrix cutting. The lawn-mower search
pattern, one of the most widely used search patterns because of its simplicity and
guarantee of path continuity and smoothness. The pattern consists of two major
movements:
(1) Straight path
(2) Semicircle path.
The pitch refers to the spacing between two consecutive straight paths.
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The two movements of the lawn-mower search have different purposes. While the
objective of straight path is to search/explore the area, the semicircle path is to
connect straight paths. Therefore, the overall path is planned such that
Straight paths reduce as much uncertainty as possible
Semicircle paths satisfy the turning constraint of the vehicle.
Fig 2.4: Pattern with straight path and semi circular curves
2.4 Disadvantages of Existing Technology
The operation method of the Robomow although effective, is to a certain degree
inefficient and contributes to a quite costly end product. The main advantages of
their design include, virtually any size or shape of garden can be specified, it is
flexible and it can work without requiring the user intervention at any stage, can
operate at surface areas with slopes, these points can also constitute a
disadvantage. The system design has the following disadvantageous aspects:
The size and shape of the garden as wires have to be placed in the
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garden area to be covered by the robot; the cost of the entire system may be
considerably higher depending on the size. In the case of many plants being
in the middle of the garden area, the setup can become cumbersome.
Damage or faults the wires are set on the grass and although the company
mentions the fact that they would typically be covered by grass and become
unnoticeable in a matter of 2 to 3 weeks and the wires are prone to damage.
The damage can be from any origin for example, pets can dig up and
damage the wire, over time due to weather it can wear off, amongst others.
A fault on the wire can provide incorrect information to the device and as
consequence the device will not work as expected.
2.5 Motor and Battery Selection

The selection of motor and battery are most important factors on the performance
and working of any robot as the motors are directly responsible for the movement
of the robot while the batteries are responsible for providing the energy required to
do every function. The most reliable solution for the selection these days is to the
use online calculators for determining the right battery and motor for the robot.
These calculators are very carefully managed and programmed and are very
reliable, being used by so many webs and people across the globe.
Fig 2.5: Motor Calculator

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Fig 2.6: Battery Calculator
2.6 Components
2.6.1 DC Motor
DC motor is a device that converts electrical form into mechanical form of energy.
There are many kind of DC motor such as DC motor, separately excited DC motor
and self-excited DC motor. DC motor was powered by DC current. There are
various voltage input for DC motor and the common voltage input for DC motor
are 3V, 5V, 12V, and 24V. There are advantages for DC motor which are the DC
motor perform better than AC motor, and DC motor provide excellent of
controlling the speed.
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Fig 2.7: DC Motor
2.6.2 Ultrasonic Sensor

Ultrasonic sensor is a sensor that uses ultrasonic sound to detect range or distance
of an object. This sensor can also act as a sensor to detect present or absent of an
object. Due to ultrasonic is in the form of sound, a sort of energy, it can be used to
calculate distance whereby the distance of the sound travel from the emitter to an
object and reflect back to the receiver. Sound wave travel at speed of 340m/s.
Figure 2.3 shows the ultrasonic sensor concept used to calculate the distance
Fig 2.8: Ultrasonic Sensor Concept

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Fig 2.9 Ultrasonic Sensor
2.6.3 Arduino UNO

Arduino UNO is a component on the shelf (COTS) circuit board which aims for
the helping people on their project. It is based on ATmega328 microcontroller.
Rather than making own circuit board from scratch, Arduino UNO provides a
sufficient circuit board which able to program and contain most of the necessary
pin function. Arduino UNO board consists of 14 input output pin whereby 6 of
them can be used as PWM output. Besides that it contains also 6 analog to digital
(ADC) pin. Basically, Arduino UNO operates at 5V and the input power source
needs to be a range of 7V to 12V.
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Table 2.1 Summary of Arduino UNO microcontroller board
Fig 2.10: Arduino Uno

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2.6.4 Cutter
This will be used for the primary function of the mower i.e. to cut the grass.
Depending on the design, more than one cutter can be used in synchronization as
well. Also cutters with different shape or number of blades can be used for the
purpose of getting the required cutting speed.
Fig 2.11: Cutters
2.6.5 Battery
It will provide the energy for the working of the robot. The battery of a two
wheelers will be able to provide enough power to drive the robot for its working or
independent multiple batteries can be used for better performance.
Fig 2.12: Battery
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2.6.6 Wheels
These will be required for the cause of the motion of the body of the robot. The
choice of the wheels largely depends on the shape and size of the grass. It will also
depend on the required ground clearance of the robot. As treads of the tires can
contribute significantly to the performance of the mower, great caution is needed
during the decision to choose the particular tires.
Fig 2.13 Wheel
2.7 Path Planning

Path planning is a term whereby describe the motion of a robot which is planed
accordingly. Sometime path planning also defined as motion planning as it main
function is to plan a robot motion. Many robot produce nowadays and this
technique still use by every industry that build robots. Path planning can be say as
the basic motion algorithms that allow the robot to move around at a specific
workspace with predefined path. With predefined path, the robot will not get lost
or go out of their workspace. With the guided path, the robot knows the way they
should go.
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There are several approaches that have being used for programming the path
planning of a robot.
1. Path Recording
2. Off-line path programming
3. Joint trajectory programming
Several important notes to be considered when design or program a robot path.

This is to ensure that the robot can be control easily.
a) Continuity of position, velocity and acceleration.
b) Precise control of motion
c) Mid-range motion
2.7.1 Path Recording

Path record is the basic and easy way of programming the robot path. It used the
technique whereby human will operate the robot and the robot simply record any
movement move by the human. It will record the path given and will play back the
path according to the record it hold. This technique was easy as the robot record
every coordinate of the movement and no need any programming skill for the user.
It is very simple but there are some problems whereby it need power the robot to
program and it is difficult to place robot which are big and heavy.
2.7.2 Off-line path programming

Off-line path programming is the technique of computerize programming without
power on any robot. Here the path will be programmed with the guide equation and
all the data will be gain from a specific table plot by the user. The computer will
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calculate the path according to the information and the robot to follow it. Behalf of
the computerize programming, this technique does not take into account of the
acceleration of the robot.
2.7.3 Joint trajectory programming

Join trajectory programming is the technique where all the joint of robot were
specified at a time into a computer control. This way the joint movement of a robot
is calculate through computer and faster than Cartesian method. This also does not
require any inverse kinematic calculation. Joint space description can be
programmed off line or teaching method. Through this method, the initial and final
speed and acceleration can be specified and get the accurate results.
2.8 Computer Aided Software

Computer software will be used in this project to modeling and design of a robot.
There is much computer software and each of them has their own function. Human
used computer software to ease their design. With computer software, one can
perform their task efficiently and fast. Below is the example of computer software:
a. CATIA
b. Arduino 1.0.5 IDE
2.8.1 CATIA
CATIA, stands for Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application, is
the most powerful Knowledge based and widely used CAD (computer aided
design) software of its kind in the world. CATIA has been created by Dassault
Systems of France and is marketed & technically supported worldwide by IBM.
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CATIA is software the function to create a 3D model CAD system. CATIA is a

simple tool that has many features to create a virtual 3D model. It can use to edit
3D model. Besides 3D model, it can also perform 2D model design where it is
usually use in engineering drawing where it can show the dimension of the 3D
model or in other word show the details of the 3D model in term of dimension.
In CATIA software, it contain some basic feature such as Pad, Pocket,
Constrain, Dimension, and Offset. These features are easy to use.
Through this software it contains a feature called Assembly Module. In this
assembly feature, several parts can be combined to together. Using assembly is
good while designing any 3D model. Due to it is assemble of parts, editing of some
parts can be made easily and no need to redraw the whole parts compare to
drawing whole structure in one part.
Fig 2.14: CATIA Interface
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2.8.2 Arduino 1.0.5 IDE

Arduino 1.0.5 IDE is a software to program the Arduino UNO. This software is an
open source and can download from the web for free. Arduino 1.0.5 IDE have their
own programming library which is simple and user-friendly. All the coding is
given as well as example. With the existing of library, the user does not need to
have a great knowledge on c programming to write Arduino program. Table 2.2
shows the sample of Arduino library code which used for programming
microcontroller.
Table 2.2 Sample Arduino library code
Figure 2.15 User Interface of Arduino 1.0.5 IDE

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2.9 Different designs

There are various designs of the Automatic Lawn Mower possible depending of
different factors. These factors include source of energy, mode of control, number
of grass cutters, type of sensors etc. These are discussed in brief as
Type of energy source: There can be two different designs depending upon
the source of power used. First is using conventional battery. A rechargeable
battery will provide power to drive the motors for the motion of the mower
i.e. motion of the wheels and the motion of the grass cutter. Second choice is
to use power of solar energy to drive the mower. For this a solar panel will
be required and setup to convert that energy gathered to be converted into
usable form and magnitude. The choice of the mode of energy will be
affected by the factors like difficulties in producing required power by using
solar panel, added weight of solar panel, difficulties of integrating solar
panel into the circuit and cost factors.
Mode of control: Depending upon this, again two different designs can be
made. First is use of sensors to control the motion of the mower. Mower will
make use of sensors like Proximity Sensor, Ultrasonic Sensor etc to detect
the presence of the physical obstacles and with help of micro controller, path
of the mower can be determined. The second option is to use a remote
control to drive and control the mower remotely. This can be achieved by
integrating the R/C into the electronic circuit of the mower. The choice of
The mode of control will be affected by the factors like difficulty of
integrating R/C into the electronic circuit, the range of the radio control and
the cost factors.
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Number of cutters: The number of the cutters to be used can also result into
different type of designs of the mower. The use of multiple cutters can be
there. It can result in increase of the cutting speed or amount of grass cut in
given time but it has limitations like increased cost factor, increase in energy
demands, and increase in the physical dimensions of the mower to
accommodate the extra number of cutters.
Type of sensors used: The designs dependent on this factor will result into
Contact type mower and Non Contact type mower. In Contact type
mower, there will be micro switches used that will come into physical
contact with the external obstacle and then change the path of the mower
accordingly. While in Non Contact type mower, sensors like Ultrasonic or
Proximity sensors will be used to detect the presence and distance of the
obstacle and determine the path of the mower accordingly with help of the
microcontroller.
These are some of the different type of designs which can be implemented
while deciding upon the final design of the mower. This depends upon the
factors like energy/power requirements, ease or difficulty of integrating a
component into the electronic circuit, weight and physical aspect of the mower,
cost factors etc.
2.10 Working of the device

In general, a robot lawn mower can operate in three distinct modes: remote control,
teach control and automatic operation. For remote control operation, the human
commands must be executed in the mobile lawn mower. Also, sensory information
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such as motor speed, blade status, tactile information and an image of the local
environment can be transmitted to the operator to provide a "telepresence" in
which the operator senses enough information about the environment to perform
the proper action. The general telepresence concept is still being researched and
more information is needed in some situations. In teach mode, the storage capacity
of the microcomputer is used to store command and encoder information so that
repetitive operations can be performed. In some operations, the use of a given
home position for calibration may provide enough accuracy for simple repetitive
operations. In the general case, an absolute global positioning system such as the
target update method for navigation is required to provide accurate teach
programming or automatic operation. With this capability, full region filling
algorithms may be implemented for lawn mowing.
The working of the device is all dependent on the electronic circuitry that is to be
designed.
1. Capturing the environment data: It involves the collection of data
regarding the obstacles present in the course of the cutting of grass,
obstacles present in the path of the device. It is to be done with the help
of various sensors that are to b used in the device.
2. Processing the data: It involves processing the data collected by the
sensors with help of a central unit. The central unit to be used in this
device is a micro-controller.
3. Actions: It involves the actions the micro-controller will take after
processing the data acquired. It will be based on the programming done
into the micro-controller and the pre fed instructions. The actions involve
mainly the motion control of the device.
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The working of the device also depends on 4 main mechanisms. The main
mechanisms to be used are
Collision Detection Mechanism: This is to deal with the obstacles present in
the path of device. This is to be achieved with the help of sensors or micros
witches. The difference between the two is that whereas in case of collision
detection sensor, there will be no physical contact with the obstacle, it will not be
the same if micro switches are to be used. In case of micro switches, there will be
collision with the obstacles and then the device will turn away from it.
Grass Cutting Mechanism: As this is basically a lawn mower, so this is the
important part of the device. This mechanism is to be used to cut the grass, which
is the primary function of the lawn mower. It is to be achieved with help of a grass
cutter and a motor to run this cutter. The number of cutters can be more than one
depending on the design of the mower. Also the motion of the cutter can be
controlled with help of timer as to when to switch it off.
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Chapter 3
METHODOLOGY
Page 37
3.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses the method use to design an automatic lawn mower. There
several steps taken to complete the task. Before starting to build a robot, many
initial steps have taken such as research on automatic lawn mower which is
discuses in Chapter 2.
Fig 3.1: Research Methodology Flow

This chapter will be separated into two sections:
Hardware Implementation
Software Implementation
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Hardware part includes the sensors, motors, wheels that are used in the project
while the software part includes the modeling in CATIA and the programming in
Arduino environment.
3.2 Hardware Implementation

In this section, the hardware selection will be discussed. The hardware that will be
included in this project is DC motor, ultrasonic sensor, battery, wheels, chassis etc.
3.2.1 DC motor
Figure 3.3 shows the motor that will be used in constructing automated lawn
mower. It can operate at a range of 12V to 24V. It has higher torque which made it
easier. DC motor is a device that converts electrical form into mechanical form of
energy. There are many kind of DC motor such as DC motor, separately excited
DC motor and self-excited DC motor. DC motor will be powered by DC current.
Page 39
Fig 3.3: DC Motor

Specs
Type : DC Gear Motor
Voltage: 12 V
Current: 300mA (max)
Wattage: 3.6 W
RPM: 200 for wheels
1000 for cutter
3.2.2 Motor Controller

This motor controller has the ability to control the direction of the motor. The
component used to build this controller are 5V relay, transistor 9013, power
transistor and 10 k resistor. Figure 3.5 shows the motor controller circuit
diagram which function to control the motor direction of motor and also the PWM
of the motor. The input signal for this system is u1, u2, u3 and u4 which use to
control motor direction. Whereas the bottom of the circuit is the PWM input signal
which use to control the motor speed. For clockwise rotation, the input pin u1 and
u4 will be set to high and the u2 and u3 pin set as low. On the other hand. For
anticlockwise direction, pin u2 and u3 will set as to high and pin u1 and u4 will set
as low. Setting high to the transistor will activate the transistor whereas setting low
will deactivate the transistor.
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Fig 3.4: Motor controller circuit diagram
Page 41
Figure 3.5: Block diagram of Arduino with motor controller

Figure 3.5 shows the connection between Arduino UNO pin with motor controller
pin. The ground of Arduino and motor controller are common ground. The pin
from the Arduino will send signal to the controller.
Specs
Type: L293D Motor Drive IC
Voltage: 5V DC
Arduino support
3.2.3 Sensor
Ultrasonic sensor is a sensor that uses ultrasonic sound to detect range or distance
of an object. This sensor can also act as a sensor to detect present or absent of an
object. Due to ultrasonic is in the form of sound, a sort of energy, it can be used to
calculate distance whereby the distance of the sound travel from the emitter to an
object and reflect back to the receiver. In this project, the ultrasonic sensor will be
Page 42
used to detect obstacle which will prevent the lawn mower to knock any obstacle.
Figure 3.8 show the sensor that will be used. Figure 3.9 shows the connection
between an ultrasonic sensor and Arduino UNO microcontroller.
Fig 3.6: Ultrasonic Sensor
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Fig 3.7: Block diagram of Ultrasonic sensor with Arduino UNO

Specs
Name: HC-SR04 Ultrasonic sensor
Voltage: 5V
Range: 2cm-200 cm
Precision: 5mm
3.2.4 Battery
It will provide the energy for the working of the robot. The battery of a two
wheelers will be able to provide enough power to drive the robot for its working or
independent multiple batteries can be used for better performance. Two 6V
batteries were attached in series to provide the required 12V.
Page 44
Fig 3.8 Battery

Specs
Use: Powering the components
Nos: 2
Type: Li- Ion Rechargeable
Voltage: 6V DC, Total 12V
3.2.5 Wheels
These will be required for the cause of the motion of the body of the robot. The
choice of the wheels largely depends on the shape and size of the grass. As treads
of the tires can contribute significantly to the performance of the mower, great
caution is needed during the decision to choose the particular tires.
Page 45
Fig 3.9 Wheel

Specs
Use: Movement of Robot
Nos: 4
Diameter : 10 cm
Width : 4 cm
Shaft Hole: 6mm
3.3 Software Implementation

The software that will be used in this project are CATIA and Arduino 1.0.5 IDE.
CATIA will be used for designing the 3D model of the lawn mower. The Arduino
1.0.5 IDE will be used to program the microcontroller.
3.3.1 Modeling Design in CATIA

CATIA is a tool to design any 3D model electronically. In designing, it will need
two segments when drawing. The first is the CATIA parts and the CATIA
assembly. At first several part of the lawn mower was drawn. After that, all the
part will be combine or assemble together to form a full lawn mower.
Page 46
In CATIA, several techniques will be used such as pad, shell, pocket, fillet, mirror
pattern . A rectangular base forms the basis of the drawing. From this several parts
will be cut to form the desire pattern. Several hole also made to indicate the screw
position. There are three part will be drawn which are two back wheel the body
and two front wheel. After finished drawing, the part will combine together using
CATIA assembly feature to assemble the parts drawn. Tuning and refinement will
be made at the end of drawing to prevent any error occur. Refining such as
increase or decrease the dimension of the part due to some obstacle.
3.3.2 Programming and Algorithm

To enable a robot to move or operate, a microcontroller is needed in order to allow
the robot to function by itself. Arduino UNO will be used as the microcontroller
for this project. The movement and the path of the lawn mower will be program
into the microcontroller and it will also being control from several sensor input to
enhance the flow.
Page 47
Fig 3.10: Arduino Uno

Specs
Name: Arduino UNO
Board: atMEGA328
Pins: Digital I/O 14
Analog Pins 6
Voltage: 5V
Clock Speed: 16 MHz
An algorithm needs to be developing to ensure the microcontroller can perform
desire output depending on the input. Figure 3.9 shows the algorithm for the main
program process. The flow chart will then turn into c programming and compiled
into the Arduino UNO using Arduino 1.0.5 IDE complier.
Page 48
The basic flow of the lawn mower is the lawn mower will start the cutting process
according to the path has being calculate. Along the path, if there is obstacle in
front of it, the lawn mower will find the other way to move to go around it and
continue the cutting process. It will not hit the obstacle due to the present of the
ultrasonic sensor.
Fig 3.11 Circuit
3.4 Summary
This chapter discussed the method used to design an automatic lawn mower.
Hardware such as DC motor, buzzer, LCD module, IR sensor, ultrasonic sensor,
rain sensor and light sensor were used in this project. The circuit connection of
Page 49
each component was discussed. The algorithm for the main program and sensors
were discussed using flow chart.
Page 50
Chapter 4
RESULT
Page 51
4.1 Introduction
This chapter presents the model of the automatic lawn mower developed in this
project.
4.2 Model and Actual

Computer software is to be used in projects to modeling and design of a robot.
There is much computer software and each of them has their own function. Human
used computer software to ease their design. With computer software, one can
perform their task efficiently and fast. CATIA has been used for the modeling of
the project. Different views of the model are:
Fig. 4.1: Front View

Page 52
Fig 4.2: Top View

Page 53
Fig 4.3: Bottom View
Page 54
Fig 4.4 Side View
Page 55
Fig 4.5: Exploded View
Fig 4.6: Assembly
Page 56
Fig 4.7: Base Plate dimensions
Page 57
Fig 4.8: Front Wheel Dimensions
Fig 4.9: Back Wheel Dimensions

Page 58
4.3 Performance Factors

The device has to be evaluated on some factors to find out its working efficiency or
if it is convenient or not practically. Some of the factors are:
Cutting Time: It is one of the basic and most important factors as how
much time does the device take to cut the required or pre set area of the
garden. As time is the most valuable resource these days, this factor
becomes most important in determining the usability of the device.
Cut grass condition: Whether the cut made to the grass is clean or not and
if the grass cut is uniform or not are two very important factors in
determining the usage of the device as the desired outcomes are uniform
cutting and clean cutting of the grass.
Human and obstacle detection and avoiding: Since the device is to be
made automatic, this factor is important as it is directly related with the
cutting time. If the device avoids the obstacles frequently and easily, it will
reduce the cutting time and the entire work will be done in lesser time. Also
it will help in saving the energy required.
Cutting Pattern: Cutting pattern is an important part because if the mower
does a crisscross pattern, it will cross same area of grass more than once
resulting in the more time taken for cutting and hence more energy
consumed.
Power requirements: Power requirements are easily one of the most
important factors in deciding the efficiency of the device. The power
required will decide the cutting time for required area and also the cutting
area in given period of time.
Page 59
Fig 4.10: Path 1 of Lawnmower
Fig 4.11: Graph of grass cut

Page 60
Fig 4.12: Path 2 of Lawnmower
Page 61
Chapter 5
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Page 62
5.1 Introduction
Project management is to allow all project goals to be achieved under specific time
frame. Such goal are organizing, controlling, and planning the projects flow. The
primary constraints faced during conducting this project were research time,
research budget, research time and human resources. Below is the Gantt chart
which clearly shows the flow of timeline management for this project.
Next, cost estimation on component used for this project is done to ensure that a
minimum budget project cost. Several market surveys have been done to achieve
this requirement.
5.2 Bill of Material

S.No
Component
Nos
Price Per Part
Total Price
1.
Wheel Motors
500
2000
2.
Cutter Motor
1000
1000
3.
Micro-controller
2500
2500
4.
Wheels
125
500
5.
Breadboard
200
200
6.
Ultrasonic Sensor
300
300
7.
Battery
800
1600
8.
Base Plate
500
500
9.
Motor Controller
250
250
Page 63
S.No
Parts
Nos
Price Per Part
Total Price
10
Wires and Accessories
-----
-----
750
Total
9600
Table 5.1 Bill of Materials

All prices are in INR (Indian National Rupee)
Page 64
Chapter 6
CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATION
6.1 Conclusion
Page 65
An automatic lawn mower with several features has been proposed. Several related
works has been studied in order to gain idea on how to build an automatic lawn
mower. Most research is on the robot path planning using variety technique. All
the technique used are mainly aim for the shortest path, consume less energy.
Besides that, 2D and 3D model have been designed according to the specification
required such as circuit placement and sensor placement. The structure was user
friendly and economic which were achieving the objective.
6.2 Recommendation
The performance of this machine is slightly away from the desired requirement.
Therefore some recommendation has been list out for future improvement.
Hardware improvement
The design of the machine may undergo some changes such as larger the cutting
blade so that the diameter is almost the same size of the width of the machine. The
increase of the diameter of the blade making larger area will be cover when cutting
operation is done. Special wheel can be applied such as wheel with some thorn
which will grip the grass stronger to prevent slipping occur. Higher torque motor
would be recommended so that it can help to maintain the machine to move at
slower speed and overcome friction between the machine and grass surface.
Software improvement
This system need more advance software to perform more accurate. GPS system
may apply on this project so that it can gain more accurate position for path
planning. Controller such Artificial Intelligent (AI) can also apply so that it have
Page 66
the ability to make decision whether the grass need to be cut or memorize which
part no need to cut and continue to next area.
6.3 Advantages
As an automatic device, this lawn mower has many advantages, some of which
are:
It reduces human effort.
It has simpler design than most commercial mowers.
This type of mower is cheaper than commercial mowers.
It has wider range more than conventional mechanical mowers due to
absence of main supply wire.
It aids elderly users or those with disabilities who are unable to fulfill this
task themselves.
References
Page 67
1. M. Wasif (2011). Design and Implementation of Autonomous Lawn-Mower

Robot Controller. 2011 7th International Conference. 5-6 September. Emerging
Technologies (ICET), 1-5.
2. Smith, J., S. Campbell, and J. Morton. (2005). Design and Implementation of a

Control Algorithm for an Autonomous Lawn Mower. Circuits and Systems. 710
August. Midwest Symposium, 456-459.
3. Ousingsawat, J. and M.G. Earl. Modified Lawn-Mower Search Pattern for Areas
Comprised of Weighted Regions. American Control Conference. 9-13 July. 918923.
4. Mohammad Baloch, T. and K. Timothy Thien Ching. (2008). Design and

modelling a prototype of a robotic lawn mower. Information Technology,.
International Symposium. 25-28 August. 1-5.
5. Hicks, R.B. and Hall, E. A Survey of Robot Lawn Mowers. SPIE Intelligent
Robotics and Computer Vision Confrence.
6. http://spt06.chez-alice.fr/01/accueil.htm
7. http://www.robomow.com/robomow/howitworks/
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotic_lawn_mower
Page 68
9.
https://technubes.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/automated-garden-sweeper-
report-docx.pdf
10.
http://www.open-electronics.org/a-robotic-lawn-mowers-powered-by-solar-
energy-with-an-arduino-heart/
Page 69
Sketch
#include "Ultrasonic.h"
Ultrasonic ultrasonic(12,13);//echo and trigger pin
int s1=2;
int mc=7;
int m00=8;
int m01=9;
int m10=10;
int m11=11;
int ss1=1;
int k=0,oo=0;
void setup()
{
pinMode(s1,INPUT);
pinMode(mc,OUTPUT);
pinMode(m00,OUTPUT);
}
void loop()
{
ss1 = digitalRead(s1);// high=1, low =0
if(ss1==0)
{
k++;
delay(2000);
}
Page 70
if(k==1 && (ultrasonic.Ranging(CM))>30)

{
digitalWrite(m00,1);//forward
digitalWrite(m01,0);
digitalWrite(mc,1);
}
if(k==2||k==0)
{
digitalWrite(mc,0);
k=0;
}
if(k==1 && oo==0 && (ultrasonic.Ranging(CM))<=30)
{
delay(500);
delay(1000);
delay(500);
Page 71
delay(200);
delay(500);
delay(1000);
oo++;
}
if(k==1 && oo==1 && (ultrasonic.Ranging(CM))<=30)
{
delay(500);
delay(1000);
delay(500);
delay(200);
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delay(500);
delay(1000);
oo=0;
}
}
Page 73

Automatic Lawn Mower Project Report

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DAV INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING

MAJOR PROJECT REPORT

AUTOMATIC LAWM MOWER

Roll No. 524/12

Roll No. 542/12

Roll No. 544/12

Sukhdeep Singh Brar

Roll No. 548/12

Under the Guidance of

We would like to thank our teachers in the deptt. Of Mechanical Engineering,

Expectation from the Device

Disadvantages of existing technology 21

Motor and Battery Selection

Joint Trajectory Programming

Computer Aided Software

Arduino 1.0.5 IDE

Programming and Algorithm

Conclusion and Recommendations

Summary of Arduino Microcontroller board

Sample Arduino Library Code

Robomow Lawn Mower

Criss Cross Pattern of Robomow

Random Cutting Pattern of Lawnbot

Pattern with st. path & semi circle curves

Ultrasonic Sensor Concept

User Interface of ARDUINO

Research Methodology Flow

Motor Controller Circuit diagram

B/D of Arduino UNO with Motor Controller

B/D of Ultrasonic Sensor with Arduino Uno 43

Base Plate Dimensions

Front Wheel Dimensions

Back Wheel Dimensions

Graph 1 of grass cut

Graph 2 of grass cut

1.2 Problem Statement

1.3 Objective of Project

1. To build an economic automatic lawn mower.

1.4 Expectations from the device

Should work effectively in sensing the obstacles: As the device is required to

1.5 Outline of Project

2.2 Background Research

2. Design and Implementation of a Control Algorithm for an autonomous

4. Design and Modeling a Prototype of a Robotic Lawn Mower

2.3 Existing Technology

Some of the existing manufacturers of Robotic Lawn Mowers are:

Fig 2.1: Robomow Lawn Mower

Fig 2.2: Criss-Cross Cutting pattern of Robomow (Friendly Robotics)

Fig 2.3: Random Cutting pattern of LawnBott (Husqvarna)

2.5 Motor and Battery Selection

Fig 2.5: Motor Calculator

Fig 2.6: Battery Calculator

Fig 2.7: DC Motor

2.6.2 Ultrasonic Sensor

Fig 2.8: Ultrasonic Sensor Concept

Fig 2.9 Ultrasonic Sensor

2.6.3 Arduino UNO

Table 2.1 Summary of Arduino UNO microcontroller board

Fig 2.10: Arduino Uno

Fig 2.11: Cutters

Fig 2.12: Battery

Fig 2.13 Wheel

2.7 Path Planning