The Next Generation Autonomous Lawn Mower

Abstract

This project is an extension of the previous work done with the LawnNibbler and LawnShark at the Machine Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Florida. The goal remains the same: to efficiently and intelligently mow grass in an environment typical of a person's lawn. Unlike its predecessors, this mower will use machine learning techniques to accomplish its task. Introduction The goal of this project is to design an autonomous lawnmower that safely and effectively mows an area typical of a homeowner's yard. This will be the third generation of autonomous lawnmower robots designed in the Machine Intelligence Lab. The first two generations relied on the principle of randomness to mow an area. Thus, they did not mow in any type of pattern as a human normally would. The third generation would be a great departure from the first two in many aspects. Instead of using a microcontroller to control the functions of the robot, it will instead be used for data acquisition and motor contr...