Mission-Planner Mapped Autonomous Robotic Lawn Mower

摘要

An autonomous solar powered lawn mower deployable to a pre-mapped area was developed.The device receives directional sense using Mission Planner for pre-mapping of the workspace.This gives the device full control over the desired workspace, helping it to maneuver obstacles, including stones and trees, and get the work done without human intervention.The Autonomous device is made up of a robotic chassis, having four wheels and a DC motor connected to its underside, which is used to move the cutting blade.The blade cuts the grass beneath the lawn mower as the device navigates the workspace.Two microcontrollers were used to achieve the automation of this device.The first microcontroller was used to achieve obstacle avoidance while the second complimentary microcontroller was used to navigate the workspace autonomously.Holybro Kakute F7 HDV serves as the system central processing unit and it uses the Ardupilot technology to achieve navigation.It is particularly optimized for rovers due to its high resistance to vibration, ruggedness and size.A prototype of the robotic mower was developed and its operational performance satisfactory.The size of the pre-mapped area can vary, but a total distance of 135m was covered for the testing that was done.