Autonomous Lawnmower Project Report

The University of Manchester
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Autonomous Lawnmower Project Final Report

The University of Manchester
Oxford Rd, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Prepared by

RAHEEB QADRI
UID: 9098503
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Sunday, April 3, 2016

Abstract
The Autonomous Lawnmower project is a development of an old lawnmower. The main aim of this project is to mow grass of a person’s lawn. Unlike its predecessors, this mower will use machine learning techniques to accomplish its task.
The major points covered in this report are three categories: conceptual Design, practical progress and testing and analysis. Each section is divided into mechanical,

No one takes particular pleasure or joy in using them. The conventional lawn mowers need to be pushed around and they make a lot of noise and create a lot of pollution especially if they have a combustion engine in them. Other factors that makes the conventional lawnmowers less likely to be used is the fact that the fuel run lawnmowers need a lot of maintenance like for example oil change, where as they are not environmentally friendly at all.

These people might consider the purchase of an autonomous lawnmower. There are commercially produced versions available for purchase, but these lawnmowers require a boundary wire to be installed around the perimeter of the lawn area. Additionally, these mowers use a random path which requires more time to mow and also they not leave the typical clean mowing lines that people have come to expect in a well-manicured lawn.

So the report will discuss the development of the project along the semester, what research has been done on the project and what safety precautions were taken in the process of development and testing. It will show the level of understanding gained about the project and the effort done to gain

Motor Driver Module
A Motor driver module is needed to have a control over the motors mounted on the lawnmower as a motor cannot be directly attached to the microcontroller unit; this because the motor draws more current than the microcontroller can handle which is maximum 40 mA. In this case, it will cause the microcontroller to be burnt. The driver module chosen is based on L298N H-bridge as shown in Figure 11; because it’s a high current and high voltage dual full bridge driver that can drive up to 2 DC motors 2A each. Also, this driver can control both motor RPM and direction of rotation. Figure 11 L298 Dual Motor Driver Module
3. Ultrasonic Sensor
Ultrasonic sensor is a non-contact distance measurement module. It is perfect for measuring distance between two moving or non-moving bodies. Ultrasonic sensors generate high frequency sound waves and evaluate the echo which is received back by the sensor. Sensors calculate the time interval between sending the signal and receiving the echo to determine the distance to an object. In our project, it’s added to make the lawnmower to be able to look ahead and avoid dead