Navigation Application to an Autonomous Lawnmower

Ronald Dexter, Brian Roadruck, Nicholas Baine, Kuldip S. Rattan, Scott Thomas, and John Gallagher

Abstract:	Maintaining the lawn is physically challenging, time consuming, potentially dangerous, and can cause extreme discomfort to individuals with allergies. Mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering students, with the help of Trimble Navigation, Laurel Electronics, and Xsens, have been developing an autonomous lawnmower that will eliminate these challenges and dangers. The Institute of Navigation (ION), in conjunction with the Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL), provided an opportunity to test the functionality of the mower at the Ninth Annual ION Robotic Lawnmower Competition. This paper covers the mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering design aspects of the Lawn Raider, an autonomous lawnmower. The mechanical section covers the chassis, cutting deck and drive system design. The electri-cal section discusses the sensors, their interface, and the power distribution. The computer section discusses the high level computational systems. The final section explains the navigational algorithms and strategies.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2012) September 17 - 21, 2012 Nashville Convention Center, Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, TN
Pages:	3762 - 3772
Cite this article:	Dexter, Ronald, Roadruck, Brian, Baine, Nicholas, Rattan, Kuldip S., Thomas, Scott, Gallagher, John, "Navigation Application to an Autonomous Lawnmower," Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2012), Nashville, TN, September 2012, pp. 3762-3772.
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