CWRU Cutter IV: Case Western Reserve University's Autonomous Lawn Mower Design and Performance Review

Henry H. Snow, Bradley E. Hughes, Andrew D. Smith, Jonathan R. Hall, Edward J. Kreinar, Roger D. Quinn, James M. Green

Abstract:	The CWRU Cutter family of robots have been designed and built at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in order to compete in the annual Institute of Navigation autonomous robotic lawnmower competitions. In 2008, CWRU Cutter placed 3rd at the 5th Annual ION Robotic Lawn Mower Competition. In 2009, CWRU Cutter 2.0 placed 1st at the subsequent 6th Annual ION Robotic Lawnmower Competition. In 2010, CWRU Cutter C placed 1st at the 7th Annual ION Robotic Lawn Mower Competition. CWRU Cutter IV, pronounced “crew cutter ivy,” is the most recent addition to the CWRU Cutter family of autonomous intelligent ground vehicles. The first three versions of CWRU Cutter tested the feasibility of autonomously mowing grass using commercially available sensors and computational platforms. CWRU Cutter IV focuses on minimization of cost by migrating core computational components to custom built electronics.CWRU Cutter IV’s primary objective is to compete in the 2011 ION Autonomous Robotic Lawn Mower Competition. The original CWRU Cutter was designed to test the feasibility of autonomously mowing grass with a high quality of cut. The primary objective of CWRU Cutter 2.0 was to improve its ability to accurately and robustly mow predefined paths and perform reactive edging around stationary obstacles.The secondary objective of CWRU Cutter IV is to provide a robust platform mobile robot platform to enable research for graduate students at Case Western Reserve University.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011) September 20 - 23, 2011 Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon Portland, OR
Pages:	2866 - 2875
Cite this article:	Snow, Henry H., Hughes, Bradley E., Smith, Andrew D., Hall, Jonathan R., Kreinar, Edward J., Quinn, Roger D., Green, James M., "CWRU Cutter IV: Case Western Reserve University's Autonomous Lawn Mower Design and Performance Review," Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011), Portland, OR, September 2011, pp. 2866-2875.
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