Hi,
i am in the middle of building a robot mower for my engineering coursework. I've been doing lots of research into how i could build this but from the start i had decided i was going to use Arduino. i have done basic tests with a smaller Arduino line following robot using a h-bridge but for the mower this is not feasible.
I see with most robotic mowers they use a perimeter wire which i want to avoid.
How can i incorporate GPS and program the robot to take specific paths around the garden. Using sensors to avoid obstacles along the way but using the GPS to guide and check its position
Ive been looking into differential gps. How would that work. I know its been done but cant actually find anything to explain how i could incorporate it and program it to go up and down the garden
HI,
I am building a arduino powered mower which should able to cut randomly and in straight lines in the garden. the design in a chassis which you can connect any mower too. Ive been reading and reaserching into GPS and differential GPS but cant find a way to actually use it and how i can incorporate it and program it. any help would be great
I’d be surprised if you could get the accuracy you need and fast enough - 1m off and you are through the flower beds .
Some work by detecting a wire around the lawn edge .
Duplicated topics merged - why did you start a second one ?
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"Ive been looking into differential gps. How would that work. I know its been done but cant actually find anything to explain how i could incorporate it and program it to go up and down the garden"
Could be natures warning sign that it may not work for what you want. Do a forum search for "mower" and you should find many discussions concerning robot lawn mowers.
ReubenGidlow:
I see with most robotic mowers they use a perimeter wire which i want to avoid.
How can i incorporate GPS and program the robot to take specific paths around the garden. Using sensors to avoid obstacles
I'm not sure what advantage there will be in avoiding a perimeter wire. Without it you will need to program in sufficient detail so that the mower knows the boundaries of the lawn and be sufficiently sure that everything will stay in sync so that the prize flowerbed is not destroyed.
From a brief read about differential GPS I suspect it would be a lot of trouble to implement. You would need a fixed base GPS and a computer program and wireless transmitter attached to it so it could calculate and send "correction" data to your mower. And GPS only works in an environment where the receiver has clear line of sight to several satellites. Houses overlooking a garden could prevent that.
Why spend energy to invent a wheel that has been sold for decades? Studie those ones.
Find out how to set up borders for the robot. Forget about GPS. Some systems calls for a Cable being burried around the property and around flower beds etc.
Commercial mowers often uses random, criss crossing the lawn.
Then…. how to find the charging station....
It's a huge project!
A) sorry for double post, had a power outage when I posted it and so didn't think it worked
B) thabks to everyone who has replied. I'll continue to do reaserch and probably ignore the GPS idea. Part of my work in this project is to explore different ideas and asses the feasibility so this has helped me understand the true demand not only on time and effort I'd need to put into doing a GPS system
Maybe you could erect at least 3 "lighthouses" at suitable places around the lawn and the mower could figure out its position by triangulating from them - like a ship at sea.
However the problem of delineating the edges of the lawn would remain - especially if it was an irregular shape.
ReubenGidlow:
I'll continue to do reaserch and probably ignore the GPS idea. Part of my work in this project is to explore different ideas and asses the feasibility so this has helped me understand the true demand not only on time and effort I'd need to put into doing a GPS system
It is usually very worthwhile studying what other that have come before you have done.
Appreciate that whilst an idea might be new to you, its likely lots of other very capable people have had the idea before. I wonder how many have thought about a robot lawnmower ?
So if you cannot find lots of examples of a GPS controlled lawn mower (differential GPS or not) or buy them cheap on eBay, reflect on why this may be.