DEMS - Solar Powered Remote Controlled Lawn Mower

Question 1:       In terms of actual assignment submissions, the period of Sept. 25 to Oct. 15 was used to complete our statement of work document and project blog #2. The statement of work document helped us specify what we want to accomplish with our project, and how we plan on meeting these goals. These goals were quantified by looking at existing solutions and seeing what we can improve upon and by how much, and we also developed a validation plan to prove that our final design has met our specifications. This time was also used to start weighing out different options for our project’s design, and we also have researched different subsystems of our design to find out what is feasible for us. A lot of our focus during this time period was placed on narrowing down the scope of our project overall, as we have come to realize our project has many subsystems. Lastly, we have identified key components necessary for our design and have started looking for pricing and av...

Our problem statement and project goals were updated and are now more detailed, focusing primarily on reducing costs and operating sounds of the mower. Initially, the first problem statement and project goal(s) didn't have many specifications and they were not detailed at all. They just had general information about the type of mower we had envisioned which was not enough.  Robotic lawn mowers are typically expensive, with models ranging from $600 up to $2800 with an average cost of a middle-of-the-pack mower being around $1770! We plan to make a fully automatic solar powered lawn mower that has an approximate cost of $500. This can be achievable by using parts and materials that don't cost nearly as much, but can still allow the mower to get the job done. This budget is also reasonable, since we do not plan on selling our model for a profit. As far as operating sounds go, traditional gas powered lawn mowers output 80-90 dB and push electric lawn mowers output around 60-65 dB o...