Blog #3 - Solar Powered Automatic 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 availability.

Question 2: 

    During the work period of Sept. 25 to Oct 15th we faced multiple challenges and obstacles. The biggest issue has been trying to narrow the scope of our project, while still leaving enough substance for us to call it a senior level MECE capstone project. As of right now, we are planning to utilize open source code to automate our mower, but the only issue with this is that it will require us to use the same main components the code was designed for. The plan to get a better grasp on this predicament is to email our professor(s) and our mentor to ask for some guidance on outsourcing some of the subsystems of our design. As MECE’s we do not have the knowledge to write our own automation program, and we also do not have extensive experience with circuitry.

Question 3: 

    During the period of Oct 15th - 30th we will primarily be working on and submitting Progress Blog #3, Progress Report, and Slides. The progress blog #3 is another update for our project and a way to show instructors the progress that we have made within the past two weeks. The progress report is intended to give stakeholders and instructors an idea of all completed work in regards to our stated schedule. It will show advancements, completed tasks and milestones, and tasks and milestones that still need to be completed. It will also provide any updates or changes to our original plan and give an insight on specific times for tasks and milestones to be completed. The report slides are a way to present our progress report without having stakeholders read paragraphs upon paragraphs. The slides will be presented in a manner where we will introduce the project, mention deliverables, validations, and discuss problems and challenges that we will face during the second semester of capstone. Also during the two week period, some challenges that we may face are narrowing down whether we’re sticking with the automatic aspect of the lawnmower or switching to a remote controlled version of it. We will need to decide this before we put it in our progress report and slides so that the stakeholders have a better understanding of what we are trying to achieve. If we wait too long to decide that, it will be very difficult in the second semester to begin fabricating it late.

Question 4:

    Table 1 shows the materials and cost of the main components of the lawn mower and it will be used to ensure that the project does not exceed the predicted cost and to keep track of the necessary parts and materials used. Table 2 was used to decide whether to use lead-acid or lithium-ion batteries. Since lithium-ion batteries perform better than lead-acid batteries in the majority of the areas, the team has decided to use a lithium-ion battery.

Table 1: Materials and cost of components of the lawn mower

Table 2: Lead-Acid and Lithium-Ion battery comparison