Blog #4 - Solar Powered Remote Controlled Lawn Mower
Team 19 has completed the assembly of the solar powered RC lawn mower prototype (Figure 1). The prototype is fully functional, with all subsystems working properly. The design is fully self contained, requiring no charging or user input besides using the RC remote to control the mower. Figure 1: Overall view of Team 19’s solar powered remote controlled lawn mower We split our design into 4 main subsystems: the chassis, solar/charging, drive/RC, and cutting subsystems (See Figure 2 below for a labeled diagram of main components). The solar charging system consists of the 50 Watt solar panel fixed on top of the device, which feeds a solar charge controller that then safely and effectively powers the 20 Ah lithium iron phosphate battery. The drive system uses two planetary gear motors fixed to two 6 inch tires at the rear o...