DEMS - Solar Powered Remote Controlled Lawn Mower

Question 1:      Over the work period of November 13-23 our team has worked on finalizing our overall design and component specifications, backing our part selections with relevant calculations and creating a CAD assembly to illustrate our general design plan. After calculating required specifications, we then conducted research to find parts that fit our needs and where we can buy them for the best prices. We then constructed our design review presentation slides to include our problem description, CAD design illustrations, and our parts list/budget. After this, we gave our design review presentation. Since then, we have reviewed our components list and finalized our selections. We have also begun work on our design review report, working on gathering information for the main sections of the report. Question 2: Our final design concept consists of 4 wheels attached to a 18x24 inch ¼ inch thick aluminum plate. Two of these wheels will be 6 inch diameter off road tires, an...

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...

  Question 1: Typical gas powered lawn mowers not only are harmful to the environment but also can be time consuming and take about 2 hours to fully mow a lawn. The main pollutants that gas powered lawn mowers emit include hydrocarbons, particulates, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. As stated by Mark Sodja from "A Greener Lawn: Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Your Lawn Mower", just using a gas powered lawn mower for 1 hour is roughly the same as driving your car 40 miles.  On the other hand, robotic lawnmowers nowadays can be very costly with many models well over the $1000 mark. This is most likely due to the advanced electronics that the companies use. The automated solar powered lawn mower that we plan to design and create, would save time, money, and be environmentally friendly.  Question 2: The image above from "A Greener Lawn: Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Your Lawn Mower" is a great way to look and compare the current ways to mow a lawn. Robotic lawn ...