Design and Fabrication of Android Application-Based Grass Cutter Robotic System

The study presents the design and fabrication of the Android application-based robotic grass cutter. A smartphone is used as remote, and it is able to control the movement of four omni wheels to perform grass cutting operation with the smooth movement of the cutter installed on the system. This apparatus composed of five DC motors, two motor drivers, an Arduino board, a Bluetooth module and a battery. The DC motor aligned vertically, compounded with a blade, cuts the rough grass as the robot moves in a particular direction. Remaining four DC motors are connected to the four wheels of the robotic grass cutter vehicle providing three planar motion, i.e., motion along x-axis, y-axis and rotation about z-axis. The direction of rotation of these motors can be controlled by the Arduino board. The battery supplies power to the motors. Bluetooth module is used as a transmitter as well as a receiver to follow up the input/output signals from the Android phone to the Arduino board controller. As the mobile remote sends input data to the Arduino, the motors are driven accordingly by the motor drivers. Thus, the remote is able to move the grass cutter in all the directions in the plane like forward, backward, diagonal motion and can also turn around. The mobile-operated grass cutter presented here is a very convenient robotic device which is simple in assembly and construction. It is employed to maintain and conserve the lawns in gardens, schools and colleges etc. Design is intended to be simple and effective thereby making grass cutting inexpensive.