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CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUISSION

This chapter confers about the description and the functionalities of the components used in the circuits together with the results of the testing procedures that compasses the capabilities and the limitation of the proposed project.

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

The proposed Robotic Lawn Mower (Buggy) is made up of a Microcontroller circuit, the hear t of the project, Bluetooth shield, power supply, DC motor driver circuit, Lithium-Ion polymer Battery, Lead acid batter and grass cutter that may be replaced with a nylon or a thin wire.

The Robotic Lawn Mower, having a mobile base, has a physical dimension of 29.5in. in length, 16.5in. in width and 14in. in height. It has a diameter of 10in. for the rotating blade or nylon.

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FIGURE 7. Acutal Robotic Lawn mower

The proposed project has been researched to appeal to the innovating technology in robotics in terms of lessening the work of human. Thus making their daily living easy and entertained. The capability of the project is to be able to mow a lawn, for instance the university field at a minimized time and effort. For the robotic lawn mower to operate, its microcontroller must have the downloaded program the proponents have made and may be interfaced with the created Graphical User Interface(GUI) via laptop through Bluetooth connection where a choice of controlling the robot manually or start cutting the grass in a programmed pattern may be chosen.

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HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT

In developing the Robotic Lawn Mower, various circuits are required to be used to be able to fully operate the said project. These circuits include DC motor driver, Microcontroller, Bluetooth shield Master and slave. Relay. Some modules were already available on the market so as to minimize the work but some circuits including the input of relay to control the switch for the blade has to be manually made using a PCB.

As mentioned above, the microcontroller is the heart of this project, thus being the main hardware component of the Robotic Lawn Mower. This controls the mobile together with the Graphical User Interface (GUI). The switch of the blade may be turned on by pressing the installed switch in the mobile itself or may be controlled in GUI. Other than the GUI, the Bluetooth device is also interfaced with the microcontroller which serves as a wireless communication between the Robotic Lawn Mower and the user via laptop. In addition to the GUI and the Bluetooth device, a DC motor driver is also interfaced with the microcontroller to be able to control the gear motors in the front and back wheel of mobile.

For the power, a power supply circuit is used to regulate a 5V battery which gives the voltage and current for the microcontroller and the motors to work. Also, a 6V4Amperes lead acid battery is connected directly to the supply of DC motor for the grass cutter. A lithium-ion polymer battery is also used to replace a battery for higher current and bigger voltage to the power supply.

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HARDWARE COMPONENTS Microcontroller Module

FIGURE 8. ZILOG Z8F0822PJ020SG IC ENCORE MCU FLASH 8K 28DIP A microcontroller is a computer. Microcontrollers are "embedded" inside some other device so that they can control the features or actions of the product. Another name for a microcontroller, therefore, is "embedded controller." A microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated circuit containing a processor core, memory, and programmable input/output peripherals. Microcontrollers are designed for embedded applications, in contrast to the microprocessors used in personal computers or other general purpose applications.

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It has the ability to store and run user made programs thus making it extremely versatile. It can be programmed to perform functions based on predetermined situations like 1 and 0s line logic and selections. It can also perform mathematical and logical abilities allow it to obtain sophisticated logical and electronic circuits.

Power Supply

FIGURE 9. Power Supply A power supply is a device that supplies electrical energy to one or more electric loads. Fgure 9 shows the actual power supply used in the project. This power supply yields different voltages such as 5v for the microcontroller and the Bluetooth device.

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Bluetooth Device

FIGURE 10. Bluetooth Device

Figure 10 shows the Bluetooth device used for the project. This Bluetooth device serves as the main communication of the robotic lawn mower to the user via laptop thus having a wireless connection. The Bluetooth module is able to connect up to a 50.5 meter distance away from the paired device. It can have a secured pairing by adding password to serve as protection from other device to interfere with the connection.

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DC MOTOR

FIGURE 11. DC Motor

Figure 10 is the DC motor used for the project having high speed high torque for better quality of the rotation of the blade/nylon.

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SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT (Flow chat ni zeta)

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Software Development (Flow chat ni zeta)

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TESTING REULTS

The following are the results from the tests that have been conducted after operating the modules, devices and the mobile itself for the task performed according to capacity, performance and capabilities of the project. Results from various tests of the completion of the whole process of the Robotic Lawn Mower Testing results for Cutting the grass at 25m2 area of field.

Trials 1 2 3

Time 11.39 sec 13.05 sec 13.76 sec

Table1. Time completion of the task at a given area of 25m2 Table 1 shows the result from series of tests in finding the minimum time that a Robotic Lawn mower can perform a task at a given area. The proponents conducted 3 trials and recorded the average of the time completion of the task in speed of 12.73 seconds.

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Results from series of tests of the maximum distance that a Robotic Lawn Mower can cover from the (Bluetooth connection) controller Testing results for maximum distance covered via Bluetooth connection.

Distance(m) 10 20 30 40 50 50.5 60 70

Connectivity

Table2 Range of Bluetooth connectivity Table 2 shows the result from the series of tests made by the proponents in determining the maximum distance the Bluetooth connection can hold from the Robotic Lawn Mower. The farthest distance covered by the mobile is approximately 30-50 meters still having a strong connection. In distance 50.5 meters the connection between the laptop and the mobile weakened as it goes further. 50.5meters and further is the distance the connection between the laptop and the mobile became fully disconnected.

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Testing results for the speed of Robotic Lawn Mower in a 6 meters distance

Time Trial Forward 1 2 3 4 5 14.8s 15.02s 13.58s 12.88s 12.53s Backward 13.16s 11.8 12.89s 11.04s 10.92s Forward

Speed

Backward 45.6cm/sec 50.84cm/sec 46.55cm/sec 54.35cm/sec 54.95cm/sec

40.54cm/sec 39.95cm/sec 44.18cm/sec 46.59cm/sec 47.86cm/sec

Table3. Speed of the Robotic Lawn Mower in a 6 meters distance Table 3 shows the result from series of tests in finding the average speed of the Robotic Lawn mower. The proponents conducted 5 trials and recorded the average of the time completion of the speed of the Robotic Lawn Mower. The speed in forward is almost same as the speed when the mobile is in reverse based on our tests where a simple timer was used to record the data. As you can see, as we go further with the trial, the time and speed decreases because the supply in the battery weakens thus resulting to an inaccurate result of the speed and time. Also, the weight of the mobile affects the outcome of the speed test.

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PROJECT CAPABILITES AND LIMITATIONS The Robotic Lawn Mower can perform the following task:

The Robotic Lawn mower can perform hideous task that could lessen manpower by cutting grass in a massive area such as the university field.

The Robotic Lawn Mower can be controlled via Bluetooth at a distance of 50.5rs.

The Robotic Lawn Mower can be manually and automatically program controlled upon interfacing in the GUI

The Robotic Lawn Mower has a build in Speaker for entertainment purposes and can be a warning for nearby humans that are within the area of operation.

In terms of financial, it is beneficial because its way cheaper than the gas and electric supplied robotic lawn mower sold in the market. The Robotic Lawn Mowers performance is limited with the following:

Bluetooth connectivity problem after 52 meters.

Cannot pass through smooth plane terrain with obstacles such as big rocks, waterfilled area. Having a difficulty accelerating in an inclined plane.

Difficulty turning in a precise U-turn.

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CHAPTER 5 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter discusses the findings of the tests done, conclusion and the recommendation for the project done by the proponents.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

With the concept of innovative robotics, the proponents thought of a project that will help ease the daily living of humans by lessening the manpower in terms of work. This project can replace human efforts when it comes to trimming grass especially on a spacious area such as the university field.

The proposed project was started by first conceptualizing the materials, design and the overall package of the mobile. The microcontroller, being the heart of this design was our first priority and decided to use a ZILOG Z8F0822PJ020SG 28pin, then a separate DC motor for the grass cutter and a different motor for the front and back wheels of the mobile. Some added features were later added like speakers and surface mount LED to improve the packaging of the project.

After all the concepts have been finalized, we started to work on the project and then started to develop a system for the execution of the program. We had our C# made Graphical User Interface (GUI) interfaced together with the program in the Zilog Encore.

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As the proponents software engineer develops the program to be used for the project, the conceptualized design had been constructed so as to cater to the proposed packaging taking into consideration of the main objective of the project, that is, to cut grasses. With everything put together, tests were made to attain the credibility of the study and its results.

In Table 1, the completion of the whole task given 25m2 area have been recorded giving the proponents the estimated time of a complete task the Robotic Lawn Mower could do given a considerable area.

Testing results upon observing the range of the Bluetooth connection is recorded in Table 2. Having a connection using a Bluetooth device gives proximity of 50.5 meters as its maximum distance. Moving further than 50.5 gives a weak connection and may have a connection loss any point from thereon.

The last area of to be tested was the speed of the Robotic Lawn Mower in moving forward, backwards and turning sideways. The result shows that both moving forward and backward has almost the same remarkable speed but has a limit on turning a U-point. Also, it has been noted that the weight of the aluminum casing of the DC motor for grass cutter massively affects the whole weight of the mobile thus slows down the acceleration of the mobile.

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CONCLUSION

The main objective of this project entitled Robotic Lawn Mower aides to serve as help to humans in lessening their task and work load. As part of evaluating the capacity of the project, the proponents set tests and analyzed the results so as to improve the quality and operations of the Robotic Lawn Mower. With these tests, the proponents have made conclusions in ways of maximizing its capability.

The first test shows the maximum speed that the robot can attain in performing a complete task given a considerable area. Averaging the test results gives us the figure that is most likely the normal speed the robot can complete a task. The third test, on the other hand, shows the result of speed the Robotic Lawn Mower does upon accelerating forward and backward. Both tests give result pertaining to the projects speed. However, tests show that factors such as obstruction, obstacle which includes medium sized rocks that the wheels cannot pass through, incline plane, rough terrain, may affect the accuracy of the speed test results. Another factor is the battery life. It is observed that as we go on testing the project, the energy in the supply decreases therefore resulting to decrease in speed also.

The last test confers with the Bluetooth connectivity. Results show that the maximum coverage the Bluetooth device can hold has a remarkably long distance. In terms of connection, the pairing of the device through the laptop had no problem since it connected easily. The proponents thought of putting a password in the pairing so that there would be no problem regarding interference in the connectivity. When it reaches its

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maximum distance and disconnects, we have observed that even as we try to reconnect, it can no longer establish a connection. Thus, we have generalized that the easiest way to connect the laptop with the mobile is if we do it within the coverage area.

RECOMMENDATION

As the project was being built and have been evaluated process by process, the proponents have come up to some recommendations in ways of improving the project for the future researchers so as to maximize its operation and capabilities.

The substitution of an RF module that could suffice greater distance coverage. Although the installed Bluetooth module contributes a remarkable distance, an improved RF module will give an outstanding range and will improve the transmission and reception of the input commands. Thus also improving the reliability of the project on operating in a task in terms of distance.

The thickness of the steel used in holding the DC motor of the blade may be lessened so that it would not contribute additional weight to the whole package and thus increase the speed of the mobile.

The use of biodiesel a clean and safe fuel to replace the batteries and depletes the use of charger and batteries and will improve the life of the mobile while it works.

Replacement of a high torque, high speed motor for the back wheels to improve its speed.

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REFERENCES

The m

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APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: Gantt Chart

The m

APPENDIX B: Users Manual

The m

APPENDIX C: Source Codes

The m

APPENDIX D: Printed Circuit Board Design

CURRICULUM VITAE

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