The first annual Autonomous Lawn Mower Competition was held in Ohio in June in association with the 60th Annual Meeting of the Institute of Navigation.
Three university teams competed to build a machine that would efficiently and autonomously mow a field of grass using the satellite-based GPS. The ION is a non-profit professional society dedicated to the advancement of navigational art and science.
“This was a great competition for students to gain an appreciation for the difficulty associated with autonomous vehicle research and development,” said Dr. Mikel Miller, a Senior Electronics Engineer for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Sensors Directorate and the ION’s chair for the event. “Mowing a yard accurately and precisely is an extremely difficult and challenging systems problem,” Miller added. “Centimeter-level accuracy and precision control are required for straight lines and smooth turns. Unfortunately, not much grass was cut this year; however, we are confident that all the teams learned critical lessons that will lead to much greater success next year.”
Students from the Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, IL), Miami University (Miami, OH), and Ohio University (Athens, OH) were asked to design and build a “smart” lawnmower that could use the GPS to self-navigate a rectangular area of grass approximately 150 square meters in size.
Ohio University was awarded first place and a check for $2,500, edging out second place Miami University, who was able to cut a larger portion of grass but at a much slower pace and outside the designated lawn area. Miami received $1,500 for their effort and the Illinois Institute of Technology won $1,000 for its third place finish.
