Getting Out of Mowing The Lawn

Many of you reading this post have been the designed lawn mower in your household at some time. Wouldn't you think that the brilliance that landed a man on the moon could figure out how to get a machine that will automatically mow the lawn? And living in the hotbed of inventions that we call the Miami Valley, couldn't someone here do that?

You bet!

Over the last weekend, there was a unique competition held at Wright State. Well, perhaps "unique" isn't the best choice of words because this same competition was held here last year as well. The Institute of Navigation (ION) held its fourth annual Autonomous Lawnmower Competition. Each of the eight competing teams engineered a lawn mower to work without human intervention until the lawn is mowed. The mowers used differential global positioning system techniques as well as lasers and sonar for guidance. Talk about using technology to solve practical, daily living problems!

The competition consisted of two phases. The static phase required the mower to cover a rectangular patch of lawn. The dynamic phase required the mower to trim an L shaped lawn while avoiding a moving obstacle. For safety reasons, the mover can't move faster than six miles per hour. Teams represented Ecole de Technologie Superieure in Quebec, Florida State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Miami University, Ohio University (last year's winner), University of Evansville, University of Minnesota in Duluth, and our own Wright State University.

Last year, WSU came in third place, but this year, they WON! In addition to a hefty cash award, the 11-member team advised by Dr. Kuldip Rattan, a WSU professor of electrical and computer engineering, also gets to present its mower at the ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) conference, assorted press coverage, and a competition video will be distributed to companies in the industry. Talk about a great resume addition for the lucky engineering students!

Maybe we will see a robotic lawn mover in our lives that rivals anything that George Jetson could have purchased (if he had a lawn, that is) and we will all thank WSU alumni for their contributions.