Cooperative robotic lawn mowing system

• Autor(a) principal: Vasconcelos, Paulo Brandão
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/33935
• topic: Robotic cooperation; Swarm; Lawn mowers; Mesh networking

Since the industrial revolution, robotic systems have been, little by little, replacing human beings in upcoming tasks. Robotic cooperation has become a ever so present constant in the most diverse robotic systems. Examples of robotic cooperation have impose themselves as solutions for modern day issues. From children toys to robotic football teams. In this Dissertation, it’s proposed the creation of a system that complements the current Bosch Indego autonomous lawn mowing system for application of this concept. This system makes use of the communication capabilities of the ESP32 in order to achieve its objectives. To do that, it was created a whole new system architecture since the current infrastructure is not able to integrate the new features. This architecture makes use of a mesh network to ensure the connectivity between all system modules. On top of that, it also allows the user to remotely configure the system through a web interface. As a consequence of the new system architecture, the features required of each module (mowers and base stations) were reviewed. It was also conceptualized a new module, the Relay, whose sole purpose is to ensure connectivity to remote areas of the garden, in case of need. The implementation of this system was tested in both real and simulated environments developed for this effect. The ESP32 communication capabilities regarding its range were also tested in order to understand the relevance of the Relay module.