GNSS Virtual Boundary Path Control for Intelligent Lawn Mowers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing smart lawn mowers face challenges with large or irregular mowing areas, requiring complex wire or fence arrangements, and suffer from positioning precision issues, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs due to wire damage and failure risks.
Innovation Solution
An intelligent mowing system with a cutting blade, deck, and wheels, equipped with a mowing path generation module and controller, uses GNSS signals for precise positioning and virtual boundaries to generate and follow a preset path, eliminating the need for physical wires and improving mowing efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If physical wires or electronic fences are arranged to define mowable area, then the smart lawn mower can perform mowing within the defined area, but the arrangement becomes troublesome for large or irregular areas and significantly affects user experience
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the boundary definition function from physical wires and electronic fences, replacing them with virtual boundaries created by GPS positioning technology. The system determines the mowable area by receiving GPS coordinates of boundary points and calculating the enclosed region, completely removing the need for physical wire installation while maintaining reliable boundary definition.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical wire-based boundary system with an electronic GPS positioning system. Instead of using physical wires that require manual arrangement and pinning, the system uses satellite-based GPS coordinates to define the mowable area boundary, significantly simplifying operation while maintaining reliability.
2Reliability
If boundary wires are arranged for traditional smart lawn mower, then the mower can define mowable area, but positioning precision variance is large which has great impact on actual control of mowing path
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical wire-based positioning system with electronic GPS positioning. The GPS technology provides continuous real-time location data with higher precision, enabling the lawn mower to accurately determine its position relative to the virtual boundary and follow the mowing path with reduced positioning variance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously receives GPS positioning data during mowing operations and uses this feedback to adjust the mower's position and orientation in real-time. The controller compares the actual GPS position with the target mowing path and makes corrective adjustments, maintaining high positioning precision throughout the mowing process.
3Reliability
If physical wires are used for smart lawn mower, then the system can define mowable area, but the wires are exposed in air and prone to damages from wind, rain and animals, requiring re-wiring that incurs extra costs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the boundary definition function from physical wires entirely, replacing it with virtual boundaries based on GPS coordinates. This eliminates the physical wires that are vulnerable to environmental damage, animal interference, and wear, thereby removing the need for costly re-wiring and maintenance while maintaining reliable boundary definition.
4Adaptability or versatility
If the mowable area contains corner or is of island shape, then the boundary wire needs to include acute arc angle and maintain certain distance from boundary, but this may cause the lawn mower to leave out or cut exceed the predefined area
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical wire-based boundary system with GPS-based virtual boundaries. The GPS system can accurately represent any geometric shape including corners and irregular contours through coordinate points. The lawn mower's GPS positioning and control system can precisely follow these virtual boundaries regardless of shape complexity, eliminating the distance buffer requirements and acute arc angle constraints of wire systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the mowing path based on real-time GPS positioning data and the geometric characteristics of the mowable area. For irregular shapes with corners or island features, the controller continuously calculates the optimal path that maintains precise alignment with the virtual boundary, adapting to shape changes and ensuring complete coverage without exceeding boundaries.
Data Source
AI summary
An intelligent lawn mower includes a cutting blade for cutting grass, a deck for supporting the cutting blade, at least one wheel rotatably supporting the deck, a first drive motor to provide torque to the at least one wheel, a mowing path generation module to set multiple target positions on a first virtual boundary and a second virtual boundary of a mowable area boundary according to a preset path and generate a mowing path from the target positions, and a controller electrically connected to or communicated with a display interface and the mowing path generation module to control the intelligent lawn mower to perform mowing tasks along the mowing path generated by the mowing path generation module.