DIY Arduino autonomous lawn mower can accurately position itself without GPS RTK

A DIY Arduino autonomous lawn mower project has been revealed by Viktor Kurusa. A quirk of the gadget is that it achieves precise position with centimetre level accuracy without GPS RTK, which would require a subscription to a service.

Instead, DMW1000s are used with Arduino boards for ultra-wideband (UWB) ranging. The technology measures the ToF between a tag device and an anchor device, calculating the distance between them. The tag is fitted to the robot, and multiple anchor devices are placed around the property, allowing the mower to triangulate its position. You can set a perimeter for the robot to follow by manually driving the device around your lawn and saving the map to an SD card.

Arduino Due, Nano R3 and Pro Mini were all used for the project. Kurusa took the mechanical parts from an old control cabinet, which was utilised alongside a piece of aluminum to form the robot’s body. Mounted on top of the housing are connection boxes for parts such as the DMW100 and LiDAR sensors.

The Arduino Due main controller communicates over CAN, Serial and I2C. Ultrasonic sensors detect obstacles, triggering the LiDAR sensor to work out how to avoid the object. Kurusa warns that the project is far from straightforward, grading it ‘Expert’ on Hackster. Full details of the DIY, including a parts list and code, can be found here.

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