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Thank you to our sponsor, Professor Al Gasiewski!Ìý

Currently, the two approaches to weeding are far short of ideal for the average user. ÌýOne method involves arduously going through a yard, finding the individual weeds, and physically uprooting them by hand. ÌýThis method is very time consuming, and requires several workers to be done quickly. ÌýThe physical aspect of it can also be very strenuous. ÌýThe other existing method is much more brute-force and involves spraying yard-weeding chemicals throughout an entire yard in the hopes that it targets the specific weeds. ÌýWhile this is much quicker, it is far less efficient and involves wasting a tremendous amount of chemicals that are potentially harmful to the lawn and the environment. Ìý

The Robotic Yard Weeder autonomously navigates a typical yard by use of D-GPS (Differential Global Positioning System) and Lidar sensors to give state vector information for mapping the area, ultrasonic sensors to alert distance from obstacles, and a color camera to help determine boundaries of the yard, while determining the optimal route to navigate the yard. While searching, the Robotic Yard Weeder detects dandelions using a color and object detection algorithm. Once the unwanted dandelions are found, they are eradicated by the Robotic Yard Weeder.

The Robotic Yard Weeder will be of great benefit to anybody involved with yard-work, from residential homecare to larger-scale grounds keeping at various institutions. The average consumer would greatly benefit from a device that will perform all their weeding for them, offering more free time. On a larger scale, institutions that must hire large groups of groundskeepers to maintain their lawns would greatly benefit from such a product. Rather than paying great deals of money for harmful chemicals or several laborers to perform the weeding, they could use several of our Robotic Yard Weeders and turn them loose on their lawns, knowing that they are efficiently performing their weeding while saving money and reducing any negative environmental impact.

Our product has multiple unique capabilities. The Robotic Yard Weeder can eradicate weeds in a mass area without the use of pesticides or manual labor. It is also fully autonomous and requires no human intervention to weed a lawn. The Robotic Yard Weeder can map and determine the boundaries of any typical lawn. It is also the only yard weeder that has image processing capabilities to distinguish a dandelion from ordinary grass.Ìý
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