ESTIMATION OF ENERGY INDICATORS OF ROBOTIZED LAWN MOWERS

The paper describes the main technical characteristics of an experimental robotic lawn mower. The lawn mower is designed to mow vegetation in small areas without an operator’s involvement. All control functions of the lawn mower, including the selection of the trajectory, the change in the cutting height and the response to an emergency situation are carried out by the on-board processor. In addition, the current information about the operating modes of the mower, as well as its location, is transmitted to the control panel. It is possible to manually adjust the operating modes or provide priority instructions from the same remote control. The lawn mower is driven by two electric motors, and mowing is carried out in an unsupported way. The nature and characteristics of energy consumption by electrified lawn mower devices are analyzed in the paper: an electric motor of the cutting working body drive, traction electric motors, a processor, operating mechanisms and receiving and transmitting communication facilities. The total power of the energy users of the experimental robotic lawn mower at a speed of its forward motion of 0.3 m/s and a radius of cutting working bodies of 0.125 m amounts to 620 W. It has been established that the following consumers determine
the energy consumption of an experimental robotic lawn mower (in a decreasing importance order): 80.6% of the motor of the cutting tools, 10.4% of the traction motors, 4.8% of the on-board processor, operating mechanisms (2.9%), radio communication facilities (1.3%). As the radius of the cutting device of a lawn mower increases, the fraction of the onboard processor, operating mechanisms and receiving-transmitting communication facilities decreases exponentially. The capacity of the nickel-cadmium battery has been calculated as well. The authors have come to a conclusion about the feasibility of using batteries that provide continuous power to electrified lawn mowing devices within 20‑30 minutes.