International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)

ISSN: 2249-8958 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-2, December, 2019

Design and Development of Smart Solar Grass

Cutter
Firas B. Ismail, Nizar F.O. Al-Muhsen, Fazreen A. Fuzi, A. Zukipli

Abstract: From the time immemorial, the sun is the major Approximately 1.8/10MW amount of power from the sun
source of energy for life on earth used for heat and lighting. has been interrupted by the planet Earth,which is thousands
Nowadays, solar energyhas been known as a renewable energy of times larger than the present global consumption rate of
source. It is an alternative energy to that of fossil fuel and it can
the energy. This has motivated the governments, researchers
be collected from the renewable resources such as sun, wind and
hydro. This paper introduces a new development of grass cutter, and power industries to increase their investments in the
named as Smart Solar Grass Cutter, by usingsolar irradiance as renewable energy industry aiming to utilize more this clean
a primary energy source with the presence of a solar panel. This energy and relief the global warming.Many researchers have
grass cutter prototype is developed to reduce air pollutant and proposed new designs of autonomous and non-autonomous
improve the current design specifically the blade position based solar grass cutters[3, 4].Moreover, a fewfully automated
on the previous studies. With current technology, this new
designs using sensors to detect obstacles and avoid any harm
prototype is designed as remotely controlled grass cutter using
Arduino UNO. Smartphone is used as the remote controller. or injuries have been also proposed[4, 5].Patil S.M. et al.
After developing an established prototype, the design analysis is proposed a solar grass cutter called Smart Solar Grass Cutter
carried out to bevalidate with the theoretical values to ensure that with Lawn Coverage [5]. The proposed design aimed to
the prototype can be safely used. The Smart Solar Grass Cutter develop an automatic grass cutting machine that could
can operate more than two hours when the used battery is fully beremotely controlled, andable to charge the used batteries
charged. Based upon the results, the Smart Solar Grass Cutteris
while the solar powered grass cutter is operating during
reliable with high efficiency of the system compared to the
previous studies. Therefore, it can be concluded that the daytime. Dilip B.P. et al. used several sensors in their
prototype is reliable and environmentally friendly. prototype design providing the proposed solar grass cutter
Keywords: Smart Grass Cutter, Solar Grass Cutter, Smart the capability to avoid the unnecessary objects and/or
Solar System. obstacles in the field during operation [6].
Asha N. et al. proposed a programmable robot that is able
I.INTRODUCTION to work either autonomously or wirelessly using an Android
The conventional grass cutters have been widely used Smart phone via Bluetooth from a safe distance[7]. The
recently by workers in the gardening and agricultural grass cutter can cut the grass according to preset shapes
industries. However,the manual handled grass cutters are while the blade was able to be adjusted to maintain the
consuming a lot of energy and producing air pollution which different length of the grass. The robot is a dual powered
can directly affect the workers’ health. The conventional with a Hybrid Solar panel and Lithium Ion rechargeable
grass cutters are also creating a high level of noise and battery.This programmable robot is used to decorate the
vibration which can cause serious health issues such as grip lawn and encourage the implementation of the renewable
strength, decreased hand sensation and dexterity, finger energy resources. Ulhe P.P. et al. [8]fabricated and modified
blanching or ‘white fingers’ and carpal tunnel[1].In order to the solar grass cutter that can be used to cut the different
address these issues, a new design of a grass cutter machine grasses with different applications. A remote-control unit
has been proposed. This device can be fueled by solar was added to help the unskilled persons to operate it. The
energy and smartly controlled, which has been named as a used battery in the designed grass cutter can be charged by
Smart Solar Grass Cutter that has three main systems which using solar panels regardless of the operating conditions.An
are smart control system, solar system, and the grass cutter. AC charging system and spiral cutting blades were used to
According to the national air space association (NASA), increase the cutting efficiency. Amrutesh P. et al.
there is a 1.361 kW/m² of solar irradiance received at the top [9]designed a solar grass cutter by implementing a linear
of Earth's atmosphere[2]. blade and Scotch Yoke mechanism. The cutter was coupled
Revised Manuscript Received on December 30, 2019. with PV panels installed at 45 degrees angle and Lithium-
* Correspondence Author ion battery as the power supply. The used solar charger has
Firas B. Ismail, Power Generation Unit, Institute of Power Engineering, automatically controlled the charging from the solar panels
Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, 43000 Kajang,
Selangor, Malaysia when it was required.However, the authors found that the
Nizar F.O. Al-Muhsen, Technical Instructors Training Institute, Middle Scotch Yoke mechanism did not produced the expected
Technical University, Al-Za’franiya, Baghdad, Iraq efficiency.Solar based automatic grass cutter was fully
Fazreen A. Fuzi, Power Generation Unit, Institute of Power
Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, 43000 automated grass cutting robotic vehicle powered by solar
Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia energy introduced by Gaikwd Y.M. et al.[10]. The device
A. Zukipli, Power Generation Unit, Institute of Power Engineering, was capable of fully automated grass cutting without the
Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, 43000 Kajang,
Selangor, Malaysia need of any human interaction. The working principle of
this project is the
© The Authors. Published by Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and
Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Retrieval Number: B4920129219/2019©BEIESP

DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.B4920.129219 Published By:
Journal Website: www.ijeat.org Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
4137
& Sciences Publication
 Design and Development of Smart Solar Grass Cutter

micro-controller moving the motors in the forward the grass cutter will change the direction. If non-autonomous
direction if there is no obstacle detected and vice versa if the mode is used, Bluetooth module will be used to connect the
sensor detects any obstacle.Smart is related to current Smart Solar Grass Cutter with the smartphone. The grass
technologies where the researchers want to integrate the cutter will be controlled by using the smartphone and the
current technologies into their daily life. direction is depending on the requirement. The
Technology is helping the human being to work less microcontroller will be programmed to ensure both motors
however receiving more outputs, save their time, ease their at the rear wheels will be having the same speed when it is
works. The human can take the advantages of current required. If the grass cutter is needed to move to the right
technologies to improve life quality as well as reduce the direction, the left motor will be having a higher speed
negative effects of the new technologies on the planet Earth. compared to the right motor and vice versa.
In this study, solar energy was used as a main power source From the hand sketching and digital design of Smart Solar
to the proposed solar grass cutter. The proposed grass cutter Grass Cutter was created and shown in Figure 3. The
combined the use of automation and manual in which it used Arduino Board, Bluetooth module and other electrical
sensors or remote controller to move. This proposed study is components are included in circuitry. Two DC motors were
mainly to improve the current grass cutter design especially used for rear wheels and the third motor was used for the
the position of the blade using the latest possible blades.The front wheels are made of rotating rubber tires
technologies. located below the main body. The selection of the used
materials and components are very important to produce a
II.METHODOLOGY reliable and effective design of smart solar grass cutter.
Design Identification
To design a Smart Solar Grass Cutter, some parameters
need to be considered such as the components to be used in
the project, the position of the components, the structure of
the main body, the advantages and disadvantages of the
design and the safety factors. The Smart Solar Grass Cutter
is able to operate autonomously or non-autonomously. Other
than that, the important factor is the efficiency. The
materials and components selections including the positions
are crucial to achieve a better efficiency.
This Smart Solar Grass Cutter is a simple design which is
optimizing the usage of materials. The overall dimensions
are depending on the size or the dimensions of the solar
panel. Three motors are used for rear tires and the blade.
The height of the roof is depending on the height of the
battery. The rubber rotating wheel is used as the front tires
as it will automatically change the direction depending on
the rear tires. One motor is implemented for each rear tire.
The design is cost effective and compatible to the main Fig. 1 Hand sketch design
objectives. Starting from the hand sketch, the prototypeis
designed in multidimensional using SolidWorks software.
Dimensions of the design are very important and need to be
accurate and precise to enhance the safety factor. Full
dimensions are listed in Table 1.
Table. 1 Prototypedimensions
Part Dimension (mm)
Roof 380 x 280 x 5
Bottom part of the body 480 x 280 x 5
Wall of the body 280 x 120 x 5
Front wheel D 50
Rear wheel D 150
Arduino microcontroller known as the brain of the
prototype and PV panels are the main power supply. The PV
panel supplied the absorbed energy to the battery through
the solar charge controller. The solar charge controller
protected the battery from overcharge as well as to maintain
the battery performance. During autonomous mode, the
ultrasonic sensor was detecting the obstacle. The sensor
transfers the information to the microcontroller regarding
the detected obstacle then the microcontroller will act, and
Retrieval Number: B4920129219/2019©BEIESP
DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.B4920.129219 Published By:
Journal Website: www.ijeat.org Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
4138
& Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249-8958 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-2, December, 2019

Based on the Eqs. (1) and (2), the calculated weight and
Fig. 2 3D design using SolidWorks
power of the blade are 0.7N and 9.33W respectively. These
values are used to calculate the total power consumption.
Eq. (3) is used to calculate the value of the power
consumption by both rear motors and the supplied power by
the solar panel as well as the rechargeable battery.
P = IV (33)
A single motor of the rear wheel is having 12V of rated
voltage and 1.2A of rated current. By implementing Eq. (3),
the power consumption of one motor is 14.4W. Therefore,
the total power consumption is 28.8W for both rear wheels.
However, the designed model is not using motors and blade.
Therefore, an estimation of power consumption for one
motor is 10W. As a result, the total power consumption of
the whole system is 55.8W.
Theoretically, the total possible operation duration is
calculated based on the values obtained from Eq. (1) to (3).
A battery is taking up to 8.43 hours to be fully recharged. In
this model, the battery used is 12V and 7Ah, thus the battery
Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of the smart solar grass cutter is able to supply 84Wh to the proposed prototype.
Therefore, the total operation duration is 2.6 hours which the
Table. 2 Smart Solar Grass Cutter material selections solar panel able to supply for 1.1 hours and the battery is
supplying 1.5 hours.
Materials selection Descriptions
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡
Solar panel PV panel of 12V and 10W η= (44)
𝑃𝑖𝑛
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
Solar charge controller
regulator However, the most important part of any design and
Battery 7AH Li-ion development of a project is the system efficiency. The
Arduino microcontroller Arduino UNO board efficiency is required to prove the reliability of the systems.
DC motor (rear tires) To sum up, it is important to show the improvement of new
Motors
12V 1100RPM motor (blades) prototype compared to the previous studies. In the efficiency
Motor driver MDD10A motor driver calculation, it is necessary to calculate the used power and
Bluetooth module HC-05 type supplied power by the system.

Design Calculation Circuit Connection

In the numerical simulation, a model was implanted with The Smart Solar Grass Cutter is using circuit connection
unlimited variations to produce complex scenarios. These to run the system. Connections were designed using Fritzing
capabilities allow the analysis and understanding the Software. Based on Figure 4, the solar charge control,
interaction of each element in the system. Firstly, the design battery, step down voltage regulator, Arduino UNO
of the model must be developed. The model represents the microcontroller, HC-05 Bluetooth module, MDD10A motor
system itself, whereas the simulation represents the driver, motors and switch were connected to each other. To
operation of the system over time[11]. To conduct a avoid any damage in the electrical appliances, the
simulation and fabrication, a design calculation is connection of the wires must be carried out by using the
introduced and applied. The dimension of the blade is software first and then it must be simulated to avoid any
important as the calculation of weight required the volume possible in the circuit.
Eq. (1). The volume can be obtained from the multiplication
of the length, width and the thickness of the blade.
W = mg (11)
The weight calculation of the blade is important to
calculate the blade power. The blade power can be obtained
by multiplication of the torque and angular velocity as
shown in Eq. (2). The weight of the blade is used to
calculate the torque. The calculation of the blade power is
Fig. 4 Overall circuit connection
important to check the power consumption and the motor
selection. The power of the motor was selected to be higher
than the blade power to ensure that the motor is able to
rotate the used blades.
2π × N
P = Tω = 𝐹𝑑𝑥 (22)
60
Retrieval Number: B4920129219/2019©BEIESP
DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.B4920.129219 Published By:
Journal Website: www.ijeat.org Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
4139
& Sciences Publication
 Design and Development of Smart Solar Grass Cutter

The similar connections are carried out in Proteus Design prototype is improving by around 37% compared to the
Suit (PDS). However, there is a difference in the use of the previous study [12].
motor driver. The real motor driver used for the system is
Table. 3 Experimental result
MDD10A dual motor driver, but it is not available in
Proteus library. Thus, different motor driver is chosen to Test Test 1 Test 2 Test 3
achieve an approximate result of this simulation. The coding Fully charge (hours) 7.8 7.9 8.1
also is changed according to the pins number. Total operation time
2.2 2.0 2.3
(hours)
III.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
According to Table 3, three tests have been conducted
Stress-strain Analysis totest on the operating hours of the fully charged prototype
Based on the calculated design value, the whole prototype and charging time. It can be seen that there are three
body is numerically analyzed by using SolidWorks software different results which are depending on the unpredictable
to analyze the stress-strainof the selected material for this factor such as the weather.Due to the high intensity of the
part which is MS Plate. To perform the simulation, a fixed sunlight, the grass cutter may consumethe solar power
geometry is set at the bottom (green arrow) as shown in directly instead of the battery which led to extend the
Figure 5. Then an estimated 10N external forces is applied operating time. Other than that, the charging time is affected
on the top of the roof of the grass cutter, as shown in Figure by the intensity of the sunlight. High sun light intensity
6. The value is based on the mass of the solar panel and might lead to less charging time. However, the battery itself
weight of the roof material. also can be considered as one of the factors. For example,
Since the prototype is able to withstand all the forces in the drained battery which is 10% capacity might take longer
the stress-strain analysis, it can be concluded that the charging time compared to 30% capacity battery. Based
prototype is mechanically reliable. However, as shown in upon the theoreticalvalue, the total time for 12V 7Ah battery
the Figure 5, there are few red colors on the wall of the body to be fully charge is 8.43 hours. In conclusion, the proposed
due to the weight of the solar panel. It is important to prototypeis taking shorter time to be fully
conduct a further stress-strain analysis to smoothen the rechargedaccording to the three sets of experiments as
process of the prototype fabrications without having any shown in Table 3. Therefore, the Smart Solar Grass Cutter
possible failure. can be a reasonable replacement the conventional grass solar
cutter.

IV.CONCLUSIONS
A workable smart solar grass cutter prototype is focusing
on therenewable energy as the primary sources of energy
has been successfully fabricated with high working
efficiency. Therefore, it can be concluded that the developed
design of the proposedSmart Solar Grass Cutter has
achieved the mainobjectives and it can be further developed
by industry. Smart Solar Grass Cutter is able to reduce the
air pollution and also it is auser-friendlydevice. The grass
cutter is suitable to be used for small application due tothe
shortest operating time,but it is notsuitable for tall height
Fig. 5 Stress-strain analysis by SolidWorks grasses.For future work, there are few recommendations can
be made to develop a better device. Instead of using
polycrystalline solar panel, it is better to used mono-
crystalline solar panel due to the high efficiency. The motor
for the blade should have both high speed and torque.
Higher capacity of rechargeable battery can lead to more
operating time. Lastly, few types of blade to be considered
to cut different types of grasses.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to express gratitude to power
generation unit, institute of power engineering, Universiti
Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) and Tenaga Nasional Berhad
Fig. 6 Prototype of smart solar grass cutter (TNB) for providing research grant to carry out this
Design Analysis research.
Thesmart solar grass cutter is consuming a total power of
55.8W while the supplied power is 59.76W. By adopting
these two values into the Eq. (4), the efficiency of the
system is 93.37%. It is found that the efficiency of this

Retrieval Number: B4920129219/2019©BEIESP

DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.B4920.129219 Published By:
Journal Website: www.ijeat.org Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
4140
& Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249-8958 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-2, December, 2019

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AUTHORS PROFILE
Firas B. Ismail, Power Generation Unit, Institute of Power Engineering,
Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, 43000 Kajang,
Selangor, Malaysia

Nizar F.O. Al-Muhsen, Technical Instructors Training Institute, Middle

Technical University, Al-Za’franiya, Baghdad, Iraq

Fazreen A. Fuzi, Power Generation Unit, Institute of Power Engineering,

Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, 43000 Kajang,
Selangor, Malaysia

A. Zukipli, Power Generation Unit, Institute of Power Engineering,

Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, 43000 Kajang,
Selangor, Malaysia

Retrieval Number: B4920129219/2019©BEIESP

DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.B4920.129219 Published By:
Journal Website: www.ijeat.org Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
4141
& Sciences Publication