“Design & Fabrication of Snowplow Robot

Using Arduino’’

Session 2016-2020

Project Supervisor

Engr. Asif durez

Group Members

Hamza Mehmood UET-16F-ME-SCET-004

Sajid Ali UET-16F-ME-SCET-055
Hamza Nawaz UET-16F-ME-SCET-097

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

SWEDISH COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY, WAH CANTT
(Affiliated with University of Engineering & Technology Taxila)

July 2020
“Design & Fabrication of Snowplow Robot Using
Arduino’’
A thesis submitted for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of Science
in
Mechanical Engineering

______ __________
Project Supervisor Project Coordinator
Engr. Asif Durez Engr. Aqib

__________
HoD
Mechanical Engineering Department

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

SWEDISH COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY, WAH CANTT
(Affiliated with University of Engineering & Technology, Taxila)

July 2020

i
 Abstract
We considered the idea of creating and proposing a solution that could help people avoid
the winter cold temperature and the fatigue of using the traditional manual shovel to
remove the snow from the walk-way. To do this, I opted for something fun and
technologic. This way I decided to start developing a Snowplow Robot, remotely
controlled, with strong mechanics, control electronics and powerful electric motors. The
result is a miniature version of a real snowplow with caterpillars, motorized, blade.

ii
 Declaration

I declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own, except where explicitly stated
otherwise. In addition this work has not been submitted to obtain another degree or
professional qualification.

___________________
Hamza Mehmood

___________________
Sajid Ali

___________________
Hamza Nawaz

iii
 Acknowledgment

First, I would like to thank Almighty Allah to bless me with the ability and potential to do
research and work.

I wish to thank my Parents and especially my father who supported me a lot during this
whole period of research and provided me helping environment whenever I needed.

I would like to thank my supervisor Engr, Asif Durez and project coordinator Engr. M.
Aqib for their consistent support and guidance during the running of this project.
Furthermore I would like to thank the rest of the undergraduate research team for their
collaborative effort during data collection. I would also like to acknowledge the SCET.

I must acknowledge the advices and companionship of fellows, Mr. Ehsan Razzaq, Mr.
Junaid Adil for their fruitful suggestions and advices that helped me much in this phase
of research.

iv
 Dedication

Our beloved Parents;

For their support and cooperation;
Our kind Teachers;
For their parental guidance,
&
At Last but not the Least
Our caring Friends;
For sharing their insight……!

v
CONTENTS
Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii
Declaration ......................................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgment ............................................................................................................... iv
Dedication ........................................................................................................................... v
List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii
List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix
List of Graphs ..................................................................................................................... x
Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1
Introduction: .................................................................................................................... 1
1.1: Historical Background: ........................................................................................ 1
1.2: Problem statement: .............................................................................................. 2
1.3: Aim and Objectives: ............................................................................................ 3
1.4: Methodology: ....................................................................................................... 3
1.4.1: Theoretical Studies: .......................................................................................... 3
1.4.2: Experimentation: ............................................................................................... 3
1.5: Structure of Thesis: .............................................................................................. 3
Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................................. 5
Literature Review............................................................................................................ 5
2.1.1 Experiment of a practical automatic snowplow: ................................................ 5
2.1.2 Autonomous multi-vehicle formations for cooperative airfield snow shoveling5
2.1.3 Monocular Autonomously-Controlled Snowplow ............................................. 5
2.1.4 Odometry Error Estimation for a Differential Drive Robot Snowplow ............ 6
2.1.5 Development of a Navigation System for the SnowEater Robot ...................... 6
2.1.6 Development of the intake system for the Snoweater robot .............................. 7
2.1.7 Image-Based Navigation for the Snow Eater Robot Using Low-Resolution
USB Camera ............................................................................................................... 7
2.1.8 Navigation Method of PLC Based Mobile Robot.............................................. 8
2.1.9 Airport snow shoveling ...................................................................................... 9
2.1.10 On low-cost and high precision localization of snow plow robot ................... 9
2.1.11 WIRELESS SNOW PLOW CONTROL SYSTEM ...................................... 10
2.1.12 Autonomous Snowplow Design .................................................................... 10
2.2 Literature Review conclusive paragraph: ........................................................... 11
Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 12

vi
 Experimental Setup ....................................................................................................... 12
Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................... 18
Result and Discussion ................................................................................................... 18
Chapter 5 ........................................................................................................................... 19
Conclusion and Future Recommendations ................................................................... 19
Abbreviations .................................................................................................................... 22
Appendix ........................................................................................................................... 23

vii
 List of Figures

Fig.1.1: Historical Background ....................................................................................... 1

Fig.3.1: Schematic diagram .......................................................................................... 13

Fig.3.2: Selected Motor................................................................................................. 14

Fig.3.3: Battery ............................................................................................................. 15

Fig.3.4: Robot Blades ................................................................................................... 16

Fig.3.5: Complete final model ...................................................................................... 16

viii
 List of Tables
(20 points, bold, times new roman)

Please provide the list of figures in a sequential way.

ix
 List of Graphs
(20 points, bold, times new roman)

Please provide the list of graphs (if any) in a sequential way.

x
 Chapter 1
Introduction:
Snowplow is a device mounted on a vehicle in order to remove snow and ice from
outdoor surfaces. A miniature version of a real Snowplow controlled via PlayStation
wireless controller. Why we wanted to make a Snowplow Robot? Since we are not
insensitive to solutions for making life easier, we considered the idea of creating and
proposing a solution that could help people avoid the winter cold temperature and the
fatigue of using the traditional manual shovel to remove the snow from the walk-way.
This way I decided to start developing a Snowplow Robot, remotely controlled, with
strong mechanics, control electronics and powerful electric motors. The result is a
miniature version of a real snowplow with caterpillars, motorized blade (that can be
raised and moved) and light projector mounted on top to light the way in the dark. The
robot can be remotely controlled by the PlayStation remote control.

1.1: Historical Background:

How We Plowed Before Snow-Plows Were Invented.

Figure 1.1: Historical background

1
The first snow plows were horse-drawn wedge-plows made of wood. With the advent of
the automobile, a number of inventors set about to improve existing snow plows. In the
US, the "snow-clearer" is said to have been patented as early as the 1840s, for railways.
The first snow plow ever built specifically for use with motor equipment was in 1913. It
was manufactured by Good Roads Machinery in Kennett Square, PA. and was designed
to meet the exacting requirements outlined by engineers of the New York City Street
Cleaning Bureau. Good Roads is therefore unofficially credited as the originator of the
modern snow plow, though their horse drawn steel blade road graders were used to clear
roads of snow as early as the company's founding in 1878 under their original name
American Road Machinery. Good Roads patented the first four-wheel grader in 1889 thus
making it the first pull grading apparatus patented in the United States. Unlike most early
snow plow manufacturers, Good Roads continues to manufacture snow removal
equipment today under the name Good Roads Godwin, now located in Dunn, North
Carolina. In the early 1920s Good Roads often advertised in The American City
magazine that "...three out of every four snow plows in use throughout the whole United
States are Good Roads Champions." By the mid-1920s Good Roads was manufacturing
snow plows of various shapes and sizes for use on a wide variety of motorized equipment.
Other snow plow manufactures began to follow suit as motorized plows were proven
more efficient than other methods of snow removal.
In 1923, the brothers Hans and Even Overaasen of Norway constructed an early
snowplow for use on cars. This proved to be the start of a tradition in snow-clearing
equipment for roads, railways and airports, as well as the foundation of the company
Overaasen Snow Removal Systems. Carl Frink of Clayton, New York, USA was also an
early manufacturer of automobile-mounted snowplows. His company, Frink Snowplows,
now Frink-America, was founded by some accounts as early as 1920.

1.2: Problem statement:

• Need some safety arrangements to avoid the interference of hand and heat.
• Need automatic mechanism to cook the food properly.
• Quick up the cooking time.

2
1.3: Aim and Objectives:
• A snowplow works by using a blade to push snow to the side to clear it from a
surface.
• To reduce men’s power.
• Clear the snow and ice from small sidewalks.
• Controlled with remote so we can operate it without getting cold.

1.4: Methodology:
1.4.1: Theoretical Studies:
The robot is made up of a frame that supports a motorized blade (that can be raised and
moved) and the traction system composed of electric motors, wheels and caterpillars'
tracks. The chassis is realized with rectangular section iron bars welded together. The
size of the robot is 600X375X240 mm, excluding the blade, and its weight is about 30 kg.
Electrical and the electronic part of the snowplow is based on Arduino Uno, hosting three
shields and interfacing with:
• MOTOR DRIVER
• RELAY BOARD CHANNEL
• DC/DC converter step up
1.4.2: Experimentation:
On basis of theoretical studies and literature review gathered related to snowplow robot’s
experimentation model has been fabricated. Details of which are in Chapter-3

1.5: Structure of Thesis:

This study explains how snowplow robots have reduced the workload. It is effective in
removing heavy snow and for that steel blades are used but if lighter snow must be
removed even rubber blades are good enough. It includes the detailed description of
problem statement, aims and objective, methodology, experimental setup, result and
discussion.

3
Chapter-2: This chapter includes the literature review of snowplow robots. The literature
review also included the easiest ways of functioning and parameters affecting on the
performance.

Chapter-3: present the detail of Experimental setup/model.

Chapter-4: this chapter contains detail analysis of obtained results, through

experimentation.

Chapter-5: concludes the study and identifies the major research limitations and future
recommendations.

4
 Chapter 2

Literature Review

2.1.1 Experiment of a practical automatic snowplow:

(Soichiro Suzuki, Hiroshi Kumagami, Hideyuki Tsunemoto, Hiroyuki Haniu)
(2001)
In this study, two kinds of automatic snowplow are experimentally investigated.
One is a remote-controlled snowplow that works around residence. Another is an
autonomous snowplow that works in wide and simple space such as a car parlcing lot for
a large-scale retail store. The original merchandized snowplow was improved for remote-
control that utilizes communication line of PRS. (Personal Handy-phone System). The
autonomous controller utilizes a vision sensor that is composed of CCD video camera
and a computer for image processing. In addition, design of practical landmark is
examined.
2.1.2 Autonomous multi-vehicle formations for cooperative airfield
snow shoveling
(Martin Hess, Martin Saska, Klaus Schilling) (2007)
In this paper an approach for snow shoveling of airfields using formations of
snowploughs is introduced. The vehicle formations split and reunite depending on the
varying width of the roads to clean. An optimal schedule is derived for the vehicles
guaranteeing complete coverage of the graph which is used to model the airfield. Based
on the schedule a simple path is generated for the formation centers. Even during turns
the generated motion for the car-like robots within the formation ensures proper
breadthways coverage. Finally the method’s applicability is verified by simulations as
well as hardware experiments.
2.1.3 Monocular Autonomously-Controlled Snowplow
(Samantha Craig, Matthew Miltner, Derek Fulk) (2001)
A Monocular Autonomously-Controlled Snowplow (M.A.C.S.) was designed,
implemented and tested for participation in the First Annual Autonomous Snowplow
Competition. The snowplow is all-electric and features four-wheel drive, a 0.8-m wide

5
blade, constant velocity wheel controllers, gyroscopic heading stabilization and a
scanning laser for positioning. The vehicle weighs 537 lbs and measures 1.27 m long,
0.72 m wide and 0.97 m tall. A flexible, Matlab based development environment was
implemented for rapid prototyping and algorithm design. M.A.C.S. uses WiFi
communications for remote control and separate radio-control for power shut-off. During
the competition, M.A.C.S. operated fully autonomous to clear snow from two
competition fields: a 1-m wide by 10-m long “I”-shaped field, and a “U”-shaped field
with a width of 1 m that fits inside a 10-by-5 m rectangle. M.A.C.S. successfully
completed both paths, leaving little snow residue and receiving a score of 68.1 points out
of a possible 75 for plowing
2.1.4 Odometry Error Estimation for a Differential Drive Robot
Snowplow
(Edward J. Kreinar, Dr. Roger D. Quinn) (2014)
This paper presents a velocity-augmented Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) which can
estimate both systematic and non-systematic odometry errors for a differential drive
mobile robot. The proposed EKF is validated both within simulation and using post
processed robot snowplow data from the Institute of Navigation’s 2013 Autonomous
Snowplow Competition. Potential sensor configurations are explored using EKF Monte-
Carlo simulations with Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors or multil-ateration
ranging sensors. Wheel encoders provide a precise and inexpensive measurement of
wheel rotation which, when solved for mobile robot velocity, constitutes odometry.
Wheel odometry is used within typical mobile robot systems to implement localization
and filtering algorithms.
2.1.5 Development of a Navigation System for the SnowEater Robot
(Ernesto Rivas, Kazuhiza Mitobe) (2012)
The development of the SnowEater robot navigation system using a simple camera
and marker is presented in this paper. The SnowEater is a crawler robot developed to
accomplish the snow removal task within an autonomous operation with low power
consumption. Current snow blower and snow plow machines consume a lot of power and
are made to complete the operation under the constant surveillance of the user. While
using these machines due to the high power, the user is responsible for the possible
injuries caused if the task is not completed with carefulness. The SnowEater robot is

6
focused in finding new ways of processing snow within an autonomous system grating a
safer operation all the time. This paper describes the development of a navigation system
for the SnowEater robot using a camera as a sensor. In this sense, the developed system
uses AR Toolkit’s technology for localization and tracking within a hybrid switching
operation. The proposed switching operation is composed by 2 routines using the data
obtained from AR Toolkit. Each routine is switched using the relative distance between
the camera and the marker. The camera is fixed to the robot looking on its forward
direction. The trajectory tracking follows straight lines sequences. These sequences have
a node point in common, the node point makes the sequences to have a radial arrange;
with a radial arrange any convex area can be covered. The tracked trajectories are
independent to the terrain but dependant to the marker position. The straight lines
trajectories are established by constrains of the robot's hardware and motion. This system
was applied in a miniature robot which shares the same nonholonomic motion
characteristics of the Snow Eater robot. First, the robot theoretical model for the
nonholonomic motion is shown. Then, the two controllers' details are expressed. Finally,
the full switching hybrid system execution is presented.
2.1.6 Development of the intake system for the Snoweater robot
(Ernesto Rivas, Kazuhiza Mitobe) (2015)
The development of the intake system for the Snoweater robot is presented in this
paper. The Snow Eater robot is a small, lightweight and low powered autonomous
machine, designed to remove and compact snow from small areas (less than 30 m2). Its
design includes four interacting systems to accomplish the task. These systems are the
intake, crawler, compressing and navigation system. This paper focuses on the intake
system and its cooperative control with the crawler system. The intake system has three
screws to collect the snow. The used control encloses the screw alternating motion and
the tracked robot motion; the stable autonomous operation under different snow
conditions is designed considering the snow income and its processing speed.
Furthermore, an altitude mechanism is presented to enhance the mobility in deep snow
conditions.
2.1.7 Image-Based Navigation for the Snow Eater Robot Using Low-
Resolution USB Camera
(Ernesto Rivas, Koutarou Komagome , Kazuhisa Mitobe, Genci Capi) (2015)

7
 This paper reports on a navigation method for the snow-removal robot called
Snow Eater. The robot is designed to work autonomously within small areas (around 30
m2 or less) following line segment paths. The line segment paths are laid out so as much
snow as possible can be cleared from an area. Navigation is accomplished by using an
onboard low-resolution USB camera and a small marker located in the area to be cleared.
Low resolution cameras allow only limited localization and present significant errors.
However, these errors can be overcome by using an efficient navigation algorithm to
exploit the merits of these cameras. For stable robust autonomous snow removal using
this limited information, the most reliable data are selected and the travel paths are
controlled. The navigation paths are a set of radially arranged line segments emanating
from a marker placed in the environment area to be cleared, in a place where it is not
covered by snow. With this method, by using a low-resolution camera (640 × 480 pixels)
and a small marker (100 × 100 mm), the robot covered the testing area following line
segments. For a reference angle of 4.5° between line paths, the average results are: 4° for
motion on hard floor and 4.8° for motion on compacted snow. The main contribution of
this study is the design of a path-following control algorithm capable of absorbing the
errors generated by a low-cost camera.
2.1.8 Navigation Method of PLC Based Mobile Robot
(Seha Saffar, Fairul Azni Jafar, Syahril Anuar Idris) (2015)
For centuries, the revolution in technology undoubtedly is the robot. Starting from
dream of a man to be free of the drudgery of manual labor using automatic device, until
currently in 21st century where robot has been applied to almost all types of labor
industries. This project is motivated by the lack of application in Programmable Logic
Controller (PLC) as mobile robot navigation system. By developing an algorithm and
analyzing the navigation of mobile robot using PLC, the mobile robot should be able to
follow line hypothetically. An experiment was conducted as the method to prove the
hypothesis. Starting with designing the program using PLC software until assigning the
PLC into the mobile robot with complete circuit wiring. To analyze the navigation of
mobile robot, navigation experiment is done in straight line which is repeated for 5 times
and represented in line graph. From 20 mark points measured for each running time, it
shows that error is lest then 18% which prove that the mobile robot able to navigate using

8
PLC. At the end of the experiment, the result showed the ultimate goal of this project has
been achieved by moving the mobile robot using PLC based controller mobile system
and enable the mobile robot to read and following the line.
2.1.9 Airport snow shoveling
(Martin Saska, Vojtech Vonasek, Tomas Krajnik) (2010)
In this paper, we present results of a feasibility study of airport snow shoveling
with multiple formations of autonomous snowplow robots. The main idea of the approach
is to form temporary coalitions of vehicles, whose size depends on the width of the roads
to be cleaned. We propose to divide the problem of snow shoveling into the sub problems
of task allocation and motion coordination. For the task allocation we designed a multi-
agent method applicable in the dynamic environment of airports. The motion
coordination part focuses on generating trajectories for the vehicle formations based on
the output of the task allocation module. Furthermore, we have developed a novel
approach of formation stabilization into variable shapes depending on the width of
runways. The method using a receding horizon control provides optimal trajectories and
inputs for robots’ actuators during splitting and coupling of formations. The algorithm
can be utilized in arbitrary static and dynamic airport assemblage. All components as well
as the complete system have been verified in various simulations and hardware
experiments in both indoor and outdoor environments, which are presented in the
submitted video.
2.1.10 On low-cost and high precision localization of snow plow robot
(Lei Xu, Junfeng Lai, Xuehai Tu, Yan Zhang) (2017)
High precision localization is essential to autonomous control of unmanned
vehicles (mobile robots). Most existing methods for localization are either complex or
costly, or bear low accuracy and poor robustness. In this work, a structurally simple and
functionally effective localization system is designed and developed for snowplow robots
with successful on-site application. The major hardware involved in the system is a
regular camera mounted on a rotating platform in the robot, together with an artificial
beacon placed nearby the boundary of working envelope of the robot. Simple fuzzy
algorithms are utilized to control the camera, allowing the images of the surrounding area
to be continuously scanned and collected by the camera. The autonomous localization of
the robot is achieved by calculating the relative distance between the robot and the

9
artificial beacon. Numerous experiments and no-site tests demonstrate and confirm that
the designed localization system works well with high precision.
2.1.11 WIRELESS SNOW PLOW CONTROL SYSTEM
(John M. Struck, Lynn W. Schultz, Terry Wendorff) (1996)
A snow plowing system utilizing a wireless radio remote control to control a
snow plow mounted to the front of a vehicle. The plowing system comprises a snow plow
blade, mounting mechanism connected to the vehicle for mounting the snow plow blade
to the vehicle, the snow plow blade being connected to the mounting mechanism, a
transmitter for transmitting a signal through a receiver to actuate, a mechanism for
controlling the snow plow blade, and the receiver being connected to the mechanism for
controlling the snow plow blade. When a snow plow is installed, mounted, or connected
to a vehicle, the installation typically requires that a control means, typically a series of
switches, lights, and indicators, be mounted within the vehicle. Currently, the various
movements and functions of snow plows are controlled by running wires from the lifting
and pivoting means of the snow plow to a set of switches mounted within the vehicle cab.
The switches at a minimum include a plow lifting and lowering switch and a plow left
and right angling switch. Additional switches to control auxiliary plow functions are not
uncommon. Electrical wiring must be run from the actuating means mounted on the plow
or mounted on the vehicle which perform the various plow movements and functions to
the control means mounted within the vehicle cab. The electrical wires must pass through
the vehicle's front grill, engine compartment, fire wall, and dashboard in order to be
connected to the switches mounted in the vehicle cab. Between the plow and the vehicle,
the electrical wires must have a plug and receptacle so that the electrical wires can be
disconnected when the plow is removed. Typically, the electrical wires passing through
the vehicle and switches within the vehicle cab remain permanently mounted within the
vehicle. The present invention eliminates the electrical wires, plug and receptacle, and
permanent mounting of the switches by incorporating a wireless remote control.[11]
2.1.12 Autonomous Snowplow Design
(Samantha Craig, Adam Naab-Levy, Kuangmin Li) (2012)
A monocular autonomously-controlled snowplow (M.A.C.S.) was designed for
participation in the Third Annual Autonomous Snowplow Competition. The name
M.A.C.S. stems from the vehicle’s most prominent and key feature: a single rotating laser.

10
This laser is the main component of the vehicle’s guidance system. The robot’s drivetrain
consists of four electric motors with shaft mounted encoders for velocity feedback. These
motors provide a total of 5 hp to propel the 526-lb snowplow measuring 1.27 m long,
0.96 m wide and 0.97 m tall. Given M.A.C.S.’s size and weight, safety is critical. Wi-Fi
communications are utilized for remote control operations and relay of status information,
as well as a separate radio-control for emergency power shut-off. All of the above
features and components are integrated using a Matlab-based development environment
for rapid prototyping and algorithm design, while low-level commands are implemented
using C++ for speed and latency. During the competition, M.A.C.S. autonomously, and
completely, cleared snow from two competition fields: a 1-m wide by 10-m long “I”-
shaped field, and a double “I”-shaped field with the same length and a width of 2 m,
earning team Ohio University the maximum score for each competition run. Team
M.A.C.S. also earned an additional 2.13 bonus points and 3.48 bonus points, respectively,
for speed of course completion. In addition, Ohio University received a score of 14.36
out of a possible 15 points and a score of 8.41 out of a possible 10 points for the
competition’s presentation and technical paper components, respectfully. Team M.A.C.S.
earned a total of 103.11 points out of a possible 107.5, including bonus points, winning
the competition

2.2 Literature Review conclusive paragraph:

From above mentioned literature, we presented results of a feasibility study of
snow shoveling with multiple formations of autonomous snowplow robots. The main idea
of the approach is to form temporary coalitions of vehicles, whose size depends on the
width of the roads to be cleaned. We propose to divide the problem of snow shoveling
into the sub problems of task allocation and motion coordination. For the task allocation
we designed a multi-agent method applicable in the dynamic environment.

11
 Chapter 3

Experimental Setup

The shield mounted on Arduino are the motor shield to control the three linear motors
that manage the movement of the blade and the PS2SHIELD, which allows you to
interface with the PlayStation 2 (PS2); the latter requires the RX-PS2, which is a 2.4 GHz
radio receiver for sending/receiving specific commands from the aforementioned console.
The wiring diagram of the robot is what you find in these pages; the power source is
made by a series of two lead gel batteries by 7.2 Ah: we take the 12 V from the mid-point
connection of the two, while between the negative and the positive of the series we take
24 volts. A switch (125V, 2×15 ampere) controls the two supply lines. With 12 volts, we
run Arduino, which will power the shields through its pin-strip; a LED (internally
mounting the limiting resistor) will indicate when Arduino is running.
The 12 volt directly from the battery stack is also feeding the power section of the motor
shield. In fact,since the absorption of the three linear actuators (cod. LACT2) is high,it is
not advisable to take the 12 V from Arduino: you opt for the external power supply to be
provided to the appropriate PWR terminal. To use the external power supply, you must
move the jumper (on the shield) near the terminal, between the central and the EXT. The
management of the shield requires a special library for Arduino, supplied with the
component. Each linear actuator is composed by a 12 Vdc gear motor using a worm
screw to move a shaft back and forth along its length (maximum excursion of 5 cm).
The actuator has a dynamic load of 50 kg and a maximum speed of 1.3 cm / s. It is able to
support up to about 250 kg, when not moving, and the torque ensures the maintenance of
the position of the shaft even in the absence of power. Two limit switches provide the
engine to stop when it reaches the maximum extension and contraction, while the diodes
allow reverse direction after reaching the limit point. The actuator is made of metal and is
sealed to protect it from dust and water (IP63 rated).
Let us now turn to the 24 volts supply line, which is feeding the power part of the
snowplow, which are the traction and the projector (optional) sections: the first is based
on the motor driver, to be connected with four wires to the same number of Arduino

12
digital lines. The motor driver is a double bridge power driver capable of driving two
brushed motors continuously with a voltage of max 35 VDC and a current of 15 A (each).
By interfacing with Arduino and using only four digital I / O (2 PWM), you can choose
the rotation direction and speed of the motors. The circuit has four control pins, four
LEDs that indicate the rotation direction of motors, two pins for the board power supply
(5 Vdc) and two aluminum heat sinks located in the rear of the printed circuit, necessary
to dissipate the heat generated during operation at full power.
For the management of the driver by Arduino, the manufacturer provides a special library.
The output terminal blocks allow you to connect the two engines, to be connected as
indicated by the diagram (do not invert polarity, otherwise the tracks will run in reverse!)
using cables with a section of at least 1.5 sq. mm. About control inputs, it should be
respected the connection between Arduino and the controller connector pitch 2.54;
correspondence that is needed when using the library provided by the manufacturer and
our firmware: if you edit them, you have to revise connections.
Remember that DIR are the logic levels to set the motors rotation direction and PWM are
the PWM signals to command the power drivers. To identify the controller connector
contacts it’s sufficient to refer to the silkscreen visible next to it on the component side of
the circuit board. In addition to the engine controller, the 24 volts will power the section
of the LED projector, you can mount or not; if mounted, respected wiring indicated and
remember to take the positive 24 V from the relay card (cod. RELAY1CH). The latter
houses a relay and the respective drive transistor controlled by Arduino through the
Digital I/O 13; Arduino also powers the card, by means of the +5V and ground (GND).
A relay allows turning on and off the projector, targeting action on the corresponding
circuit. The projector is designed to operate at 220 Vac, however, since this voltage is not
available on the robot, to avoid using an inverter we modified the projector by opening it,
removing the AC / DC and bringing the two wires of the power LED directly to the
output of the converter DC / DC (cod. STEPUP30V); the latter is a switching converter
with adjustable output voltage, which should be tuned in order to provide to the LED a
current such as to make it work at about 10 watts. Usually this is achieved at about 30
volts. However remember that the power is given by the product VxI, (current by voltage,
in watts is obtained if V is in volts and I in amperes), then to 30 V, the current

13
consumption should be just under 340 mA. Although the group of LEDs is internally
protected from overcurrent, the STEPUP30V has a limitation of the output current to 2A
so it can be useful to replace it with a DC / DC equipped with output current limit.
Receiving data from the remote control is the job done by the shield PS2SHIELD, for
which the manufacturer makes available the specific library. The shield performs the
receiving and decoding of the command; the radio part is left to the RX _PS2, which is
inserted into the related connector. The last thing to note is the photoresistor, used by
Arduino to detect the ambient lighting and to control the board RELAY1CH so the LED
projector is turned on; the component is fed to the voltage divider by a resistor of 10
kOhm (1/4 W) and is read from the analog input A0 Arduino. The 5 volts are taken from
Arduino 5V. This light sensor does a simple thing: in good lighting conditions, the
resistance of the photoresistor is low and the voltage read by the ADC of Arduino
microcontroller is low and does not trigger the relay board; darkness instead, increases
resistance a lot and the ADC reads a voltage close to 5 volts, which causes the projector
to switch on.

Figure 3.1: Schematic Diagram

3.1. Motors Selection:

We select motors based on its output power. This is a condenser-run type induction motor,
designed for durability in repeated clockwise and counter-clockwise rotations as in door

14
actuators and lifts. This kind of model has high starting torque and short acceleration
period. The maximum continuous running time is 30 minutes. When the motor is stopped
for a long enough time, it can be used for a longer period in a repeated manner. it is
recommended to select an appropriate motor type that will fit the load characteristics and
user’s conditions. Our motor has 3500 rpm and because it is close to gearbox that’s why
its rpm started to decrease at times. These kind of brushes motors are very economical as
well. A carbon brush is a sliding contact used to transmit electrical current from a static
to a rotating part in a motor or generator, and, as regards DC machines, ensuring a spark-
free commutation. Other motor attached with the wedge is window motor with torque of
90rpm.

Figure 3.2: Motor selected for our model

This robot is controlled using Bluetooth app. Signals has been sent to module through
Bluetooth which in turns forward these signals to Arduino. Arduino relates to the
computer system through a code which is running on screen. This code approaches to
relay which in results pushes the motor to move and so does the blades work. 8 relay
modules are used in this model each having 15amp current.

3.2. Battery:
A 12V Lead acid battery is used in our project. We chose this battery because it is more
resistant to

15
 • corrosion,
• overcharging,
• gassing,
• water usage,
• self-discharge, all of which shorten battery life.

Figure 3.3: 12V Battery

3.3. Robot Blades:

Steel blades are the most common snowplow blade and are typically made of heat-treated
steel to avoid breaking on road obstructions (potholes, manhole covers, bridge joints). As
compared to rubber blades which are lightweight blades that have a squeegee affect, and
work particularly well to clear light snow.

16
 Figure 3.4. Blades

Figure 3.5. Complete Model

17
 Chapter 4

Result and Discussion

18
 Chapter 5

Conclusion and Future Recommendations

(20 points, bold, times new roman)

Write conclusion of your thesis here. (12 points, times new roman with line space of 1.5)

Maximum of 1 page.

19
 References

[1] Suzuki, S., Kumagami, H., Miyakoshi, K., Haniu, H., & Tsunemoto, H.
(2001). Experimental study on practical automatic

snowplows. 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집, 1201-1204.

[2] Hess, M., Saska, M., & Schilling, K. (2007, September). Autonomous
Multi-vehicle Formations for Cooperative Airfield Snow Shoveling.
In EMCR.

[3] Craig, S., Miltner, M., Fulk, D., Pelgrum, W., & van Graas, F. (2001,
November). Monocular Autonomously-Controlled Snowplow.
In Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of The Satellite
Division of the Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011) (p. 2127).
[4] Kreinar, E. J., & Quinn, R. D. (2014, May). Odometry error estimation
for a differential drive robot snowplow. In 2014 IEEE/ION Position,
Location and Navigation Symposium-PLANS 2014 (pp. 1122-1129). IEEE

[5] Rivas, E., & Mitobe, K. (2012, December). Development of a navigation

system for the SnowEater robot. In 2012 IEEE/SICE International
Symposium on System Integration (SII) (pp. 378-383). IEEE.

[6] Rivas, E., & Mitobe, K. (2015). Development of the intake system for the
SnowEater robot. Mechatronics, 28, 27-34.

[7] Rivas, E., Komagome, K., Mitobe, K., & Capi, G. (2015). Image-based
navigation for the snoweater robot using a low-resolution USB
camera. Robotics, 4(2), 120-140.

20
[8] Saffar, S., Jafar, F. A., & Idris, S. A. (2015, October). Navigation method
of PLC based mobile robot. In 2015 12th International Conference on
Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (URAI) (pp. 507-511). IEEE.

[9] Saska, M., Vonásek, V., & Krajník, T. (2010, October). Airport snow
shoveling. In 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots
and Systems (pp. 2531-2532). IEEE.

[10] Xu, L., Lai, J., Tu, X., & Zhang, Y. (2017, May). On low-cost and high
precision localization of snowplow robot: A fuzzy and visuality approach.
In 2017 29th Chinese Control And Decision Conference (CCDC) (pp. 6078-
6083). IEEE.

[11] Struck, J. M., Schultz, L. W., & Wendorff, T. (1996). U.S. Patent No.
5,524,368. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

[12] Craig, S., Naab-Levy, A., Li, K., Kollar, R., Duan, P., Pelgrum, W., ... &
de Haag, M. U. (2013, September). Autonomous snowplow design. In Proc.
ION GNSS+ (pp. 2044-2057).

21
 Abbreviations

MED: Mechanical Engineering Department

ASME: American Society for Mechanical Engineers

RPM: Revolution per Minute

22
 Appendix
(20 points, bold, times new roman)

Annexure (if any) should be placed at the end of thesis report.

Note about Binding and Number of Copies to be submitted:

4 hard bound copies of the thesis are to be submitted for final thesis examination. Hard

bound means permanently stitched and bound in BLACK COVER with the title of the

dissertation and your name clearly inscribed on the cover as per format given at the first

page of template in GOLDEN color.

23
 Arduino code
Annexure
#define LR 4
#define FB 5

int in1 = 13;

int in2 = 12;
int in3 = 11;
int in4 = 10;
int in5 = 9;
int in6 = 8;

char state = 'N';

void setup() {

Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(in1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(in2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(in3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(in4, OUTPUT);
pinMode(in5, OUTPUT);
pinMode(in6, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(in1, HIGH);

24
 digitalWrite(in2, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in4, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in5, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in6, HIGH);

pinMode(LR,INPUT);
pinMode(FB,INPUT);

void loop() {

if(Serial.available() > 0){

state = Serial.read();
}
if(state=='F')
{
Serial.println("Forward");
digitalWrite(in1, LOW);
digitalWrite(in2, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in3, LOW);
digitalWrite(in4, HIGH);
}
else if(state=='B')
{
Serial.println("Backwards");
digitalWrite(in1, HIGH);

25
 digitalWrite(in2, LOW);
digitalWrite(in3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in4, LOW);
}

else if(state=='R')
{
Serial.println("Right");
digitalWrite(in1, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in2, LOW);
digitalWrite(in3, LOW);
digitalWrite(in4, HIGH);

}
else if(state=='L')
{
Serial.println("Left");
digitalWrite(in1, LOW);
digitalWrite(in2, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in4, LOW);
}
else if(state=='d')
{
Serial.println("Actuattor ON");
digitalWrite(in5, LOW);
digitalWrite(in6, HIGH);

}
else if(state=='q')

26
 {
Serial.println("Actuattor OFF");

digitalWrite(in6, LOW);
digitalWrite(in5, HIGH);

}
else if(state=='N')
{
Serial.println("Stop !!");
digitalWrite(in1, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in2, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in4, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in5, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in6, HIGH);
}
else{
digitalWrite(in1, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in2, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in4, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in5, HIGH);
digitalWrite(in6, HIGH);

27