Mapping Plant Performance

Project Summary

Lawn and landscape management makes use of water, fertilizers, and pesticides to maintain a healthy turf. These resources are often overused, as not all areas of turf require the same resource allocation. In partnership with Toro, we developed a sensor to enable precision lawn management. Precision management is the process of only using resources where, when, and in the quantity they are needed. Our light-based sensor measures the amount of grass being cut by a mower in real time. This data provides insight into the health of the turf based on time and location, enabling precision lawn management.

Design Goal

The goal of this project was to design and develop a sensor prototype that can accurately measure grass yield in real time.

Design Constraints

• The device can accurately predict grass yield across varied turf conditions.
• Grass yield measurements are gathered in real time.
• The device can be operated while bagging or mulching.
• Grass yield data collected by the device can be extracted and analyzed.
• Ansys model of wind turbine to be used for energy recovery.