CPRE 288 Final Project

Project Title: Autonomous CyBot Lawn Mower
Authors: John Murphy, Josh Sadler, Ryan Rockey
Date: December 13, 2025

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📌 Project Overview

This project demonstrates the design and implementation of an autonomous embedded robotic system using the Iowa State CyBot platform, which uses a Texas Instruments Tiva TM4C123GH6PM microcontroller. The system integrates multiple hardware systems with low-level C software to autonomously navigate a bounded environment, detect obstacles, and return to its starting position.

The CyBot uses sensor feedback to follow the perimeter of a test field marked with white tape, avoid collisions, and communicate status information to a host computer via a GUI. The project emphasizes concepts such as interrupts, PWM control, ADC sampling, and real-time decision making.

Objectives:

• Interface with external hardware components:
  • Drive wheels and read from cliff sensors using the iRobot open_interface library
  • Servo motor controlled via PWM for sensor scanning
  • IR distance sensor read using the ADC
  • Ping (sonar) distance sensor using hardware interrupts
• Autonomously navigate the perimeter of a test field bounded by white tape
• Detect and avoid obstacles using onboard sensors
• Return to the original starting position upon completion
• Communicate sensor data and system status to a Python Tkinter GUI