Autonomous Mowing-Improving Efficiency and Safety of Roadside Vegetation Control

This paper discusses the use of autonomous mowers for application in highway vegetation control. In recent work by these writers, a unique autonomous mower testbed has been developed to prove the efficacy of such an approach. The testbed's uniqueness comes from its relatively low cost and its new and accurate sensing method. The mowing performance is evaluated based on the consistency of consecutive mowing paths from actual outdoor testing. Then, a hypothetical implementation is used to evaluate the practicality of the system in California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) applications. Results show that autonomous mowers have the potential to significantly reduce Caltrans' dependence on herbicide, improve worker and public safety, lead to enhanced levels of environmental quality, and decrease the operation's costs.