Final

Ben Carpenter and Nicolas Alvarado

The Benico is a two-part, fully automated robot that clears snow from the driveway and sprays it out onto the lawn. The device allows the user to automatically clear their driveway. The first part of the system, called the Collector, is a robot that moves in semi-circular paths around the Thrower, each time picking up a small amount of snow and placing it onto the Thrower. The Thrower is the second part of the system and remains in a stationary position at the side of the driveway.  It consists of a slippery ramp that the collected snow slides down and a rapidly spinning 3D-printed impeller that sprays the snow out onto the lawn. The Collector moves around collecting the snow and pushes it on to the ramp ready to slide down the slope into the Thrower.  This reduces the effort required in collecting and shoveling the snow off the driveway.  The Collector has a sensor that is programmed to activate when snow hits the sensor.  In this way, the system is activated automatically to start when it snows and so ensures that there is not a large build-up of snow on the driveway.