Pet Pals

Inspiration

Pets need mental and physical stimulation to live a happy and motivated life. Sadly, owners are not always readily available to give their pets all of the attention they need throughout the day. Life inevitably gets in the way. With the Pet Pal, owners can find solace knowing that their pets will be kept occupied whenever they get bored. The hope for the Pet Pal is that it will exercise the pet by reacting to his movements, encouraging the pet to have fun through interaction when humans aren't around!

What it does

The pet pal will move around the room avoiding obstacles as it gets too close to a solid object. If something were to hit the pet pal and cause a sudden jerk in its movement, the pet pal`s eyes will light up red to simulate it getting angry.

How I built it

The building process was very sporadic. We had an idea of what our robot should do but didn't know how to implement the functions and features. We ended up using the Arduino microcontroller to operate the robot since it is simpler and we are more familiar with it. The exterior is made of styrofoam and fur. The electronic parts mostly consist of arduino boards, jumper wires, and various sensors all connected through breadboard.

Challenges I ran into

-the xyz accelerometer had a lot of noise making it difficult for accurate position sensing -infrared proximity sensor is also not reliable -motors are weak and have trouble carrying the weight of the robot, also goes very slow

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

-Building our first robot. -Developing better programming, mechanical, artistic and electrical skills. -It looks cute :-)

What I learned

• Better programming, mechanical, artistic and electrical skills.

What's next for Pet Pal

We hope to add animal sounds and lasers first and foremost to the Pet Pal. Squeeks, boops and beeps with excite pets and provide a new audio environment to the room. With laser pointers (specifically meant for feisty cats), the Pet Pal will provide an external form of interaction. Shooting lasers across the room for the Pet Pal's eyes and mouth will encourage cats and other pets to move about the room, and not just around the Pet Pal. For dogs, we hope to include squeeky and crinkly parts to use their mouths on. The Pet Pal will become an all in one play toy!

Built With

• arduino
• creativity
• heart-and-soul
• randomstuff