This week, we discussed the main goals for this semester and how to implement each one. We decide the main improvement to make is the mechanical design. We are considering using a different approach of letting cat food out of the reservoir. We will try 3D-printing a screw with a stepper motor driving it. As the screw rotates, cat food will be pushed out and the amount will be much more controllable. We also want to change our way of measuring the amount of food in the bowl. We are thinking adding springs on the bottom of the bowl and measure the distance from the ground to the bowl.
As for software, we have set up a web server on the raspberry pi which can allow the user to remotely control the feeding amount and time interval. In the future, we will also try to send data from the Arduino to web server too so that some stats about the pet will be displayed on the web page for the user to see.