Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 | Self-cleaning cat litter box |
Chi Zhang Jian Chen Weiman Yan |
Xihang Wu | design_document4.pdf final_paper1.pdf presentation1.pdf proposal2.pdf |
|
| PROBLEM Self-cleaning cat litter box is an existing product. However, it has three downsides. One is that the machine could only deposit waste into a drawer but not remove it from the litter box, thus the smelling is still bad inside the box and the parasite from cat waste may cause infection. Second, the product is too expensive ($500+). The third problem is that this product does not support remote control. Users would not be able to clean the box if they are not physically near the box. SOLUTION OVERVIEW Our design is to both gather the cat waste and pack them into a plastic bag. We first detect whether the cat is inside the box. If not, we would close the box door and start cleaning. After the process is finished, the door would be opened again. Also, our design could be controlled remotely by phone or computer so that the user could clean the litter box even when they are not at home. SOLUTION COMPONENTS Subsystem #1: Power Source: This could be AC Power Source since most likely it will be used in house; it is convenient to supply power at a stationary pose. Subsystem #2: The Litter Box: The litter box will be a normal boat-shape litter box. We would make some change on the sidewall and both front and back to fit our other subsystems. Subsystem #3: Cleaner function: We plan to design a comb shape cart to do the filter job. (size of the comb gap should be able to collect the waste but pass the cat litter). The comb cart is controlled by four motors that can move along the sidewall of the box. The cart has two modes of motion: one is pushing from one side to another to do the filter work; second is push the waste up to pour it into the plastic bag. Subsystem #4: Waste Collection: We would make an open pouring area on the back of the box. We plan to use another four motors to control the waste collecting process. Two motors would be used to open the pouring area door and the other two motors would be used to tight the trash bag. Subsystem #5: Safe Security: To prevent the situation that cats are inside the box while the machine starts to clean, we plan to place sensors to detect whether cats are nearby. We are thinking about ultrasonic or PIR sensors. PIR might have an accuracy problem, while ultrasonic may annoy cats (since cats can hear up to 64,000HZ). We would do more research on that and find the best solution. Subsystem #6: Control System: One of our team members had experience with IOT. We would like to design the whole product controlled by a phone connected through wifi. We plan to program an ESP32 dev board with Arduino IDE and send data to the cloud using ThingSpeak platform. CRITERION FOR SUCCESS Our criterion for success would be to have our litter box self-cleaned and all waste packed inside a plastic bag without human effort. The clean system should be able to remove at least 90% of the waste. The plastic bag should be fastened so that the parasite from cat waste (that could cause infection) would not leak outside. With the end product, the user should be able to use a phone or computer to clean the cat litter box remotely at any desired time. |
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