Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
13 Autonomous Lawn Patrol Robot for Stray Cat Deterrence
 Chentao Fang
Jiawei Kong
Ronglong Liu
Yanchen Liu
 design_document1.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
final_paper2.pdf
proposal1.pdf
 Yu Lin
# Problem

In many residential neighborhoods, especially in suburban areas in the United States, houses are often surrounded by open lawn spaces. Stray or feral cats may frequently enter these private areas, which can lead to hygiene concerns, property maintenance issues, and disturbance to residents.

Existing solutions for preventing animals from entering private yards mainly rely on manual intervention, physical barriers, or simple deterrent devices. These approaches are often inconvenient, inconsistent, or ineffective over long-term use. Therefore, there is a need for a more automated and intelligent system that can monitor outdoor spaces and safely deter unwanted animals.

With the advancement of mobile robotics and vision-based sensing technologies, an autonomous patrol robot provides a promising approach to continuously monitor the environment and respond to detected targets.

# Solution Overview

The proposed solution is an autonomous mobile robot designed to patrol residential lawn areas and deter stray cats. The robot will move within a predefined region using a four-wheel differential-drive chassis. A camera mounted on a servo-driven gimbal will be used to detect and track cat targets through a vision-based recognition system.

When a target is detected and confirmed within an appropriate range and direction, a spray-based deterrence mechanism will be activated to safely drive the animal away. The robot’s behavior will be coordinated using a finite state machine that manages transitions between patrol, target tracking, and deterrence modes.

Although the intended application scenario is outdoor lawn monitoring, prototype testing and functional validation will be conducted in controlled indoor environments such as tabletop setups due to practical constraints.

# Solution Components

## Subsystem I: Mobile Platform
- Hardware I.a: Four-wheel differential-drive chassis
- Hardware I.b: DC drive motors and wheel assemblies
- Hardware I.c: Motor driver module
- Software I.d: Basic motion control algorithm

## Subsystem II: Vision and Tracking System
- Hardware II.a: Camera module
- Hardware II.b: Servo-driven camera gimbal
- Software II.c: Cat detection algorithm
- Software II.d: Target tracking and alignment logic

## Subsystem III: Deterrence Mechanism
- Hardware III.a: Spray nozzle or water outlet
- Hardware III.b: Water pump module
- Hardware III.c: Turret or nozzle positioning servo
- Software III.d: Deterrence activation control

## Subsystem IV: Control System
- Hardware IV.a: Microcontroller unit (e.g., Arduino)
- Software IV.b: Finite state machine for behavior coordination
- Software IV.c: Motor and servo control routines

## Subsystem V: Power and Electronics
- Hardware V.a: Rechargeable battery pack
- Hardware V.b: Voltage regulation modules
- Hardware V.c: Electrical wiring platform (breadboard, perfboard, or PCB)

# Criterion for Success

- The robot can patrol a predefined test area autonomously or semi-autonomously.
- The vision system can detect a cat-like target under typical indoor lighting conditions.
- The camera gimbal can maintain stable tracking of the target.
- The deterrence mechanism activates only when the target is within a defined range and direction.
- The control system correctly switches between patrol, tracking, and deterrence modes.
- The differential-drive chassis can perform forward motion and turning maneuvers reliably.
- The integrated system demonstrates repeatable performance during multiple indoor validation tests.

Logic Circuit Teaching Board

Featured Project

Partners: Younas Abdul Salam, Andrzej Borzecki, David Lee

The proposal our group has is of creating a board that will be able to teach students about logic circuits hands on. The project will consist of a board and different pieces that represent gates. The board will be used to plug in the pieces and provide power to the internal circuitry of the pieces. The pieces will have a gate and LEDs inside, which will be used to represent the logic at the different terminals.

By plugging in and combining gates, students will be able to see the actual effect on logic from the different combinations that they make. To add to it, we will add a truth table that can be used to represent inputs and outputs required, for example, for a class project or challenge. The board will be able to read the truth table and determine whether the logic the student has created is correct.

This board can act as a great learning source for students to understand the working of logic circuits. It can be helpful in teaching logic design to students in high schools who are interested in pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering.

Please comment on whether the project is good enough to be approved, and if there are any suggestions.

Thank you