Check out the full project Devpost here!
We thought, why entertain your pet, when you can get a robot to do it for you? We have seen offerings from many companies and have decided that they don't quite reach the mark in terms of appearances, these offerings are often very unalive, and uninspiring. We wanted to create an offering that resembled and imitated a cat!
About the project:
- Robo Cat acts as a friendly cat companion for any pet left home alone by engaging with pets and distracting them
- Utilizes a laser pointer, meowing audio sound, tail wagging abilities, and movement to provide audiovisual distracts for pets
The process:
- Utilized 2 DC motors and a promiximity sensor to drive while avoiding obstacles (enabling turning when the robot is close to hitting an object)
- Coded a buzzer to operate at different frequencies in order to imitate the meowing of a cat
- Implemented a servo motor to constantly move the tail mechanism between certain angles to imitate the wagging of a tail
- Linked a dual servo motor system to move the laser randomly within a 3-d space
- Connected an LCD monitor to the side of the mechanism to display a welcome message, instructions and other messages
- Integrated the entire system with
ArduinoandC++to support power management and randomization of controls
This project was created within a 24-hour timeline as part of the MakeUofT 2023 hackathon.
