Problem Identification
With any new member of the family, the care for that member, especially when that member is of the significantly dependent variety, requires a noticeable amount of time. The care for a pet is an everyday, multiple time per day job; they need to be fed, they need water, they need to get exercise. In other words they need a lot of attention, and when the pet owner(s) leave the house, the pet is left unsupervised and uncared for as long as they stay alone. The device that we’re proposing has the goal of alleviating the most important part of animal care, their diet. This system would constantly monitor the water and food levels of the dog’s water and food bowls and refill each based upon the current content of the bowls and a preset schedule. The pet owner would interact with the system via a screen interface by which parameters such as meals per day and weight per meal are entered. For the system to know how much food or water to add to the system, scales would be attached to each bowl to monitor the weight.
Existing Solutions
- Feedango Automatic Pet Feeder [1][2]
The Feedango Automatic Pet Feeder dispenses pet food based on a preset feeding schedule. Integrated with a smartphone application, the user can control the feeding intervals at any time. The system also keeps track of every time the pet eats to better manage the pet’s diet.
2. Petnet SmartFeeder [3]
The SmartFeeder allows pet owners to schedule meal times and portion sizes for each meal. Also integrated with a smartphone application, the system sends users a notification after every meal.
3. Petnet SmartBowl [4]
The SmartBowl utilizes a scale in the bowl to measure how food is currently in the bowl. The user can set the portion size for each meal. ASthe user puts food in the bowl, the weight is continuously measured. The bowl will alert the user through use of LEDs when they have put enough food in the bowl.
System Setup
The system contains three main elements: a user interface, a food dispensing system, and a water dispensing system. The user interface allows the user to interact with the system, while the food and water dispensing systems make use of reserves to hold the food and water and dispenses them at the appropriate time.
The user interacts with the system through a touch screen LCD. The user is able to set the number of meals per day, the weight of each meal, and the times at which they would like the meals to occur. The user interface includes multiple screens including a main screen, a screen to view the current feeding schedule, setting the current time, setting the number of meals and weight of each meal, and setting the feeding schedule.
The water dispensing system contains two main elements: a force sensor and a solenoid valve. The force sensor, placed underneath the bowl, constantly reads the amount of weight of water that is in the bowl. When the weight dips below a preset threshold, the system opens the solenoid valve for half a second allowing for water to flow from the reserve into the bowl. If the weight of the water still does not reach the threshold after dispensing, the system will wait five seconds before opening the valve for another half second.
The food dispensing system contains three main elements: a force sensor, a servo, and the real time clock. When the real time clock reaches the time that a meal was set for the system checks the weight reading from the force sensor that is under neath the bowl. If the weight reading is less than the meal weight set by the user, than the servo rotates to cause an opening underneath the food reserve allowing the food to fall into the bowl. The system re-checks the weight and if it is below the meal weight portion, more food is dispensed. This process repeats until there is enough food in the bowl. When a meal time occurs and there is already enough food in the bowl, that meal is skipped.
Relevant Legal Relations
There have been numerous patents that have been granted for systems that are used to automatically feed pets. Although these systems are similar to ours on a high level, the food dispensing mechanism differs. Most of these systems use a drive shaft to allow food to flow from a basin to the bowl while others use moving plates to allow food to fall though an opening. Our system differs to these due to our different food dispensing system, and the inclusion of water dispensing being integrated into the system.
Below are patents that are similar to our system:
- US 6135056 A: Automatic pet food dispenser at definite times and for a definite quantity [5]
- Differs through use of a screw conveyor rotated by a motor for food dispensing.
- Does not include water dispensing system.
- US 6227143 B1: Automatic dry pet food dispenser
- Utilizes motor drive camshaft for food dispensing.
- Does not include water dispensing system.
References
[1] “LG Rolling Bot Will Monitor Your Home, Freak out Your Pets (Hands-on).” CNET, 21 Feb. 2016,
www.cnet.com/products/lg-rolling-bot/preview/.
[2].Delaney, John R. “Feed and Go Automatic Pet Feeder.” Pcmag.com, Pcmag, 26 Oct. 2015,
www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2493785,00.asp.
[3] “SmartFeeder.” Automatic Pet Feeder, the SmartFeeder by Petnet, petnet.io/smartfeeder.
[4] “SmartBowl.” Petnet SmartBowl for Cats and Dogs, petnet.io/smartbowl.
[5] https://www.google.com/patents/US6135056
[6] https://www.google.com/patents/US6227143