Stray Pooch
Date
2011-12-06Author
Clark, Allen
Hosch, Richard
Dinh, Kieu
Haroon, Bilal
Advisor
Harrison, John; McGuire, TomMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
They say dog is man’s best friend; for the elderly this is exceptionally true. Finding
a way to allow those who have pets but are unable to interact with them do to
limited mobility is the whole goal of the Stray Pooch Dog Toy. The Stray Pooch
Toy itself comprises of micro-controllers, two hobby motors, a gearbox, and a
single axle support frame. To be included in the overall process is the XBee
transmitter and receiver set; this allows the toy to be controlled by a laptop or
desktop computer system. For the software, there are two programs: one for the
micro-controller and the other for the computer to send commands to the ball via
the XBee set (i.e. push the “s” button for forward movement and the “w” button for
the opposite direction). It is the idea that this new concept of interacting with a dog
will work on an acceptable level given the right breed combination, (meaning the
size of toy is not intimidating to the dog,) and some encouragement from the dog’s
owner. Interest in the Stray Pooch design has been addressed among family and
friends of the designers and improvements have been acknowledged and not yet
implemented based on the comments provided to the designers.
Description
A robotic dog toy designed to help those with limited mobility play with their beloved pets.