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Week18 - Applications & Implications

The task of the assignment​

Plan a final project masterpiece that integrates the range of units covered, answering:

  • What will it do?
  • Who's done what beforehand?
  • What sources will you use?
  • What will you design?
  • What materials and components will be used?
  • Where will come from?
  • How much will they cost?
  • What parts and systems will be made?
  • What processes will be used?
  • What questions need to be answered?
  • How will it be evaluated? Your project should incorporate 2D and 3D design,
  • additive and subtractive fabrication processes,
  • electronics design and production,
  • embedded microcontroller design, interfacing, and programming,
  • system integration and packaging Where possible, you should make rather than buy
  • the parts of your project Projects can be separate or joint, but need to show individual
  • mastery of the skills, and be independently operable

Project Objectives​

What will it do?​

  • A art-designed cat shelter will be designed and produced which contains environment sensing function (temperature, position of the shelter, etc)
  • A auto-feeder will be designed and produced with remote feeding function. It also contains remain food and water information

Who's done what beforehand?​

My girlfriend is also a "cat person". She cares about the stray cat around the world, so she downloads an application call 街貓app, which is used for feed the stray cats remotely. In this app, lots of cat shelters are set somewhere and it can feed the cats by applications. Users can pay for buying cat foods and feed the stray cats remotely.

In application 街貓app, users can monitoring the movement of stray cats through the IoT camera of the cat shelters. But the design of these cat shelters are open, it can not help the stray cats keep warm. So I want to design a cat shelter which also can monitoring the cat is get inside the shelter or not, monitoring the remain water and cat food, and also monitoring the temperature inside the shelter.

What sources will you use?​

Here's the source, mainly software will be used:

  • CorelDraw - for 2D layout, mainly for cat shelter
  • Solidworks - for 3D design for all components in this final project
  • KiCAD - for PCB design
  • MQTTX - for testing MQTT communication and data transfer
  • MCU - control unit for my final project

What will you design?​

In this project, there are 2 main part:

  • Cat Shelter
  • Auto-Feeder

Cat Shelter provides stay place for stray cats. The environment data will be sent to owners of shelter. Such as

  • Temperature
  • Position of shelter
  • Cat get in the shelter or not

Auto-Feeder provides remote feeding function and monitoring the remain food and water.

Implementation Details​

Materials and Components:​

Here's the materials of my project.

ComponentFunctionPriceCountLink
XIAO ESP32C3Controllers for getting sensor data9.992link
RYS352A GNSS AntenniaGetting position data10.002link
HX711 load cell sensorSensing remain cat food6.791link
HS-S37A Water level sensorSensing remain water1.791link
HC-SR504 Ultrasonic sensorDetect the cat inside the shelter9.991link
28BYJ-48 Stepper MotorFor activator of auto feeder14.591link
HDF board (1m*1m)Car shelter making301link
eSUN PLA+Auto-Feeder Printing25.991link

What parts and systems will be made?​

For cat shelter part, the shelter will be made by HDF boards by CNC, it's finished in week 7 assignment.

Some sensors will be placed for sensing position data, temperature, cat-in-shelter state and grouped into a designed box. It will be placed at the top of the shelter.

There's 3 sensors for shelter:

  • BDS Antennia
  • UltraSonic Sensor
  • DHT11 Humidity and Temperature Sensor

For auto-feeder part, the feeder will be 3D printed.

2 sensors are installed in it:

  • Load cell with HX-711 amplifier
  • HS-S37A water level sensor

Both information of shelter and auto-feeder are shown in webpages.

In environment sensing page, the sensing data are shown in same page for monitoring temperature data, position data, etc.

In auto-feeder page, there's a button for remote controlling the feeder and get the sensing data such as remain food by weight.

2 interface are programmed by javascript. The sensing data is transferred by MQTT protocol and display the sensing data onto the webpages.

What processes will be used?​

Cat shelter - Computer-controlled-machining(CNC)(Substractive Manufacutring)

A box for containing sensors is designed and 3D-printed(Additive Manufacutring).

A PCB is designed for integrating the sensors. It's made by CNC machining.(Substractive Manufacutring)

Auto-Feeder - 3D printing(Additive Manufacutring)

A mechanism is designed and a prototype is 3D-printed for testing. Then a further prototype is designed and 3D-printed for testing function.

The PCB of auto-feeder is also designed and made by CNC machining(Substractive Manufacutring).

What questions need to be answered?​

Key Questions

  1. System Stability: How can we ensure the system stability under continuous use?
  • Implement robust testing protocols including stress testing to ensure durability.
  • Use high-quality, durable components that can withstand continuous operation.
  • Regular software updates to address any vulnerabilities or bugs that could affect stability.
  • Design precautions for prevent machical error, such as food stuck of the auto-feeder.
  1. User Interface Optimization: How can the user interface be optimized for ease of use and accessibility?
  • Design the interface with simplicity and intuitiveness in mind, ensuring that all functionalities are easily accessible.
  • Conduct usability testing with a diverse group of users to gather feedback and make necessary adjustments.
  1. Module Communication: How will different modules communicate efficiently and securely via MQTT?
  • Use MQTT protocol with TLS/SSL encryption for secure data transmission between modules.
  • Implement quality of service (QoS) levels within MQTT to prioritize critical data transmission.
  • Regularly update and patch the MQTT brokers and clients to protect against vulnerabilities.

How will it be evaluated?​

  1. Functionality
  • Test whether the system can work well such as getting environment data and display on the website, remote-feeding is work for auto-feeder.
  1. User Experience
  • The final project will be tested by my cats and take a note for improving the function.
  1. Performance Measure system responsiveness and reliability during various operations, focusing on command execution.

Resource​