Hello All, I am a robotics enthusiast. I have a lovely 5 year old bichon poodle named Max. I love Max, but don't love picking up his poop. So I have started, for fun, to design a robot that will autonomously wander the backyard, and pick up his poop.
As I work on this robot, I am curious to know if others would be interested in this technology. Is there a case to make more than one?
Would you buy a robot that autonomously roams your backyard searching for poop, detecting and picking it up as it travels? If yes, what would you be willing to pay for the robot?
There are various problems with the Roomba, which would be magnified in a back yard where surfaces are rarely flat, so I would anticipate lots of glitches.
Second, while it is certainly not a job to look forward to, daily picking up can let one know about health changes/parasites.
I imagine this robot would be very dirty and not something I would not want to clean. So minimizing parts that the poop actually touches would be a plus.
A lot of dogs might try to attack the robot while it was moving around as if it were a vacuum or a mop.
It's a lot easier to spend 1 minute picking up a poop than it would be to spend probably an 1/2 hr doing 'cleaning maintenance' on a stinky machine that has been filled with dog poop for a day or three.......even if you use a digest chemical in it!! JMO!
Detecting the poop, is the most technically challenging aspect of the project. I don't have that solved yet, but Im exploring different options, which include LIDAR, and jpg rgb imaging software.
I agree, making the bot low maintenance and minimizing contact parts is key. Protecting the bot from pets, and pets from the bot is also key. I plan to protect the pets from the bot, with safety bumpers (bot stops on contact). Protecting the bot from angry dogs however - that I'm not sure about. Maybe a loud horn, when the bot is touched.
It is a great idea.
But I guess you can spend just a minute to pick up the poop than spending hundreds to buy a robot to do that?
And how can the robot recognise poop on the ground? Through smell? Makes me curious..
This doesn't sound practical. Poop isn't always the same consistency. Grass is different lengths and there's also different terrains like dirt, gravel, mud, and pavement to consider. I think it would create a much worse mess and hassle than it would prevent. Also like the others said the clean-up would be worse than just picking it up with a scooper or bag.
We’re working on this project right now. We showed our prototype as CES 2017 and was ranked #4 by Robotics Trends for start-ups at CES. Follow us on Facebook to stay posted!
You’re right - a huge part of the process is in the computer vision recognition and navigation, which we’ve spent over a year coding and training.
We’ve also designed paper inserts which will compost together with the poop after pick-up and deposition into an in-ground composting unit, in order to keep the robot hygienic.
It’s taken 5 professional engineers with +100 years combined industry experience to tackle this over the last year or so - but we’re making good progress and will be coming soon to Kickstarter!
Instead of trying to dig poop out of the grass, rocks, sand and other terrain, why not just fry it on the spot with a laser? That way you don't have to go through all the sanitation process. You could have the thing go through a washer each time it parks too.
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