LaserCat

Inspiration

We were deeply saddened by the number of people who yearn for pets but are deadly allergic to them. We knew we had to fill this unfortunate gap for them to provide a sense of companionship and comfort.

What it does

The LaserCat moves toward whatever you would like it to be moving toward, since a pet has a mind of its own. It's supposed to make noises like a real pet to create an immersive experience.

How we built it

We started prototyping designs for the legs and then the chassis. We iterated over many leg designs until we found one that was suitable for our needs. We used a pseudo differential drive train to emulate what a quadruped would look like when walking. We incorporated OpenCV to detect objects and colors that the LaserCat would go toward.

Challenges we ran into

We had many difficulties connecting with the Raspberry Pi 5, with the limited options for connectivity, as it was only available through WiFi. The "spring" legs were difficult to design as we were limited to PLA, which is known not to be very flexible. In particular, they didn't function as intended since the purpose of the springs was to contract and then push forward. So the mode of walking was altered to accommodate this challenge. Along those lines, the XL330 servos had built-in current limiters, which affected the overall torque allowed on each motor. Our original leg designs had a large pivot arm, so the torque was unnecessarily large, causing the current limits to activate frequently.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were very proud that the LaserCat was steerable in the end, despite the many difficulties we had in trying to do so. We also managed to implement OpenCV with a PID controller for the distance from the object to follow the object closely. Most notably, we are very proud of the aesthetics of the LaserCat design, which includes a highly detailed and soothing kitty.

What we learned

For a robot that follows an object, it's best not to reinvent the wheel and, in fact, use wheels. We learned that even in the face of overwhelming difficulties, perseverance can still lead to successful results.