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[rohansguliani-blog]

Project Idea: Robotic Pet Sitter

As a prior pet sitter, I have firsthand experience with the user groups that would greatly benefit from an assistive robotic pet sitter. The first primary user group that would benefit from this are individuals who are unable to take the pets on walks, or outside in general, due to a disability. The second large user group would be individuals who have fluctuating schedules, such as college students. Many of my friends have dogs, and often they cannot get to it until late in the night in the case of a busy college day. The same goes for individuals that have a work schedule, and cannot come in the middle of the day to refill food and water bowls and give it a walk. Finally, individuals that go on frequent long vacations could also benefit greatly from a robot that can walk the pets and refill their food. Above all this, the robotic caretaker could simply give the pet positive attention (gentle petting, scratching) when nobody else is available to do so. 

This is definitely not just my personal experience--a Google search of pet sitting options people turn to are either boarding homes or pet sitters, both of which are costly and not as convenient as a robot that could take care of the pet in a constant and consistent matter.

Using the physical, sensory assistance Fetch platform, the primary challenge for the robot would be to secure the pet’s leash and have a basic methodology to take the pet on a walk in an outdoor environment. Secondly, the robot must also detect when the pet excrements, and have a method to clean up after it accordingly. The reason why this robot method is superior to hiring a pet sitter every time is because it would be more cost-efficient in the long term and much more convenient, especially for someone in need for a long term consistent caretaker (such as individuals with busy schedules mentioned earlier).

This solution is feasible because the core problem can be abstracted into an array of relatively simple robotic tasks. Grabbing a leash and ensuring it’s attached to the pet, going through a designated door, going down an outdoor path, observing the pet for excrement-ing behavior, cleaning up after it, and coming back are all tasks a Fetch platform could perform using basic environment navigation, physical manipulation, and transportation. 

[rohansguliani-blog]

Prior Work: Keeping Doggos (and other pets) nourished

Problem: For individuals that are bedridden, or aren’t at home often, the only surefire way to keep pets nourished without this robot was to hire a sitter to take care of the pet. Even beyond this, we could all be guilty of having to come home late one day (e.g. college students with fluctuating schedules) or simply forgetting to refill the bowls. The very first review for this project on Robotshop.com for this product: 

“This unit has made a big difference for my family and my cat Max who can only eat wet food. If we wanted to go somewhere for the day we had to ask a neighbour to come and feed Max. The 5 meal automatic pet feeder was easy to set up through wi-fi with my IPhone and planed feeding to be 3hrs apart without fail every time. This has been a lifesaver!”

- Joanne

(https://www.robotshop.com/en/automatic-pet-feeders.html)

Solution: Companies such as Robotshop have assistive pet feeders for sale. These robots know how much food and water the pet needs and always refill bowls on-time. With extra implementation such as mobile apps, the owner will always know when the pet is fed.