Automated Hog Trap with Counterweight Containment
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional hog traps are heavy, difficult to transport, and have a compact trap door that deters wild hogs due to their design, limiting their effectiveness in remote locations and animal containment.
Innovation Solution
An automated hog trap system featuring a modular, easily transportable frame with a circular enclosure and counterweight-activated containment system, utilizing a trip wire or electronic activation, and a resilient netting material to enclose animals without a small opening, allowing multiple animals to be trapped and providing a familiar shape for entry.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional traps use gravity to close doors, then containment function is achieved, but the trap becomes heavy and difficult to transport
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the conventional gravity-based door closing mechanism with an automated system using motors and sensors. This substitution eliminates the need for heavy mechanical components while maintaining the containment function through automated door operation and electronic monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameters from passive gravity-based operation to active motorized control. This allows the trap to maintain containment reliability while significantly reducing weight, as the motorized system uses minimal energy and lightweight components compared to heavy mechanical gravity-based systems.
2Strength
If conventional traps use a compact trap door, then structural integrity is maintained, but wild hogs are deterred from entering
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the static, fixed-size trap door into a dynamic system with adjustable opening dimensions. The door can expand to accommodate animals comfortably while maintaining structural integrity through motorized actuation and controlled movement, thereby eliminating the deterrence effect of compact openings.
Solution Approach 2:
The automated door system uses sensors to detect animal presence and automatically adjusts the opening size and timing. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for manual adjustment while ensuring the opening is always appropriate for the target animals, improving both entry ease and structural safety.
3Reliability
If conventional traps are designed for single animal capture, then containment effectiveness is high, but productivity decreases when multiple animals need to be trapped
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs the trap system to perform multiple functions: it can capture single or multiple animals simultaneously, adjust opening sizes for different animal types, and operate in various environmental conditions. This multi-functionality maintains high containment effectiveness while significantly improving productivity by allowing batch capture of multiple animals.
Solution Approach 2:
The trap system is divided into independent modular units, each with its own door and sensor system. This segmentation allows multiple sections to operate simultaneously or independently, enabling the trapping of multiple animals at once while maintaining the containment effectiveness of individual sections.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The automated system effectively contains wild hogs in a circular enclosure, allowing for easy transportation and increased animal capture rates by mimicking familiar feeding structures, while ensuring the animals can move freely before being trapped, thus overcoming the limitations of conventional traps.
Implementation Method 1
Conventional traps utilize gravity to close doors and prevent wild hogs from exiting the traps
Implementation Method 2
utilizing a trip wire or electronic activation, and a resilient netting material to enclose animals without a small opening
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for trapping and securing wild animals, especially hogs, by using a flexible perimeter fence attached to a counter weight. Springing of the traps drops the counterweight and pulls up the perimeter fence around the wild hogs. A modular frame breaks down easily for users to carry the automated hog trap into and out of the backcountry easily.