Pet Feeder Door Training for Safe Selective Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing animal feeders face issues such as frightening design for pets, risk of injury, food spoilage, difficulty in training, and lack of monitoring and control features, along with inefficiencies in preventing access by unauthorized animals.
Innovation Solution
An animal feeder with a door mechanism that adjusts its coverage based on the pet's interaction, incorporates a foldable door design to prevent injury, includes an air-tight seal to preserve food freshness, and integrates RFID technology for selective access and remote monitoring.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the door is made to fully cover the aperture to prevent unauthorized access and preserve food freshness, then security and food preservation are improved, but the pet may be frightened and injured by the closing door
Solution Approach 1:
The door mechanism transitions from a static fully-closed design to a dynamic system with adjustable coverage. The door can be positioned at multiple levels (first level covering first portion, second level covering second larger portion) and can be controlled to move at different speeds, allowing the system to adapt between security requirements and pet safety needs.
Solution Approach 2:
The door applies different coverage levels at different times and conditions. Rather than uniformly covering the entire aperture, the system selectively covers portions of the aperture based on the training phase and security requirements, creating localized protection where needed while maintaining safety elsewhere.
2Reliability
If the door covers a larger portion of the aperture to improve security, then unauthorized access is better prevented, but the pet becomes more frightened during training
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a progressive training approach where the door initially covers only a small portion of the aperture (first level) to allow the pet to become accustomed to the door's presence. As the pet becomes comfortable, the coverage is gradually increased to the second level, preventing the pet from being overwhelmed by sudden full coverage while still providing security.
Solution Approach 2:
The door coverage is made dynamic and adjustable between different levels. The system can transition from a less restrictive first level to a more restrictive second level based on training progress, allowing the access restriction capability to adapt to the pet's comfort level rather than being fixed at maximum coverage.
3Volume of moving object
If the door mechanism is designed to be compact to reduce device size, then manufacturing and space requirements are improved, but the mechanism becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The door mechanism is divided into multiple independent components: the door assembly, the actuator mechanism, the sensor system, and the control unit. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized separately and assembled into a compact configuration, reducing the overall volume while managing complexity through modular design.
Solution Approach 2:
The door mechanism employs a nested structure where smaller components are housed within larger ones. The actuator and linkage mechanisms are integrated within the door assembly, and the sensor system is embedded in the housing, creating a space-efficient nested configuration that minimizes the overall feeder volume.
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 feeder trains pets to use it comfortably, reduces food spoilage, minimizes odors, and provides remote monitoring and control, ensuring only authorized animals access the food while maintaining a compact design.
Implementation Method 1
a RFID reader to detect presence of an authorised animal
Data Source
AI summary
An animal feeding monitor and a method of training an animal to use a feeder. An animal feeder may have a housing including an aperture for a food bowl and having a door for covering the aperture, the feeder including a door mechanism to control movement of the door over the aperture, wherein the feeder includes a sensor to detect when an animal has moved away from the aperture, and the feeder is configured to be operable in a training mode wherein the door mechanism is operable to control the door to cover a portion of the aperture in response to detecting that an animal has moved away and subsequently responding to one or more later detections by controlling the door to cover a portion of the aperture larger than the preceding portion.