Poop Picking Vehicle

A remote controlled car for pickingup the poop from the roads using scooping/raking mechanism

Poop Picking Vehicle

A remote controlled car for pickingup the poop from the roads using scooping/raking mechanism

#SDG In Focus

SDG 6: Clean water and Sanitation

Idea

This project came about due to a conflict that arose in my society between pet and non-pet
owning residents due to the problem of improper disposal of dog poop by dog walkers
despite the availability of tools that could do so on the market.

Problem statement

To sanitarily dispose of dog fecal matter left behind by dog walkers to promote an
environment of coexistence between dogs and humans.

Constraints

There would have to be proper maintenance and cleaning of the vehicle to maintain a level
of sanitation.
Users will have to be wary of the range of connection between the controller and the car.

Idea

Problem statement

To sanitarily dispose of dog fecal matter left behind by dog walkers to promote an
environment of coexistence between dogs and humans.

Constraints

There would have to be proper maintenance and cleaning of the vehicle to maintain a level
of sanitation.
Users will have to be wary of the range of connection between the controller and the car.

Idea Brainstorming

Dog Harness Alarm

This would be a mechanism placed on the dogs harness that would detect when the dog was
about to defecate and alarm the walker via a buzzer placed on the leash.

Phone App to Observe Surroundings

To create an app that observes the surroundings through the camera of the phone to check
if the dog is defecating or not.(I observed that most dogwalkers were operating their phone
while walking their dog)

Poop Picking Vehicle

A poop picking vehicle similar to a RC car that automatically gathers poop twice a day

Idea Brainstorming

Dog Harness Alarm

This would be a mechanism placed on the dogs harness that would detect when the dog was
about to defecate and alarm the walker via a buzzer placed on the leash.

Phone App to Observe Surroundings

Poop Picking Vehicle

A poop picking vehicle similar to a RC car that automatically gathers poop twice a day

Final Solution

The final solution that we decided to pursue was a remote-controlled car that would be able to pick up the poop with a scooping/raking mechanism.
I started with 2 potential ideas for the design of the car.

The first, a front opening car in which the front would descend to form a ramp and a raking mechanism placed on the top of the car would pull the poop into the car.

The second idea consisted of a bottom opening car in which a segment of the bottom of the car would collapse and a grabber arm would descend to pick up the poop and pull it up into the car.

After some sketching and prototyping, I decided to go ahead with the front opening design.

I started by designing the main hinged box that would be the main body of the car and tried to minimize the size of the box to increase mobility while maximizing the inner space to have a lot of volumes.

I then started designing the mechanism that would move the rake to pull the poop in. Since increasing the number of motors would increase the complexity of the project, I tried to use 1 motor to have both the linear and rotational motor, however, after trying to design a mechanism for this, I decided that 2 motors would be simpler to design and not that complex to create. I started with a sunboard prototype and after it worked, I designed the mechanism to be laser cut from plywood. The first iteration could achieve the 2 types of motion, however, it was very jerky due to the weight so I decided to reduce the overall material on the rake by adding filets and holes wherever possible.