Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
84 Mobile stray cat rescue station
Frank Chen
Ming Yi
Yilin Tan
Rui Gong design_document1.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
video
#Group members
- Yilin Tan(ytan47)
- Ming Yi(myi22)
- Frank Chen(sihan6)

# Problem:
For now, because of the kind people from all walks of life and the existence of many adoption agencies, it is difficult for us to see stray animals on the street without a fixed place to live, but this is not absolute! Because in my community, I always see a lot of stray cats, regardless of age and species. When I meet them, they are not necessarily alive. The cold and food shortage will threaten their lives. And every time I want to help them, I can't just happen to be able to provide them with food. Even if I can give them food, the stray cat population and its offspring will continue to wander. So my idea is how to help them live better. I plan to build a portable stray cat rescue station that can be placed in areas where stray cats are present to provide them with warmth and food.

# Solution:
My solution is to design a wireless constant temperature device that can detect the temperature in the cat's nest at all times to determine whether the heating device is turned on and off. Then equip it with feeding equipment, and detect whether there is enough food in the cat's food bin. Through wireless data transmission, maintenance personnel can decide whether to add food to the equipment according to the data.

This device includes the following modules:
Power supply module: as the power source of the entire device and other subsystems
Heating module: to control the device temperature
Main control module: transmit real-time data of the device
Casing and heating layer: enhance the warmth of the device at the physical level

#Solution components:

## Subsystem 1: Power supply module
Overview: This subsystem uses solar panels and lithium batteries to realize the device power supply system. While avoiding the trouble of replacing batteries, it can also realize the convenience of this device and can be installed outdoors. It is also conducive to the operation of subsystem 2 (heating module) at night.

Design:
Power generation method: solar panels can generate solar energy outdoors
Power storage method: use lithium batteries of suitable capacity to store electricity

## Subsystem 2: Heating module

Overview: This subsystem automatically controls the temperature in the device through heating equipment and temperature and humidity sensors

Design:
Heating method: heating by laying heating wires in the device
Temperature control method: use temperature and humidity sensors to detect whether the temperature in the device is lower than the set value and turn on the heating device, and the temperature can be monitored in real time through subsystem 3 (main control module)

## Subsystem 3: Main control module

Overview: Detect data in the device and transmit data wirelessly to the receiving station

Design:
Transmission method: Use LoRa devices for transmission to ensure that data is obtained when there is no network in the wild.
Reserve detection: Use pressure or infrared sensors to detect food residue
Power monitoring: Real-time recording of battery remaining power
Activity detection (optional): Infrared sensor detects cat entry and exit (optional: camera monitoring, but it is not suitable for no network and the price is higher.)

## Subsystem 4: Shell and heating layer

Overview: Use physical methods to assist and strengthen the role of subsystem 2 (temperature control module), and reduce power consumption.

Design:
Shell: Waterproof plastic board, aluminum plate or 3D printing material, and a metal frame about 10 cm above the ground to prevent rainy weather
Inner layer: Warm and fireproof foam board or other insulation material

# Criterion For Success:
This design would be considered successful if
The heater will automatically turn on and off when the temperature is within the set value range
When there is not enough food in the feeding bowl, it will automatically dispense food
Ability to obtain various real-time data on the LoRa master station

Iron Man Mouse

Jeff Chang, Yayati Pahuja, Zhiyuan Yang

Featured Project

# Problem:

Being an ECE student means that there is a high chance we are gonna sit in front of a computer for the majority of the day, especially during COVID times. This situation may lead to neck and lower back issues due to a long time of sedentary lifestyle. Therefore, it would be beneficial for us to get up and stretch for a while every now and then. However, exercising for a bit may distract us from working or studying and it might take some time to refocus. To control mice using our arm movements or hand gestures would be a way to enable us to get up and work at the same time. It is similar to the movie Iron Man when Tony Stark is working but without the hologram.

# Solution Overview:

The device would have a wrist band portion that acts as the tracker of the mouse pointer (implemented by accelerometer and perhaps optical sensors). A set of 3 finger cots with gyroscope or accelerometer are attached to the wrist band. These sensors as a whole would send data to a black box device (connected to the computer by USB) via bluetooth. The box would contain circuits to compute these translational/rotational data to imitate a mouse or trackpad movements with possible custom operation. Alternatively, we could have the wristband connected to a PC by bluetooth. In this case, a device driver on the OS is needed for the project to work.

# Solution Components:

Sensors (finger cots and wrist band):

1. 3-axis accelerometer attached to the wrist band portion of the device to collect translational movement (for mouse cursor tracking)

2. gyroscope attached to 3 finger cots portion to collect angular motion when user bend their fingers in different angles (for different clicking/zoom-in/etc operations)

3. (optional) optical sensors to help with accuracy if the accelerometer is not accurate enough. We could have infrared emitters set up around the screen and optical sensors on the wristband to help pinpoint cursor location.

4. (optional) flex sensors could also be used for finger cots to perform clicks in case the gyroscope proves to be inaccurate.

Power:

Lithium-ion battery with USB charging

Transmitter component:

1. A microcontroller to pre-process the data received from the 4 sensors. It can sort of integrate and synchronize the data before transmitting it.

2. A bluetooth chip that transmits the data to either the blackbox or the PC directly.

Receiver component:

1. Plan A: A box plugged into USB-A on PC. It has a bluetooth chip to receive data from the wristband, and a microcontroller to process the data into USB human interface device signals.

2. Plan B: the wristband is directly connected to the PC and we develop a device driver on the PC to process the data.

# Criterion for Success:

1. Basic Functionalities supported (left click, right click, scroll, cursor movement)

2. Advanced Functionalities supported(zoom in/out, custom operations eg. volume control)

3. Performance (accuracy & response time)

4. Physical qualities (easy to wear, durable, and battery life)