Redesign of Food Dispenser

rahimsiddiq 2016-2017 Integrated Pet Feeder for Health and Wellness

At first, our initial design was to measure the food dispensed through weight. This calculation of mass would be our way of understanding how much grams of kibble was dispensed in order to know how much was in the bowl. Our Sponsors requested that we were to dispense the food through volume and not mass. This week our team met up to redesign the way the Food Dispenser and Supplement Cartridge dispense their respective material. Through a lot of thought an brainstorming, we were able to come up with a way to dispense the food and supplements accordingly. The food dispenser will have a rotating shaft with 8 oval cups (each representing an ounce) that will be at the bottom of the food storage. The shaft will rotate to a certain degree that would be associated to how many cups of food the user needs. There are 8 ounces in a cup, so for every ounce the animal needs, the shaft will rotate to that desired number. We are still trying to completely redesign the supplement cartridge, but we have some ideas. One of the ideas is to use the method that automatic soap dispensers use through a peristaltic pump. This idea is still being developed so nothing is concrete now. The next few days will be us working on the presentation as well as the team website.