DEVELOPMENT OF SMART CAR WASTE BOX

Abstract

Cat waste box has been widely used among cat owners to assist the management of faeces and urine. There are various types of cat waste box in the market with different features. However, most of the design is either manually operated or semi-automatic with limited function. The owner still needs to scoop out all of the cat waste clumps and dispose it regularly which is unpleasurable, time consuming and inefficient. In addition, there is a potential of cat’s injury during cleaning operation for semi-automatic cat waste box. The initial study was done by evaluating cat owners’ problems and needs while using the current product. Thus, the objectives of this project are to design a smart cat waste box that could be operated automatically with the implementation of IoT, to help users save their time to dispose cat daily waste and to ensure cat safety during cleaning process. This project is best used for two cats at a time. Methods used involves problems identification, idea generation, product design, material selection, fabrication process, modification, testing and analysis. Several testing’s have been constructed to evaluate the product, such as the effectiveness of the scoop to drag the faeces to waste compartment, time taken for one complete cycle, durability and safety of cats during operation. The finding shows that the percentage of waste to be scooped up into waste compartment is 90% while the percentage of litter granular to be scooped up into waste compartment is 2% for clay type and 40% for paper type. The time taken for one cycle is 55 seconds with stepper motor speed of 30 rpm. This period of time could help prevent any accidents or injuries to cats, as well as improving the safety of the product. The maximum push mass for the stepper motor is 180 g. Conclusively, the implementation of IoT in this product has save a lot of time and energy. Users only need to press the push button on the phone or use voice assistance to clean up the cat waste instead of using their hands manually