Citadel students develop robot poop scoop
By Diane Knich
The Post and Courier
Citadel electrical engineering students demonstrate their dog waste collection vehicle, which they call AutoDOG, on Wednesday.
Video
AutoDOG
Citadel engineering students are trying to make a robot, AutoDOG, that will scoop up your dog poop for you.
Cleaning up dog waste is a dirty job, so four Citadel engineering students are trying to make a robot do it.
As its senior project, a team of students designed and built a high-tech, robotic poop scoop that ultimately might be able to rove backyards picking up dog waste.
The device is in an early stage of development, said team members Jose Montes, 32; Geoff Stephens, 28; Stephen Black, 37; and Adam Frowein, 22.
The team members are undergraduates who took evening engineering classes through The Citadel Graduate College and expect to graduate in May. The team spent the entire school year making the robot, which they call the AutoDOG.
Engineering professor John Peeples, who teaches the senior capstone course, said each year "there's always one (project) that has the appeal, that's practical." This year, he said that project is the AutoDOG.
In a demonstration Wednesday, team members placed warm hot dog pieces on a grid taped to a classroom floor. Then, on a computer screen, they entered the section of the grid in which the hot dog pieces were placed. The robot drove to that section, zeroed in on the hot dogs, scooped them up and returned to its starting point. It was designed to sense heat, then move toward the warm object.
Montes said that if the device was further developed and sold commercially, a person could put his dog in the backyard, then indicate on a computer screen in which section of the yard the dog left waste. The robot could then head out to that section and scoop it up.
The robot also could be programmed to move like a robotic vacuum cleaner, automatically roving the yard and picking up waste of any temperature, he said.
The students said that so far they haven't taken the robot outside to pick up real pet waste. Maneuvering through grass would require a stronger motor, Black said.
All four team members said they'll begin either full-time jobs or military service after they graduate, so they don't have immediate plans to try to market the device. They hope that maybe a team of seniors next year will take their work and further develop it, they said.
Making a poop-scooping robot wasn't an easy task. They had little instruction on how to proceed and could spend only up to $600.
"One of the toughest parts was making the robot's two brains talk to each other," Frowein said.
Montes said the "main brain" controls the treads, scoop arm and light sensors. A second brain picks up information about heat sources and relays it to the main brain.
The students said they learned a lot, even though the experience was frustrating at times.
"This is the greatest course we've taken here, even though there's a lot of stress," Black said.
Reach Diane Knich at 937-5491 or dknich@postandcourier.com.
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RTC (anonymous) says...
So, it will only pick up warm poop? LOL
April 24, 2008 at 8:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
theronce (anonymous) says...
Maybe the next class can give it a sniffer to detect the objective.
April 24, 2008 at 9:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
terrapinfan2000 (anonymous) says...
Maybe they should develop important things like a cure for cancer and 120 miles per gallon engines so we can get away from paying the same people that are trying to kill Americans. Just food for thought...such as (ref miss SC)
April 24, 2008 at 11:48 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
willbillbedamned (anonymous) says...
It figures that after 4 yrs at the Citadel, these guys have taken so much sh*t, they came up with a way to get rid of it.
April 24, 2008 at 12:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Girleygirl (anonymous) says...
I wonder if this project was to launch, who would buy it and how much would this cost........and what does the robot do with the crap it picked up? Is it in a little disposable bag, do you pick up the robot and hold him upside down by the toilet?
I'm sure if some dog ranned acroos this thing they might attack it...lol
But to the Citadel students congratulations on your upcoming graduation and your invention...
April 24, 2008 at 12:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
theronce (anonymous) says...
You could probably build a pooper scooper washer with stuff off the shelf. (Actually, getting off that mideast oil may not be that good. Now they have oil and sand and can buy food. If no one wants their oil, all they will have is oil and sand, do you think that they will sit in their own back yard and starve to death. Not likely.)
April 24, 2008 at 3:43 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eyfigueroa (anonymous) says...
terrapinfan: speaking as a mother who is about to send her child to the school of engineering, i find fault with your snide remark.
these are students who are embarking on the first step to hopefully a successful and rewarding career in engineering.
building a pooper scooper may seem like a superfluous project to many of us, but it a lesson in robotics, engineering, computing and most importantly, teamwork.
This project hopefully will propel one (if not all)of these students to 'think outside of the box' to develop solutions to many of our societal problems.
April 24, 2008 at 3:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Rebel_Yell (anonymous) says...
If it works, maybe the aliens will finally figure out that dogs dont run the Earth, people do.
April 24, 2008 at 4:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
abitskeptical (anonymous) says...
My children will be so upset if they lost the job of de-pooping the yard to a robot...
April 24, 2008 at 9:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
luvmydogs59 (anonymous) says...
I'll be first on line for one of these...I have 3 dogs and a large yard...it wouldn't upset me not to have to do pooper duty anymore! And I agree with eyfigueroa...these students are learning way more than just building a pooper scooper!
April 24, 2008 at 10:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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