An innovator has made a cutting-edge drone system created to efficiently clean up your dog’s messes. Poop-copter, invented by Caleb Olson, can be directed to the dog’s poop location, using a camera and retrieval system to collect the waste.
Instead of a complex robotic arm, Poop-copter uses a bell-shaped container with geared leaves that open and close during rotation. It efficiently collects waste, though no commercial release has been confirmed yet.
According to Olson, the device is the “world’s first aerial bound self-guided dog poop removal system, using a drone, 3D printed a pickup mechanism, and some machine learning,” reads the Poop-copter video‘s YouTube description.
“Drone” by Trotaparamos is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Automated waste cleanup
Olson’s journey to automate dog poop cleanup began with a machine-learning system that analyzed security camera footage to detect when his dog, Twinkie, has relieved herself in the yard.
While the system could alert him to the event, he wanted to take automation further. He developed a robot laser that pinpointed the exact location of the poop, making it easier to find. But getting rid of the waste still required labor, something he was keen to do away with. Olson advanced his research by creating a robot with a laser-guided system that pointed to the waste and mapped the best path for collection, all in an effort to completely automate the operation. This method did, however, still require picking up the trash by hand. Disappointed with the constraints, the innovator focused on a more all-encompassing solution, which resulted in the development of the Poop-copter, a drone that can find and collect canine excrement with little human assistance.
Easier pickup mechanism
The Poop-copter uses real-time computer vision and machine learning algorithms to scan a picked region, such as a backyard.
An off board device or cloud-based system receives footage from the drone’s built-in camera, examines it, and looks for any excrement in the surrounding area. After being identified, the drone attempts a precise landing close to the trash, assisted by several machine-learning models that enable it to position itself precisely.
Olson draws attention to the technological difficulties, in particular the requirement for high landing accuracy, given that the majority of drone systems rely on GPS and have a precise range of only a few meters, which is far insufficient for this purpose.
The design simplifies the collection process by using a bell-shaped container with rotating geared leaves. As the drone descends, the leaves open, allowing it to scoop the waste. A quick rotation in the opposite direction releases the poop once it’s been collected.
Olson has put the concept through several iterations and optimized it for optimal performance, especially in grassy settings where retrieval might be difficult.
Even though it’s only in prototype form, the Poop-copter has drawn a lot of interest. According to Olson, in the future, pet owners may be able to purchase drones similar to his, or a service that provides feces collection—akin to garbage pickup—may even use them.
Olson is working to improve his invention in the hopes that his drone will soon transform the removal of dog poop, even if there is currently no word on a commercial release
Related Stories
https://petapixel.com/2024/10/01/the-poopcopter-uses-an-ai-camera-to-pick-up-dog-mess/
https://www.hackster.io/news/a-drone-that-answers-the-call-of-doody-bbbfe5ae9cd6
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