House Pet

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The National Academy of Engineering lists Personalized Learning as one of it’s Grand Engineering Challenges. Additionally, there is a lack of good and engaging tools to educate adults and children on energy sources and usage.

For instance, are people aware that a AA battery requires much more energy to be created than it actually consumes? How do they take that knowledge, turn it into an actionable practice to help themselves and the planet, and practice it in a tangible and engaging way?

Project Goals

The goal of the House Pet is to create a personified House creature to teach people about energy usage through a playful, multi-sensory experience. It’s a “Tamagotchi”, but with a physical body and important lessons to teach.

The house pet contains a solar panel roof, onboard battery monitoring system, tank treads to drive around, an extensible Lego body, voice controlled interface and screen (via an Alexa Show), and a variety of other sensors.

Project Status

This is a work in progress and the progress documented here is just the beginning! I have big plans to add many features to House Pet. The current status and technical write up including source code and schematics can be found on Hackster,

Interactions

I wanted to have the following interactions:

- Follow me! using the IR beacon as a virtual leash

- Patting the house on the head and having it acknowledge

- Ask the pet what it’s battery state of charge is

- Ask what the charge power is

- Ask how much power the pet is drawing?

- Ask how much light is hitting your solar panels?

Functionality

Driving

Battery Voltage

Power Consumption

External Charging

Concept Art

Form Factor Prototypes

Design

Construction Photos