College
Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences
Date of Last Revision
2026-05-07 06:09:28
Major
Electrical Engineering
Honors Course
ELEN 402
Number of Credits
3
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Date of Expected Graduation
Spring 2026
Abstract
This project will describe the design process and research behind the Automatic Pet Feeder Network, otherwise known as The Petwork. The system consists of a tank to hold the food, a latching system to drop the food at the desired time, a weight sensor to verify that the proper amount of food has been dispensed, a power supply unit that steps down 120V AC standard wall outlet power, & a microcontroller that will interpret the user's input from a mobile phone application. The networking portion is covered by having a primary and a secondary feeder. The mobile application will communicate with the primary using a direct Wi-Fi connection. The primary feeder will communicate with the secondaries using a Wi-Fi Mesh network. This system allows for simple control over multiple feeders, making the overall system modular.
Specifically, my contribution to this project was the hardware implementation of the latching system with weight sensing as well as the mobile application integration with the hardware. I assisted our software manager in setting up the basic graphical interface of the mobile application for the user to insert feeding times and weights. I was also responsible for the design and printing of the enclosure, which was designed in AutoCAD 3D.
Research Sponsor
Dr. Michael Lichter
First Reader
Dr. Michael Lichter
Second Reader
Dr. Yan Zhang
Honors Faculty Advisor
Dr. Yilmaz Sozer
Proprietary and/or Confidential Information
No
Recommended Citation
Herttna, Daniel J.; Bechtel, David A.; and Deskovich, Alexander, "Automatic Pet Feeder Network" (2026). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 2196.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/2196