Izant Projects
Every year, members of Cupertino Robotics work together to create products that assist people with disabilities in our community. This year was no different, despite the pandemic. A group of FRC 2473 students worked with Mr. Izant, the project coordinator, to design and build a dog treat dispenser and a dog waste scooper for Kathy, Mr. Izant’s friend.
When going on walks, Kathy needs to use a wheelchair and is assisted by her husband and service dog. She often has trouble giving treats to her dog and cleaning up her dog’s waste, which are tasks her husband must assist her with. Cupertino Robotics decided to engineer two devices in hopes of providing her with more independence and freedom: a dog treat dispenser and a dog waste scooper, both of which could be mounted on her wheelchair.
Both of these devices took about 2 months of designing and 2 weeks of building to complete. During this time period, members met twice a week over Zoom to brainstorm and share ideas and designs along with occasional meetups with Mr. Izant to get feedback. “We had a meeting notes document where we saved screenshots of our sketches and took notes during our meetings for future reference,” explained junior Garima Bansal. The team members split up the CAD models and worked on them individually. GrabCAD was used to share these CAD models among the team. Once parts and drawings were complete, they were sent to Mr. Izant, who would machine and assemble them. After hard work from both Mr. Izant and the Cupertino Robotics team, the devices were finished and attached to Kathy’s wheelchair.
The dog treat dispenser is a cylindrical shell with a rotating disk containing 12 slots that each can hold a small circular dog treat. The disk is rotated by a ratcheting wrench that allows the to turn in only one direction. Stoppers were placed on the sides of the dispenser to mark how far the wrench could be turned. Every time the disk moves, a single dog treat falls out of a hole on the bottom of the cylindrical shell. The final design of the treat dispenser ended up holding 11 treats instead of 12. Garima explained, “We had a problem with the wrench where there wasn't enough friction so that when the wrench was turning in the opposite direction, the axle turned even though it wasn't supposed to. We fixed this issue by adding a ball and spring that is mounted on the housing and creates friction against the disk”. To refill the dispenser, Kathy’s husband can insert the treats through the same hole on the bottom and spin the treat dispenser using the wrench until all the slots are full.
The dog waste scooper is essentially a claw that is attached to a linear actuator at a 45-degree angle. The linear actuator is used to extend and retract the claw that will be used to pick up the waste. One of the claws is stationary while the other one uses a servo to close. Both the linear actuator and servo are controlled with a double pole double throw switch.
Our team was extremely grateful for this opportunity to help Kathy gain more independence through these devices. We look forward to helping more persons with disabilities gain independence and follow their passions through innovation in the coming years.
