1 Introduction

There are some works concerning the generation of

food dispensers with a chute system, the dosing

mechanism allows access to food on a wanted

schedule for the pet [3], causing a bad food culture,

which may result in becoming ill the pet, these

problems are solved with the dosing and dispensing

automatic food named “Perfect Petfeeder” which

allows schedule programming, the amount of food to

be dispensed and beeps when the food is in the

reservoir it is running low [7], noting that this project

has solved the main problems encountered in the first

mentioned, but there is no mechanism to control the

amount of food in the plate if the pet has not finished

the first amount, only dosing in order to complete the

missing amount, also the warning signal to the pet

owner is not efficient if is not in place.

Taking in consideration these observations, a

prototype which joins mechanics, electronic and web

programming, using hardware and software free

technology is presented with the following benefits:

• Do not have a dependency on a licensing or

particular provider.

• There is an immediate correction of errors

thanks to community service worldwide.

• Low cost, removing barriers in the budget.

• Can be modified, adapted and efficiently

complemented each of the prototype

components, due to have access to the source

code and manage a modular architecture

development.

The pet food dosing and dispenser based on free

technologies for educating the pets has the following

objectives:

1. Use free technologies like Arduino (free

hardware) and C, PHP, HTML, CSS and

JavaScript (free software).

2. Perform Arduino programming of the

elements involved in the dispenser.

3. Perform programming synchronization

according to use mode.

4. Perform construction and assembly of the

dispenser with the appropriate materials.

5. Perform management environment

programming for the entry of parameters.

Pet food dosing and dispenser design based on free technologies

1JOSÉ LUIS IBARRA ESTÉVEZ, 1,2FRANCKLIN RIVAS-ECHEVERRÍA,

*1XAVIER MORALES FÉLIX , 1HERBER ESPÍN BENAVIDES

1Escuela de Ingeniería

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador-sede Ibarra, Ibarra, Provincia Imbabura

ECUADOR

2Laboratorio de Sistemas Inteligentes, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Edo. Mérida

VENEZUELA

* Programa Prometeo

Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación, Quito, Provincia Pichincha

ECUADOR

Abstract: - This paper merges mechatronics, programming and free hardware and software

technologies tools. The design consists of a food container connected to a plate with a cover; allowing

food to be eaten by the pet and can be dispensed according to user programmed parameters, which are

based on age, race and weight of the animal. It consists of a weight sensor in the base plate, indicating

when it is reached the required amount, cutting food supplies and in the next appropriate time places

only the missing food on the plate. It also has a sensor in the food container for measuring the

percentage of existing food and sending a text message to the phone numbers of registered users, as it

reaches 20% of total capacity.

Key-Words: - Pet food, free technologies, free hardware, free software, feeding technologies.

DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE

DOI: 10.37394/232022.2022.2.4

José Luis Ibarra Estévez,

Francklin Rivas-Echeverría,

Xavier Morales Félix,

Herber Espín Benavides

E-ISSN: 2732-9984

Volume 2, 2022

6. Perform communication between the

Arduino board and the web environment for

sending alerts through SMS (Short

Messenger Service).

2 Pet food dispenser prototype design

The research was initially conducted to determine the

necessary theoretical basis for the construction of the

project, and fulfill the objectives, having in mind that

the project is essentially experimental and is based on

building a prototype.

The methodology used is based on:

1. Study and identification of the problem: an

analysis of the needs or characteristics of the

problem is made, the existing researches that

contributes or tend to solve the given problem is

studied.

2. Determination of requirements: Focuses to

identify each of the functional and nonfunctional

requirements existing in the problem to be solved.

3. Cost-benefit analysis: This consists of

analyzing the different alternatives, selecting

which present greater economic and social

benefits, which contribute to solving the stated

problem.

4. Design and development of the solution:

includes the preparation of designs and sketches

of the solution, also the development and

implementation of various planned activities.

2.1 Materials and equipment used

To make the project, some materials described next

are used:

1. Programmable Arduino Mega: A high-speed

micro controller that allows multiple connections

to other devices [6].

Arduino is a hardware and software fre platform,

based on a simple plate with analog and digital

inputs and outputs, using “Processing” as

development environment programming

language, i.e., an open source platform for

electronic prototypes code.

Being open source, it makes that its design and

distribution, may be used freely for the

development of any project without license [1].

Figure 1. Arduino Mega 2560

Source: [10]

2. Servomotor HS-311 for 3 Kg: Allows driving

motors with diverse grades and it is handled with

PWM in microcontrollers.

A Servomotor is a small device that has an axis

of controlled performance. This can be brought

to specific angular positions by sending a coded

signal. When this coded signal is in the input

line, the servo will maintain the angular position

of the gear. When the coded signal changes, the

angular position of the sprockets changes.

In practice, servomotors are used to position

control surfaces as movement of levers, small

elevators and rudders. They are also used in

radio controlled puppets and robots [9].

Figure 2. Servomotor

Source: [9]

DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE

DOI: 10.37394/232022.2022.2.4

José Luis Ibarra Estévez,

Francklin Rivas-Echeverría,

Xavier Morales Félix,

Herber Espín Benavides

E-ISSN: 2732-9984

Volume 2, 2022

3. Protoboard: A plate with holes that allows to

insert electronic components and wires to build

circuits [5].

Figure 3. Protoboard

Source: [5]

4. Weight sensor HX711 for 3 KG: It's a weight

sensor which sends transformed values to be

recognized by the Arduino [2].

Figure 4. Weight sensor

Source: [2]

5. Ultrasonic transducer HC-SR04: An ultra-sonic

distance sensor to be used for measuring distance

with the Arduino plate [4].

Figure 5. Ultrasonic transducer

Source: [4]

6. RTC (real time clock) DS1307 for Arduino: The

DS1307 RTC is a real time clock with I2C

communication. Once loaded the initial date,

allows obtaining the current date automatically,

the DS1307 is a circuit that detects when the

power is down and automatically switches to use

a battery, this module also has a AT24c32

memory to store a larger amount of data [8].

Figure 6. Real time clock

Source: [8]

7. Connecting cables for Arduino: Connects the

sensors with the micro controller, as with the

protoboard if required and power source and

ground required for proper operation.

Figure 7. Connecting cables

Source: [11]

2.2 Prototype development

Development process:

1. Conduct an investigation of how Arduino

and libraries works.

2. Analyze cost-benefits in materials

selections.

3. Run the verification of libraries with test

of materials.

4. Develop unitary running tests.

5. Build the model and install the

components.

DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE

DOI: 10.37394/232022.2022.2.4

José Luis Ibarra Estévez,

Francklin Rivas-Echeverría,

Xavier Morales Félix,

Herber Espín Benavides

E-ISSN: 2732-9984

Volume 2, 2022

6. Proceed with the assembly of the elements

involved in the prototype on a solid base for

the operation.

The prototype starts with the entry of data relating to:

feeding schedules, race, weight and age of the pet.

Based on this information the amount of food is

assigned on schedule and available time given by the

user, if the quantity of food is less than 20% of total

capacity in the container, a text message (SMS) is

sent to phone numbers registered by the user.

Figure 8. Flow communication between the various

technologies involved in the prototype.

Source: Own preparation

Construction of the prototype:

In Figure 9 can be seen a diagram of the prototype

implementation done, which has the following

components:

Figure 9. Implementation Scheme of the prototype.

Source: Own preparation

• Integrated circuit: A programmable Arduino

Mega microcontroller, which integrate and

communicate the various existing components in the

prototype, has all the programming logic to run

efficiently automated actions as the followings:

o Schedule management through a DS1307 real-

time clock, which allows to control the times at

which the food dosing will be held and time

available in which the food will have to be

consumed by the pet.

o Measuring of minimum amount of food for

sending alerts, this measurement is performed by

an ultrasonic sensor which analyzes according to

the distance if there is enough food in the

container, generating a signal to integrated circuit

for performing notification actions.

• Food Container: This is a container in which

the pet’s food is placed, it contains a sensor located

at a desired point that can emit a signal if the food has

less than the 20% of the container capacity.

• Alarm: Aims to be activated once the food

sensor has issued a pulse to the integrated circuit,

indicating that the food is running out, this is done

using the Arduino Ethernet port to communicate with

a REST JSONP Web service for Sending a SMS (text

message) to the telephone numbers of the registered

users.

• food plate: It aims to contain the dose of pet

food, which has a weight sensor on its base, which is

steady communicates with integrated circuit to

inform if the dose is completed, allowing always

serve the appropriate amount of the pet’s food.

• Food Cover: It is controlled by the integrated

circuit with the use of real-time clock DS1307 that

drives the servomotor HS-311 in order to open the

cover plate so the pet can eat and closes when it has

fulfilled the time set by the administrator to ingest

food. This is done for educating the pet about the time

for eating.

3 Conclusions

The development of the pet food dosing and

dispenser with notifications alert has been proposed

for generating a better feeding culture of the animals

and keep track of the nutritional status of them.

The generation of this kind of projects with the free

software and hardware used can maintain better

communication between the various existing

components, also providing an advantage in cost-

benefit ratio when purchasing only the necessary

DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE

DOI: 10.37394/232022.2022.2.4

José Luis Ibarra Estévez,

Francklin Rivas-Echeverría,

Xavier Morales Félix,

Herber Espín Benavides

E-ISSN: 2732-9984

Volume 2, 2022

items and have extensive information for the use

them.

It’s recommended improving the design and use of

materials for a obtaining a product with higher

quality, image that can be patented and

commercialized.

Acknowledgment: Authors want to thanks the support

given to this project by the Secretaría de Educación

Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación of

Ecuador and Prometeo Program.

References:

[1] Amangandi, J. (2012). Arduino.

http://jamangandi2012.blogspot.com/2012/10/q

ue-es-arduino-te-lo-mostramos-en-un.html

[2] C-Agua.es. (2015). Módulo Sensor de Peso

HX711 24 AD. http://c-agua.no-

ip.org/tienda/index.php?route=product/product

&product_id=147

[3] Casanovas, C. (2016). Nutrición 3tres3.

https://www.3tres3.com/nutricion/sistemas-de-

alimentacion-para-gestionar-el-suministro-de-

pienso-en-mat_33274/

[4] GeekFactory. (2015). HC-SR04 Sensor de

distancia ultrasónico económico.

http://www.geekfactory.mx/tienda/sensores/hc-

sr04-sensor-de-distancia-ultrasonico/

[5] González, V. R. (2015). Platea PNTIC.

http://www.circuitoselectronicos.org/2007/10/el

-protoboard-tableta-de-experimentacin.html

[6] Margolis. Arduino Cookbook. United State of

America: Teresa Elsey.

[7] Pillar_Pet_Products. (2016). Perfect Petfeeder.

http://www.perfectpetfeeder.com/

[8] Servers, E. (2015). RTC DS1307, Real Time

Clock. http://saber.patagoniatecnology.com/rtc-

ds1307-real-time-clock-fecha-hora-i2c-real-

time-clock-eeprom-arduino-pic-ptec/

[9] UCLM. (2015). Servomotor: http://www.info-

ab.uclm.es/labelec/solar/electronica/elementos/s

ervomotor.htm

[10] https: //www.sparkfun.com/products/11061

[11] http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=12253

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(Attribution 4.0 International, CC BY 4.0)

This article is published under the terms of the Creative

Commons Attribution License 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US

DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE

DOI: 10.37394/232022.2022.2.4

José Luis Ibarra Estévez,

Francklin Rivas-Echeverría,

Xavier Morales Félix,

Herber Espín Benavides

E-ISSN: 2732-9984

Volume 2, 2022