The ‘Poopcopter’ Uses an AI Camera to Pick Up Dog Mess
Dog owners know that picking up mess is the least pleasant aspect of daily pet ownership. But what if an automated drone using real-time computer vision and machine-learning algorithms could do the chore instead?
Step forward the “Poopcopter”, designed and built by inventor Caleb Olson which uses a bell-shaped container with geared leaves to effectively pick up waste.
Olson describes the Poopcopter as the “world’s first aerial bound self-guided dog poop removal system”. The zany product came about after he built a dog poop detector using a security camera that monitors his dog Twinky and alerts him when she relieved herself.
He took the project a step forward by building a robot with lasers to point to exactly where Twinky had gone but this method still required hand pickups.
“The Poopcopter is capable of scanning areas defined by a user, your backyard for example, and as it scans it’s performing real-time computer vision using the camera which is inside the drone,” Olson explains while on-stage at Minnestar, an organization promoting tech enterprise in Minnesota.
Once the Poopcopter discovers a foul, it will “attempt to perform a precision landing” which is where Olson ran into problems because automated drone landings are mostly guided by GPS-based systems which tend to be a few feet off. To get around this, Olson employed several off-board machine-learning models to aid the drone when landing.
The Poopcopter lands with its gears open and a quick rotation scoops the muck up. It then flies off to where it needs disposing, lands, and another quick rotation releases the dirt. It went through several iterations of design before deciding on this one which is most effective for grass.
“It’s kind of like a UFO except it’s abducting dog poop instead of people,” adds Olson.
Olson says that he hopes his invention could transform the removal of dog feces but for now, the Poopcopter is just a prototype. Olson admits he is “not sure what to do with the thing” before suggesting it could be used by consumers or even a commercial dog muck cleaning service.
