Students of Novosibirsk State Technical University (NETI) have created an automatic feeder for aquarium inhabitants. The device will provide the fish with timely nutrition of the required dosage thanks to an intelligent system capable of accurately feeding food at specified time intervals.
The idea arose from personal experience — one of the developers has an aquarium at home, and he came up with the idea of an automatic feeder that will allow you to leave the house safely, knowing that the fish will be fed in the absence of the owners. The task of the project was to develop a device that accurately dispenses portions of feed, automatically works according to a set schedule, allows you to configure parameters through the interface and saves settings even when the power supply is turned off.
"The microcontroller is responsible for controlling all the functions of the device. The real-time module is designed to accurately synchronize feeding time. The driver controls a stepper motor responsible for the dosage of the feed, and a small display displays information about the state of the feeder. It was important to provide a compact and ergonomic housing that would reliably protect electronic components. Durable and moisture-resistant materials were chosen for its production. There is a dispenser in the feeder for precise dosing and feeding into the aquarium using a stepper motor. You can control the amount of feed by setting the required number of steps," told Vladimir Kamensky, a student at the Faculty of Radio Engineering and Electronics, about the feeder device.
There was also a need for a reliable way to mount the device on or near the aquarium lid. The feed auger is designed to precisely move the feed from the tank to the outlet.
At the moment, a working prototype of an automatic feeder has been created. As Vladimir notes, this device combines precision, reliability and compact design, allowing aquarium owners to provide fish with proper and timely nutrition. This development can be applied not only for home aquariums, but also in professional fish farms. There are plans to add an oxygen sensor to monitor its level and ensure that the lamp is automatically switched on at a certain time, since it is recommended to feed fish an hour after the light is turned on and an hour or two before it is turned off.
According to the results of the student project competition held at the end of last year at NSTU-NETI, the automatic feeder project took 3rd place in the Engineering Projects nomination (junior league).