09 - Cat Toy
Team Members
Harshit Dalmia, Liam Ignacio, Ben Lho, Tong Wang
Background
Our friend Tong has a cat in her apartment but doesn’t have time to always play with them due to school and extracurricular activities. The cat feels lonely and bored, but to fix this we are creating a robotic cat toy that will let the cat play with itself.
Problem Statement
The main challenges involve coordinated motion, force control, and stability. The robot’s arm and base must move simultaneously to keep the toy within reach while avoiding obstacles and preventing tipping. It must absorb irregular and fast forces from the cat without losing balance, even as the arm’s motion shifts the system’s center of mass. Maintaining stability throughout these changing conditions is critical.
Simple joints are not sufficient for this task. They lack the required range of motion, strength, and adaptability to handle dynamic forces, full 3D movement, and shifting center of mass. As a result, more advanced joint and control systems are needed to ensure stability and effective performance.
Final Build
Final Video
Table of Contents