Hey folks, I am a novice to automation and thank you in advance for your help. I have been talking with herring_fish about an automated fish feeder.
The 20' x 20' square room has horizontal perimeter shelves on three levels: knee height, waist height and neck height. To just have a two axis system, I don't mind the feeder disbursing to all three horizontal planes at the same time. Maybe the entire feeder array slides/throws the same distance along the Y axis. I assume the X axis would be the movement of the base around the room and the Y axis is the horizontal throw as the feed guns move about a meter from their "home/all clear of obstacles and ready to move around the room" operation to their "moved horizontally over the shelves into food disbursing position" operation. After food dispersal, the Y axis retracts horizontally about a meter from feeding position over the shelves back to it's home position/clear of obstacles. The the base would move clockwise around the room about a meter on an X axis, come to a stop, and repeat the Y axis throw again.
On the other hand, in a square room there are two walls running north/south and two walls running east/west, so that's two axis of movement around the room. I get confused sometimes. I'd like to put the feeder on a track so it moves clockwise around the room forever. I'd like to use a couple 12vdc car batteries for power. Battery charging will be manual, otherwise it probably complicates things too much. Each feeding station has room on the sides for guide tracks on the Y axis if needed.
Alternatively, the feeder could feed one shelf at a time. It would move a meter on the Y axis to feed the bottom shelf, disburse food, then withdraw. Then lift vertically a couple feet, move into place a meter to disburse to the middle shelf, then withdraw. Then lift vertically a third time a couple feet, move a meter on the Y axis to feed the top shelf, then withdraw. With that section fed, the base would move along the X axis to the next station, the Y axis would either return to a home position at the bottom shelf or stay in it's last position at the top shelf, and repeat the cycle.
My preference would be to build a three tier feeder, disburse to all 3 shelves simultaneously, and get rid of the vertical movement altogether. I am guessing that this would be a simpler and more robust method. I have plenty of grease guns.
Here are two other details.
One: For simplicity, I'm thinking of bolting a horizontal C channel (like a garage door track) on the shelves so a dumb feeder simply moves along the rails to stop at each station, working clockwise around the room forever. Instead of a robot or motorized base unit moving around the room perimeter, a belt/cable/chain moves the feeder clockwise to its next feeding station. At each station I envision proximity sensors or pegs that stop the feeder for a few minutes until the Y axis moves into place, distributes food, and then retracts back to the "all clear of obstacles/home base/ready to move to next station".
Two: Each shelf will have up to 8 fish tanks. Three shelves of up to 8 tanks means up to 24 tanks grease guns distributing food at each station. I envision the triggers being pulled by stepper motors, probably 24 stepper motors for individual control. However if some of the fish tanks are empty I don't want to disburse food and pollute the water. So I'm thinking that 8 optical or other sensors/indicators on the outside of each shelf are read by the auto feeder and dictate how many stepper motors/grease gun triggers get activated. For example, the bottom shelf may have 5 tanks with fish. The other 3 indicators/sensors are removed or set into a neutral position and when the 8 bottom grease guns move into feeding position, only 5 triggers get pulled. Perhaps on the middle shelf perhaps 7 fish tanks are occupied and 7 indicators/sensors tell the feeder to pull the trigger on 7 grease guns. And on the top shelf perhaps 3 tanks are occupied and only three sensors are active.
I hope you get the picture. Because the fish tank occupants may change on a daily basis, it would be nice to have color or proximity sensors that are easily changed.
My wording probably is not as clear as it could be. Please let me know what details can be clarified.
Thanks
David