P.A.E.R.S.S
Pet Animal Emergency Routing and Security System
Design Process
Coming up with a specific and targeted design space allows us to tackle a specific problem and create intervention accordingly to the problem.
PROBLEM/DESIGN SPACE
Problem Space
Pets have been important roles in many of our families. Although pet disaster emergency kits were developed to educate pet owners and raise their awareness of the importance of pets’ safety in disaster, nothing is really be done to protect pets during natural disasters.
The goal of our design, at last, is to provide safe shelters for dogs/cats in the unpredicted disasters, minimize the death rate for dogs/cats in the unpredicted disasters, and help dogs/cats reunite with their owners after the unpredicted disasters.
Contextual Inquiry
Our team met with pet owners to understand more about them and their pets in relation to natural disasters. We also got to see the interactions between owners and their pets which showed us how close they were to each other.
Contextual inquiry allowed our team to better understand the problem spaces that we are intervening with. Some questions that we asked include:
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Do you consider your pet as part of your family?
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How much spending have you put in on your pets safety?
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Do you have emergency kits for you and/or your pet?
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Do you have a plan to safely evacuate your home with your pet in the case of a natural disaster?
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What concerns do you have for your pets during a natural disaster?
Design Concept & Prototype
Initial Digital Design
For our digital prototype, we created an app that would connect to our physical cage via Bluetooth. This would allow pet owners to always be connected to the cage and check different features such as GPS location and cage door controls.
Features:
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Pairing with a phone
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Mapping the house layout
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GPS Tracking
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Notification Capabilities
Initial Physical Design
We started our physical prototype by building a cage with many additional features because we wanted to ensure that the pets in the cage will be safe during disasters. We created our initial low-fidelity physical prototype using cardboard.
Features:
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Wheels
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Tank Tracks (Continuous Track)
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Material
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Solar Panels
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Sensors
User Evaluation
Interviews
Chung Hoon Choi
Mechanical Engineering Graduate Student with Experiences in Drone Manufacturing at UW
"I really think your design concepts are interesting. However, the initial design is probably not feasible because of the tank tracks and solar panels."
""You might also need to consider the size of pets and their behaviors during disasters."
"You also might want to consider the rescue process for pets. For example, some places might be too hot/cold for pets to survive."
Feasibility of Features
Wheels/tank tracks
The tank tracks will require too much energy and add a lot of excessive and unnecessary weights to the cage that can be already too heavy for users.
Materials and weight of the cage
Although stainless steel can probably withstand the regular houses, building the cage with all stainless steels can cause the cage to weigh a lot.
Solar panels
Considering the region we are in now, solar panel is just not practical to charge the cage with solar panels because it only get charged through UV lights.
WIFI/GPS mapping
There is no way for the cage to map the outline of the house and just self determine the ways to leave house or danger zone. However, GPS mapping might be a good feature for rescue teams to locate the cage to shorten the time of reaction.
Tian Wang
Bioengineering Student with Experience with Animal Behavior
"Animal's behaviors are really unpredictable when they are under stress and especially in situations like disasters."
"And yes I think animals will get hurt more easily in a disaster because they are not able to identify safe space despite of their fast reaction."
Animal Behaviors
Animals' Instinct
Animals usually panic and run to places that they think is safe; however, this might just put them under more danger. And there is no solid evidence in the scientific community that shows animals have instincts that predict disaster.
Feasibility of Cage
The GPS tracking is quite intriguing, but he told the interviewer to make sure the material can stand a large amount of weight. Once again, he asked the interviewer to consider the fact that the animal will be quite anxious from temporary separation from its owner and the occurrence such disasters. Providing the animal with water and food would be essential to comfort it somewhat.
Surveys
We first created a survey that includes questions about the accuracy of our description on our digital and physical prototype, the usability of our physical prototype, the feasibility of our prototypes, and any additional features that our users think are useful.
70% of the people who took the surveys without any additional in-depth information about our prototypes stated that the information provided on our digital prototypes doesn’t really describe the features of the physical cage well enough, but instead, describes the use of the cage in a disaster situation well. People also suggested that adding a sketch of our cage, a welcome page, and a page for the kind of responses for different emergencies can be helpful. Despite of our unpolished designs, people did feel that they are more prepared for a disaster if using our cage.
Refinements
The interviews with professionals engaged in the field allowed to strengthen our understanding of our design in two major ways. The first aspect that has been influenced by speaking with a veterinarian, who has certain expertise in the field of animal behavior. The second aspect has been speaking with persons with background in engineering. Thus, we made some of the refinements that shall be discussed below.
Charging
Our initial design involved charging via a solar panel. After speaking with engineers, the practicality of this idea came into question. First, solar panels are incredibly inefficient at charging. Second, the solar panels would be impractical for many users, since solar panels would require the cage to be set near a window. To address this concern and with affirmation from the engineers we were able to speak with, we have decided the replace the charging method. The new charging method would hence rely on wireless charging.
Escape Strategy
Due to constraints on modern batteries, a huge battery is required to move the cage to an evacuation spot. That was the original idea, but having realized that to do that the battery would be extremely heavy and would compromise other aspects of the design, we have taken the decision to tweak the escape strategy from moving animals to safe spot, to moving the cage to an identified safe spot in the house until rescue efforts begin.
Manual Override
The manual override would be an important part of the cage because an animal may need to be released from the outside by a person. Manual override can be done physically by a person who wants to open the cage by using the manual release buttons on the cage. A scenario where the earthquake has ended but the animal is trapped inside would constitute the need for a person to be able to open the cage. There is also the ability to open the door manually using the app. This is a fail-safe measure in case a rescue worker, not the cat/dog owner with the phone, needs to release the animal. This is also a fail-safe measure for the animal owner, in case the phone doesn’t work.
Automatic Release Mechanism
Other than the manual release, our door also has an automatic release function. Due to the possible dangers of earthquakes we wanted to make sure the animal is not released from the cage too early. For example, there could be possible aftershocks that might kill the pet if it is released too quickly. Therefore the automatic release on the door is set to one to two hours after a disaster to prevent harm to the animal. The owner is able to set the timeout for the automatic release of the animal after the unplanned disaster (earthquake) using a phone app.
Reshaping the Cage
The shape of the cage was an important part to keeping the animal safe. Originally we had a square design like most cages but we learned that in the case of large amounts of weight coming down on top of the cage a dome roof structure would be much more stable. The round dome shape allows the weight to become more distributed and there are no weak/unstable areas like the corners of a square structure.
Temperature Control
Regulating the temperature of the cage was emphasized in our contextual inquiry with Chung Hoon. He explained how there may be cases where the cage is located in places with drastically different weather conditions. We would have to regulate the temperature of the cage since the animal will be stuck inside for up to two hours. Keeping the temperature at a comfortable level even if the cage is exposed to the elements is important. To address this, we thought that including circuits at the bottom of the cage for heating and adding a fan in the cage. The control of the fan and the heating could be turned on by the owner using the bluetooth control.
Providing Water and Food
The pets in cages may require water because they may be stuck in the cage for long amounts of time. In the case that the pet stays in the cage until the automatic release function is activated they need to remain comfortable and fully hydrated. Thus, we have added a hanging water bottle in the corner of the cage. However, it is up to the owner to keep the bottle filled. To address the issue with food, owners will be encouraged in to leave a pet bowl in the cage in the owner’s manual.
