my MaDE Capstone in partnership with Shedd Aquarium
I worked in a team with 4 other students to design and fabricate a “smart penguin egg” - a device that gathers data on the penguins' incubation process, helping penguin caretakers at Shedd Aquarium to optimize their care.
A current lack of quantitative data makes it difficult to identify when eggs are underdeveloping and what conditions would best promote healthy development.
In approaching how to design our solution, there were 3 main things to consider - the marine environment of the penguin enclosure, the penguins' safety, and the penguin caretakers who would be deploying the device. We defined the following requirements:
In addition to requirements, there were the following constraints we had to account for:
Our solution took the form of a 3D printed PLA egg housing and internal scaffold containing electronic components that measure applied temperature, humidity, and orientation of the egg.
My main roles in the project were developing the structural components of our design (housing, internal scaffold), project management, and visual communication design.
The external housing features a threaded closure to allow for ease of repeated opening and closing while maintaining splash resistance. 3D printed PLA construction allows the housing to be lightweight yet durable enough to survive a 3' drop.
The internal scaffold organizes the smart egg's electronics and is designed to sit securely within the egg via a slot and seating feature. This ensures that components are secure and maintain their strategic placement within the egg while also allowing the scaffold to be easily removable for access to the SD card for data collection and the battery for replacement. The scaffold is also constructed of 3D printed PLA.
To accurately measure the overall surface temperature of the egg, we used 4 infrared (IR) sensors placed in 4 quadrants of the egg.
We used an 9-DOF sensor (accel/mag/gyro) to collect data on the egg's orientation via angles of roll and pitch. These measurements in conjunction with the temperature sensors are used to inform the caretakers of which parts of the egg are being warmed directly by the penguin's brood pouch.
A Gore-tex patch which features an adhesive backing is secured over a hole (⌀7.5mm) in the external housing over which the humidity sensor is positioned. Gore-tex being gas-permeable but waterproof allows the humidity sensor to measure the moisture in the air surrounding the egg while keeping all internal components protected from water.
At the end of the project, we had constructed 2 designs. Design 1 features data collection via an SD card and is powered by 3 AAA batteries. This was the further developed design that we had tested with the penguins. Design 2 features data collection via WiFi and is powered by a rechargeable, lithium-ion battery. Because of the larger battery, Design 2 requires larger housing as can be seen in this side-by-side.