About
Astro is a robot companion for dogs and dog owners that allows dog owners to feed, let out, and play with their dogs remotely.
Dog owners who work or travel often are concerned about the daily interactions that dogs need to be healthy such as feeding, going outside, and exercising. Dogs left alone can suffer from boredom, stress, and other health issues.
Astro is an innovative product that tackles this problem space and provides a one-in-all solution for dog owners.
With Astro, dog owners can easily communicate, take care of, and enhance their dog's lives when the dog owners are away.
Product Features
Feeding
Astro is able to feed your dog remotely through manual controls or a scheduled event. The robot can hold up to 6 pounds of dry dog food!
Letting In and Out
With its advanced robotic arm and sensors, Astro is able to open and close any type of door. Astro can let dogs in and out, using its sensors to make sure dogs are inside and outside safely.
Monitoring
The 360 degrees camera with 1080HD quality allows dog owners to check up on their dogs at anytime. Astro even records specific motions and events based on the dog owner's preferences and stores them in the cloud.
Maintaining Health
Astro helps dogs with boredom at home! The robot is able to play with dogs using smart toys and its robotic arm. It can play tug of war and fetch, using its sensors to safely play inside the house.
Design Process
Our team went through an extensive and documented design process to create Astro
We focused on achieving a balance between good design principles, addressing the users' needs and wants, and fulfilling our team's desire to create an innovative solution
We hope to inspire a wave of designers that design for creative futures
View Our Process
Design Documentation
Our process involved user research, task analysis, heuristic evaluations, usability testing, and prototyping
Take a detailed look into our design documentation below
Our Team
Our team consisted of four members. We all collaborated through the process of research, design, and testing.
Aaron Burtle
Researcher, Tester
Daniel Nguyen
Researcher, Designer
David Ross
Researcher, Tester
Tyren Yabe
Researcher, TesterAstro
Letting dog owners easily communicate, take care of, and enhance their dog's lives when they are away.
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
UWNetID@uw.edu
(206) 543-2100