Animal Enrichment Automation

Project Goal: Develop a system for zoos that uses an animal’s motion within a habitat to trigger various animal enrichment activities, with the goal of simplifying animal care and improving animal well-being and visitor experience.

To provide improved care for animals, many zoos have environmental enrichment programs, in which staff members activate various activities or objects to stimulate the animal. The team was tasked with improving this concept by automating the enrichment system for Reid Park Zoo’s jaguar habitat.

The system is composed of four identical units, each containing electronic components within a weatherproof case with a mounting bracket. The units use interchangeable passive infrared sensors that detect changes of infrared light within their field of view and use a radio frequency mesh network to determine if another unit is active. If no other units are active, then the unit that detected motion will switch a relay, enabling power to an enrichment device. The enrichment device remains powered for a set time that the user can adjust.

This system gives the animal freedom to choose which enrichment activity is activated by its motion. This could potentially be integrated into other animal enclosures and at other zoos.