IoT has a vast array of applications to benefit
Pet Soc​IoT​:   from its full potential which includes smart cities,
How the Internet of Things  Homes, cars, and even garbage cans are
Changed Pet Feeding  embedded with systems that allow these
I​saiah Shallom Baluso, Jariel Jon Baucas, Adrian Christian
Bernardino, April Gail Capistrano (Junior R&D Engineers)
ABSTRACT
Internet-of-things (IoT) has become the new field
of research for contemporary computer science.
One example is the smart pet feeder. This is
done by connecting an automatic pet feeder to
the Internet and embedding it in a system that
allows a smartphone to operate the feeder.
While retaining its original purpose as a pet
feeding/meal scheduling tool, the IoT smart pet
feeder also has additional options, such as slow
feeding and remote manual feeding, which help
reduce instances of overfeeding or
underfeeding, the usual problems seen in
conventional automatic pet feeders. In this
paper, the authors aim to delve deeper into the
smart feeder system, in particular, PetSafe’s
smart feeder system, and find out how people
benefit from the application of this IoT.
Keywords: Internet of Things, Smart Pet Feeder,
JavaScript Object Notation, Embedded Systems
INTRODUCTION
Internet-of-Things (IoT), has become a
widespread phenomenon in the IT world today
[1]. Consumers and business industries continue
to increase their interests and investments on
IoT powered systems and devices. Currently,
there are 11.2 billion devices connected into the
internet with 1.6 trillion U.S. dollars endpoint
spending and is projected to bloat up to 20.4
billion devices with 2.9 trillion spending in the
year 2020 both for personal and organizational
use [17].
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agriculture, traffic, retail, and many more.
hooked-up to the World Wide Web which are
mundane, everyday objects into tech-savvy
pieces of work, all controlled by the press of a
button within your smartphone or any other
Internet-capable device. One surprising area
where IoT is applied is in the area of pet care
[2].
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Pets are a joy to have in one’s life. However,
having a pet means that one should take
responsibility for its well-being. It's easy to keep
a pet healthy, but it will take some effort.
Attention, care, and nourishment are things one
should give to their pet in order for it to stay
healthy, but in a time where one has little time
even for oneself, such responsibilities are often
neglected. To earn a living, a pet owner often
has to leave the pet alone at home.
A key factor that may cause sickness in a pet is
how it is fed. The directions for feeding a pet are
not always the healthiest feeding practices. Most
pet owners tend to leave food open in feeding
bowls, allowing pets to eat as much as they
want, so-called “free feeding”. But to the pets,
this type of feeding can make them unhealthy
[6]. Some pets continue eating even if they are
already full. This can lead to obesity for the pet.
According to the Association for Pet Obesity
Prevention, roughly 53 percent of dogs and 58
percent of cats in the U.S. are overweight or
obese. Malnutrition can also be a serious threat
to pets. It occurs when the animal has a nutrient
deficiency in their body. This issue can be seen
with pets that have been neglected by their
owners, as well as households having multiple
pets, where the alpha pet might intimidate others
over the feeding bowl, leaving them to starve.
Both cases will result to unhealthy pets.
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SOLUTION AND IMPLEMENTATION
For this paper, the subject of interest would be
PetSafe’s Smart Pet Feeder.
To reduce the inconvenience that may be
associated with feeding pets, PetSafe developed
a Smart Pet Feeder that does more than an
automatic pet feeder. PetSmart, Inc. is the
largest pet retail of services and solutions of
pets [15]. They aim to help pet owners have
fulfilling lives by aiding them to become closer to
their pets through their products.
PetSafe’s Smart Pet Feeder includes a lid, food
hopper, a bowl holder with a stainless bowl,
power adapter, conveyor, feeder base, and a
manual ​feed ​button, ​as ​shown ​in ​Figure 3 [16].
The food hopper has a 24-cup capacity and
accommodates dry and semi-moist food. The
conveyor has a good accuracy of portions,
prevents jamming, and allows for slow
dispensing of pet food. The feeder also has a
battery backup in case of power outage.Their
Smart Pet Feeder has Wi-Fi enabled application
powered by the features of Internet of Things.
Figure 3​. Components of the PetSafe Smart Pet Feeder.
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Like its automatic counterpart, the device has an
automatic food dispenser that are customizable
in schedule and in dispensed food quantity. But
in the case of unscheduled and undelivered food
for a specified meal time, alerts can be sent to a
mobile device through a mobile application
notifying the need to update the schedule of
food dispensing based on previous scheduled
food dispensing. Figure 4 shows the product
with food. The whole device is powered through
a power adapter with an optional battery backup
for cases of electricity disruptions. An overview
of these parts can be seen in Figure 3.
The PetSafe smart feeder provides more
advantages than the automatic pet feeder as it
utilizes the information fed to it by the sensors
and the server. Smart feeders have infrared
proximity sensor and battery-operated electric
motor which detects the proximity of the pet and
opens the canary or provides food when it is
within range [12]. This function ensures that the
food is kept fresh and keeps dust and insects
away from the food. The smart feeder allows
flexibility of feeding schedule as it can detect
changes in the eating patterns of the pet. The
smart feeder can also be manually controlled by
iPhones or iPods with iOS 9 or later and
Andrioid smartphones 5.0 or later by transmit
data to to the server. Figure 5 shows the
Conceptual Diagram of the communication
between PetSafe’s Smart Feeder, the Server,
Figure 4​. Petsafe smart pet feeder product image.
2
and the Mobile Device.
After setting up the smart feeder, it must be
configured to connect to the home WiFi network.
Smart Feeder communicates through a WiFi
module embedded in the feeder. All data
received by the module is formatted as
Javascript Object Notation (JSON) object and
sent to the server to be processed. Most pet
feeders, like the PetSafe Pet Feeder, have
compatible applications in the Android and iOS
platform. These devices acts as controllers that
also sends commands in JSON to the server
and consequently, to the Smart Pet Feeder. The
server processes the data it receives like the
food consumption and food availability.
Most Smart Feeders have a large container to
store the pet food and a canary to serve them in
the set intervals based on the commands stored
and sent to the server. Some pet feeders have
motion sensors that detects if the pet is near the
feeder, which is interpreted as that the pet
getting hungry and is looking for food. PetSafe’s
Smart Pet Feeder not only allows input of
feeding schedule to fully automate feeding but it
also allow manual control through a mobile
device. The owner can manually schedule at
most 12 meals in a day for your pet or use the
Figure 5.​ PetSafe Smart Pet Feeder Conceptual Diagram
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Feed Now function in the mobile application as
shown in Figure 6. PetSafe Smart Pet Feeder
also includes a Slow Feed function to slowly
dispense pet food and avoid gulping and
vomiting [13].
Data is being transmitted by the Smart Feeder to
the owner’s mobile device informing the owner
when a pet is already fed as shown in Figure 7,
or on the amount of food left in the feeder, and
the food’s nutritional value. Some pet feeders
include the location of pet stores that are near
the location of the owner. Others could also alert
the owner if there is no food left and gives a
video footage of the pet’s activity near the
feeder. Some models even allow audio
transmission so that the owners can invite their
pets over the feeder to eat. It is important to
highlight that PetSafe’s Smart Pet Feeder still
does not have the said functions. It only means
that the application of IoT is still progressing
within the area of Pet Care. The interconnection
between Pet Safe’s smart feeder, mobile phone,
and stores has eradicated almost all
inconvenience associated in ensuring a healthy
Figure 6​. Pet Safe Mobile Application Interface for
Scheduling and Feed Now function [14].
3
way to feed pets. It was awarded as the control the feeder over the Internet, we now
Amazon’s choice for the smart pet feeder have an IoT device responsible for feeding pets,
category. so called “smart feeders”.

RELATED STUDIES A number of pet feeders are widely available

nowadays. But it is only in recent years where
To address these cases, an “automatic pet we can see that the Internet of Things is being
feeder” can be used. An automatic feeder is a applied to these feeders to provide better
device where a pet owner can fill a container service and more controls for the owners.
with pet food, and allow the feeding device to
dispense the pet food on a feeding bowl. There You can see the significant differences between
are 2 kinds of automatic pet feeders. One type each pet feeder and understand the impact of
allows you to set a feeding schedule for your IoT integration in the system.
pet, dispensing food only at set times, while the
other continually refills the feeding bowl Interactive Pet Feeding and Watering Bowl
whenever the initial amount was reduced. The
latter is discouraged since it’s simply free Our first example is one made by Jacob Tipton
feeding, but on an automatic feeder. On the Taylor under U.S. Patent. He developed an
other hand, a feeder that schedules its interactive pet feeding and watering bowl to be
dispensing times is recommended due to how it filled by either food or water to support the
teaches your pet to follow a routine. But why is nourishment needs of animals specifically those
that so? who are considered as pets[7]. The device [11]
also includes a voice record playback (VRP)
Feeding Schedules integration which will deliver a recorded
message when the pet is heading towards the
A pet feeding schedule helps establish a routine bowl. VRP integration is powered by a proximity
around you pet's other vital schedules like play, sensor that directs an optical beam through a
activity and sleep. Scheduled portioned feeding lens on the interior of the bowl. The beam is
requires a strict routine that you need to be able projected across the dish bowl so that when a
to guarantee to stick to. Pet's thrive on routine,
however they do not monitor time like humans
do. Your pet will know when meal times are and
ensure that they are ready for them, with cats
coming indoors specifically at these times. This
method limits the amount that your pet eats
either by portion size or by time as some pet
owners prefer to give their animals a specific
time frame in which they must eat. This method
also works well if you have pets that required
medication to be mixed with their food, or have
an animal on a calorie-controlled diet.

Smart Feeders

So where can IoT be found in these? Well, by

embedding a system in an automatic feeder that
Figure 1​. Taylor’s interactive pet feeding blueprint​.
allows it to connect in the Internet, then creating Descriptions of labels are not attached
a system that allows Internet-capable devices to

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pet eats or drinks from the bowl, the beam is
interrupted or reflected and the optical sensor is
activated causing the voice module to play the
recorded message.
However, the device [11] has a major limitation
of not having a solution to the problem of
sustaining a proper schedule of pet feeding
regardless of the pet owner’s schedule. Figure 1
shows a drawing of the device.
Automatic Feeder for Dogs and
Animals
Another example is developed by Peter
Ramirez, also under U.S. Patent, where he
made an automatic feeder for dogs and other
animals with increased functionality[8]. The
automatic feeder with computerized control
circuitry that dispenses different programmed
quantities of food for each meal at programmed
mealtimes and plays a prerecorded 30-second
message, preferably the owner’s voice (meal
call messages). Other features cover telephone
interfaces and video telephones (interface for a
personal computer) and a battery back-up that
further extends feeder functionality.
Figure 2​. Ramirez’s automatic feeder blueprint.
Description of labels are not attached.
AWS Internal Use Only​ ​
The Automatic Feeder is constrained to be
designed with respect to the architecture of
embedded systems. With that statement​ ​in mind,
programming and reprogramming of tasks are
limited to physical contact with the device thus
limiting its capability to be remotely controllable
as featured by Internet of Things (IoT) powered
systems and devices. To look at the a drawing
of the device, refer to Figure 2.
other RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
After thorough examination and review of the
researchers on the commentaries and
feedbacks about the automatic food feeder for
pets, a list of benefits was formulated:
● Weight Management
● Regular Routine
● No Guilt when Plans Change
● More Frequent, Smaller Meals
● Fresh Food for each Meal
● No Early Morning Wake Up Calls
● Time Saver
5
 Figure 6​. Pet Safe Mobile Application Interface for
Feeding Schedule Log [14].
Obesity is not healthy. Many diseases can occur
because of weight problems. Pets live very
closely with humans these days and therefore
they also share civilization diseases with
humans. Many dogs, cats, and other pets suffer
from obesity. For example, in a large-scale
study, scientists from the Ludwig-Maximilians-
Universität München found that about 52% of
the participating dogs and cats were too fat [10].
Pet owners are the trigger for the weight
problems of pets due to the great influence of
humans, which determines the amount,
composition, and feeding schedule of foods for
the pets.Assessing the nutritional status of one's
own pet is difficult for many pet owners. Many
pet owners underestimate the weight problem of
their pets and assess the body conditions of
pets less critically. Owners who follow strict
routines often have to plan their entire lives
around their pets. Not only is this an impractical
but also unnecessary burden.
CONCLUSION
The modules found in any common smart pet
feeder can be further expanded and applied in
the agricultural sector, specifically in the animal
husbandry occupation. We can have a larger
and commercialized automatic feeder for hogs,
chickens, cows, and other animals raised for
food production. With such a device, one can
make precise food measurements - reducing
instances of overfeeding or underfeeding, and
be able to monitor animals - even when one is
not on-site, all at the beck-and-call of your
smartphone.
Another way we can utilize these automatic
feeders is by using them in the veterinary arts.
There are cases where pets are too sick or too
rowdy to send to the nearest veterinary clinic or
animal hospital; there are also times when your
AWS Internal Use Only​ ​
too far from such clinics and hospitals. By using
the built-in camera, the veterinarian can make
an initial diagnosis. For cases where the
animal's discomfort is minor, the veterinarian
can simply call his/her prescriptions, thereby
reducing time, effort, and money spent going to
and from the clinic or hospital.
It is also possible to take advantage of smart
feeders in academic experiments, especially for
institutions that don't have the budget to
purchase more advanced testing tools. Take for
example, when testing for conceptual pet foods.
By using the scheduling function of the smart
feeder, one can administer the experimental pet
food at uniform times, thereby increasing the
reliability of the results gathered from the tests.
Of course, smart feeders are not a scientifically
recognized method for animal experimentation,
but one can make an initial hypotheses using
the smart feeder for small-scale tests.
SOURCES
[1]​ ​http://www.petstreetmall.com/articles/how-does-an-autom
atic-pet-feeder-work.aspx
[2]​ ​https://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&
url=https://​file.scirp.org/pdfAIT_2013012915301219.pdf&ved
=2ahUKEwjY_uGF3JrcAhWLabwKHXr0AOYQFjABegQIBhA
B&usg=AOvVaw0EFHr1DwfEKfvQv58rg1ym
[3]​ ​http://www.eastridgehosp.com/articles/feeding-your-pet.h
t​ml
[4]​ ​https://www.petnet.io/blog/benefits-and-risks-of-slow-feed
-pet-bowls
[5]​ ​https://nancybrandtdvm.com/food-the-evolution-of-feedin
g-pets/
[6]​ ​https://www.petmd.com/dog/nutrition/evr_multi_best_feed
ing_method
[7]​ ​https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/60/71/dd/52
95b1be7ced8f/US7789041.pdf
[8]​ ​https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/5d/64/de/aa
7a8eb1321da3/US5299529.pdf
[9]​ ​www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073WYP317/ref=as_li_tf_
tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07
3WYP317&linkCode=as2&tag=bestprodtag105742-20
[10] ​Becker N​, ​Dillitzer N​, ​Sauter-Louis C​, ​Kienzle E (2012):
Feeding of dogs and cats in Germany, ​Tierarztl Prax Ausg K
Kleintiere Heimtiere.​ 40(6):391-7​.
[11] ​Jacob Tipton Taylor. 2010. ​Interactive Pet Feeding and
Watering Bowl.​ [ONLINE] Available at: ​https://patentimages​.
6
storage.googleapis.com/60/71/dd/5295b1be7ced8f/US77890
41.pdf. [Accessed 12 July 2018].
[12]​ ​http://www.sphinxsai.com/2017/ch_vol10_no14/2/​(253-2
58)V10N14CT.pdf
[13]​ ​https://store.petsafe.net/smart-feed
[14]​ ​https://www.gearbrain.com/review-petsafe-smart-feed-i
Fi​-2536087985.html
[15]​ ​https://www.petsmartcorporate.com/
[16]​ ​https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1
w%2BBTtSrYS.pdf
[17]​ https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3598917

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