Americans love dogs. They are the most popular pets, with 65.1 million households in the United States having at least one dog registered as a pet. One of the least pleasant responsibilities of being a dog owner is having to clean up after a dog goes to the bathroom. Picking up dog waste is not just a courtesy to remove something unsightly; leaving it behind can be hazardous. The nitrogen and phosphorus in dog feces can leach into water bodies, leading to an overgrowth of weeds and harmful algae. Pathogens like E. coli and salmonella, as well as parasites found in dog feces, can be harmful to other pets, wildlife, and humans. When someone doesn’t pick up after their dog, bacteria and parasites spread and become a real issue.

If bending down to pick up after a dog seems like too much for you, perhaps being a dog owner isn’t the best idea. There are other options, such as hiring a service to periodically clean up after your dog. For Caleb Olsen, a software engineer, he decided to tackle his doggy doo issue with drone technology. With his Corgi, Twinkie, Caleb has been on what he calls a two-year poop journey to eliminate the annoying aspect of having to pick up dog poop, especially since he lives in an area that gets a lot of snowfall, making it very hard for him to locate where Twinkie had left a mess in his yard.

“I’ve thought about this problem way more than I’d like to admit,” Caleb jokes, but it was a problem that inspired him to build a system using the security cameras on his house to help find poop in his backyard. The camera, he explained, “would monitor Twinkie, and basically, whenever it detects she’s pooping, it keeps a log of where she poops. And it just stores an image, and over time, it stores the locations.” Adding to the security camera tracker, Caleb attached a movable arm with a laser to the back of his house. The laser, connected to the data from the camera, could point out the spots where a poop was hidden. Even better, the algorithm would plot out the most logical course for Caleb to walk to pick up the messes.

He had a system that would effectively show exactly where a poop was, but the problem was that he would still have to pick it up manually. Spending more time thinking about dog poop, Caleb eventually came up with the Poopcopter, a drone that takes care of the mess for you. “The Poopcopter is capable of scanning areas defined by a user, your backyard for example, and as it’s scanning, it’s performing real-time computer vision using the camera which is inside the drone,” Caleb explains. The drone’s camera sends this information back to a computer to be analyzed.

When the computer recognizes a poop, it sends the information back to the drone, which will then pick up the poop. This was the next challenge Caleb faced. He had to find a way to get the drone to position itself with the highest degree of accuracy to precisely pick up a poop. He also had to design a receptacle to collect the poop neatly that would provide enough clearance between the drone and the ground.

The solution was a cup that fits over the poop. Then the cup rotates, causing extension leaves to close around the base, scooping up the poop. Along the bottom of the cup and leaves are small spikes that ensure the drone doesn’t get stuck in the grass and efficiently cleans up any messes. When done, the drone will fly to a designated spot, rotate the cup in the other direction, and dispose of the poop without a person ever having to come in contact with it.

Caleb goes on to say that this drone is only a prototype, and he is not quite sure what to do with it next. “Patrolling, detecting, picking up, and dropping off is the Poopcopter at its core,” Caleb said. He mentions there are possibilities for the fully automated system to go directly to consumers or even to a service that will come to your house on a schedule to clean up after your dog. “There are a lot of fun ways, fun and interesting directions this could go,” he said. “This is just the start.” Whether through advancements in automation or creative solutions, the future of dog waste management may just be a little more high-tech, and a lot less messy.

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