Development of the Functions of Automatic Fish Feeder

Dignos, Denver
Espina, Sanimel
Fuentes, Claudine Mae
Panot, James Patrick
Poloyapoy, Anna Charmeine
Rabeno, Rovelyn

Researcher

Mr. Noel Roble

Researcher Advicer

Submitted to

School Year 2021-2022

 ii

APPROVAL SHEET

This research entitled, “Development of the Functions of Automatic Fish Feeder” conducted
by Denver Dignos, Sanimel Espina, Claudine Mae Fuentes, James Patrick Panot, Anna
Charmeine Poloyapoy and Rovelyn Robeno, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the
course Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology of Cebu Technological University will be
examined, accepted and approval.

Mr. Noel Roble

Research Adviser
 iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, thank you Lord God, Almighty Father, for giving us the wisdom, guidance
and protection.

This project would not have been possible without the support of many people. Many thanks to
my adviser, Mr. Noel Roble, who read my numerous revisions and helped make some sense of
the confusion

The researchers would like to extend their sincerest gratitude to the following people, who have
one way or another, helped them in the course of their research.

To our parents, words are not enough to show how much we truly appreciate your unending love
and support.
And finally, thank you to the members of the group, whose tireless efforts and cooperation,
made this research project a success.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Approval Sheet.............................................................................................................................. i
Acknowledgement......................................................................................................................... ii

Abstract

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the Study................................................................................................................ 1

Statement of the Problem............................................................................................................ 2

General Objectives...................................................................................................................... 2

Specific Objectives...................................................................................................................... 2

Significance of the Study............................................................................................................. 2

Scope and Limitations.................................................................................................................. 2

Definition of Terms ..................................................................................................................... 2

CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW

Automatic Fish Feeder Concept........................................................................................5

Review of Related Work............................................................................................................ 6

Related News Articles.......................................................................................................7

CHAPTER 3 - METHODS

Functional Requirements...................................................................................................8

Tank and Fish Requirements.............................................................................................8

Operational Requirements.................................................................................................8

Miscellaneous Requirements.............................................................................................8

Mechanical Structure.........................................................................................................9
 Electronics Components....................................................................................................9

Arduino..............................................................................................................................9

Servo Motor.......................................................................................................................9

CHAPTER 4 - DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSES, AND DISCUSSIONS

System Design...................................................................................................................11

Hardware Design...............................................................................................................11

Software Design................................................................................................................11

Results..............................................................................................................................12

CHAPTER 5 - SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary...........................................................................................................................13

Conclusions.......................................................................................................................13

Recommendations.............................................................................................................13

REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................14
 ABSTRACT
It is not feasible for fish owners to leave extra food in their fish’s tank before leaving for an
extended period. This creates the need for a device that can automatically and reliably feed a fish.
The purpose of this project is to design an automated fish feeder for household use. The device was
developed to feed a single goldfish for at least 14 days without any additional input from the user.
Using an Arduino unit to control two stepper motors, the multi-stage design feeds the fish while
avoiding failures that could result in too much food being dispensed. The compact design attaches
directly to the tank for easy setup.

Key Words- Arduino, baud rate, stepper motor, time delay

 1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the Study

Food and feeding are the important elements for growth and production, their
management being one of the main challenges for aquaculture development, survivability and
maintenance. The adjustment of food delivery to ensure the survival of the fish is important for
fish owners, whether as pet or aquaculture. Related to economic aspect, especially for highly
invested aquaculture project, the control of fish feeding will also determine the survivor of the
company involved. However for this paper, I will focus on the fish reared by home owners.
In order to solve this problem, several direct and indirect techniques have been developed. Self-
feeders may be used for direct adjustment, whereas indirect methods have also been used based
on using automated device to deliver the feed to the fish. Therefore, the aim of the present study
is the development of a feeder that can handle good control of fish food feedings.
Recently, there has been increase of number of people who kept fish as a pet at their own
home. Be it a hobby or for business purposes. Those who do it for business purposes, in statistic,
in Asia itself, the production of aquaculture dominate the market, contributing around 91% of the
world’s total by volume and 82d% by value. Asian countries, such as Thailand, have been the
top ten aquaculture producers in the world. The region has the highest variety of cultured
species. Asia has also been the highest seafoodconsuming region of the world, accounting for
two-third of the world’s food fish supply, the increase of which mainly came from aquaculture in
recent years (Endan, Mazlina, Talib & Yeoh, 2010).

As stated by Endan et al (2010), the fisheries sector in Malaysia has provided direct
employment to 89,453 fishermen and 21,504 fish culturists. The consumption of fish in Malaysia
is expected to increase by 14% by 2010 and currently, the country is producing 89% of the fish
supply for its own consumption. With the marine harvest almost stagnating, the industry is
dependent on the aquaculture to cater for the growing demand. Currently, the aquaculture
industry contributes to about 13.2% of the total fish produced. Malaysia has the potential to
become a major player in the aquaculture industry in Asia Pacific, if more companies enter the
sector.
One parameter that involve in a feeder is time management controller that act as main
part of a feeder. Many industrialists in aqua field and also fish owner seem to have trouble with
this timely operation. Traditional method of feeding fish either for fish in pond, cage or even
small lake is by use of man power. For the worker, they sometime face difficulties to do the
feedings at the same exact time during some unexpected event especially when raining. If the
they continue the job, the only result are not just the pellet ending at the bottom of the pond as
waste faster or lead water to pollute, but the main critical problem is the unfed fish. This matter
will even grow bigger during raining season and will cost a lot of trouble to the industrialist. This
is a very clear example to show how important is timing variation, that determine when is the
 2
Meal time for the fish. The meal time usually can be change depends on the user coincide with
some specific condition such as type of fish, size of the pond, quantity of fish and many other
aspect which selected by the programmer to set the time. Moreover, the running period for each
feeding also determine by this timer that is also programmed by the user. The feeding device
includes means on the control means to vary the length of each predetermined interval. Plus,
there is also a need for warning for user if the storage reach a low level of fish feed, such as
sending SMS to user phone. At the same time, monitoring the environment of the aquarium is
also important in some part of the country. Some places have constant temperature all year round
but there are also some places that the temperature will go from extreme to another. Such cases
will definite carry huge risk towards the fish. If such cases occur, the fish will probably die.
Thus, there is also need to update such situation via SMS. Same as previously mention situation.

Statement of the Problem

In these modern times, there are many aquarists or fish owners of the home based
aquarium leads a busy life especially those who are away on business or vacation. They are often
difficult to maintain a regular feeding schedule. However, for the fish survival, the fish require
regular care in order to remain healthy. If fish are not constantly fed small amounts of food at
regular intervals, there can be significant loss of fish due to starvation. But, at the same time, too
much food in the water can easily clog up important filters and cause the owners to spend more
time cleaning the aquarium tank. Moreover, monitoring the internal environment such as the
temperature of the water is a plus point. There are some aqua life that cannot live if the
temperature is too cold or too warm. Thus, they might need to take a certain action by recruiting
a reliable helper to ensure that the fish are properly fed and taken care of while they are away.

As such, a device can replace the helper instead. The system of the device must be able to
be controlled or adjusted by user according to their demand and needs. As referring to
“automatic” word itself, the device or more appropriate, the feeder should be able to be operated
without supervision of human at least at certain interval of time. At the same time, the water
temperature can also be monitored.

There are many different designs and brands on automatic fish feeders on the market, but
there are some limitations on the existing fish feeders need to be improved. Therefore, some
improvement or new invention needs to develop to solve these problems. However, when it
comes to a total cost of this design, it is a bit expensive as this invention requires higher cost of
parts.

Usually modern aquariums have their own automatic fish feeder that used to give food to
the fish by following the timer that is set by the user. However, the problem with an automatic
fish feeder is that there may be a time a user forgot to resupply the fish feed into the device and
there not many feeders that have their own temperature sensor. For this project I need to design
the automatic fish feeder with a warning system so the amount of food in the aquarium can be
replenished and the water temperature can be monitored at all times.
 3

Here are the research problems that must be overcome in order to complete this research.
The questions are:

1. What kind of material is suitable for the feed storage to avoid moisture?

2. How to control the amount of fish feed into the pond or tank?

3. What a kind of sensor is suitable for the warning system?

General Objectives
Fish have a feeding schedule of once per day every day, making it difficult for the fish
owner to be away from home, whether it be for school, work, or leisure. This creates the need for
an automated device that can reliably feed a fish.

The goal for this project is to design a system for automatically feeding a fish.

Specific Objectives

1. To design and develop automatic fish feeder for indoor aquarium.

2. To monitor the environment of the aquarium.

3. To evaluate the performance of the developed mechanism.

Significance of the Study

The aim for this research is to develop fish feeder to automatically dispense flakes twice
a day or more according to user interest every day. The system should also able to keep the
flakes dry and should monitor the total amount of the flakes.

Scope and Limitations

The scope behind developing the automatic fish feeding system is to reduce the manual
fish feeding system which utilizes more work forces. Moreover, there are certain advantages that
lead to its development which are the amount of food that will be delivered to the water body
that will measure or controlled keeping aquarium clean and fishes healthy. Feeders can feed the
fishes even when the owner is away in a convenient way.

Based on the capabilities and functionalities, general battery operated fish feeder devices
available in the market can only accommodate food like pallets, flakes and powder, so by adding
additional container for accommodating natural fish foods like worms, water flees etc makes the
device more convenient in a way. The device also finds its application on medium scale fish
pond by adding a blower to spread out the food evenly in the desired area. By incorporating the
above points the automated fish feeder system can feed different kinds of fishes in a defined
 4

limited are .The simple automated fish feeder systems which are employed are able to dispense
the fish food of the desired amount at a constant speed. Employing constant speed results in
spreading of the same amount of food irrespective of the requirements.

Considering this drawback a new fish feeding system which is mostly used these day
employs PWM technology for the speed regulation of the motor used. This particular research
paper is about the design and fabrication of an “Automatic Fish Feeder System using Arduino
Uno” which finds its application in the aquarium. This device will dispense fish food at certain
time interval with precise amount of food. Also the timing can be programmed to ensure that the
feeding schedule is consistent. The automatic fish feeder is a solution to ensure that the pet fishes
are fed in healthy way and on schedule. The prototype implements the integration of hardware
and software to control the fish feeding operation. The controller used for this device is Arduino
Uno microcontroller board. The controller controls the feeding mechanism of the system.

Definition of Terms

Design. Referred to in technology as the soul of the production, manufacturing and creative

industries; creates change in the man-made world.

Process. The method of preparation by a series of steps using chemicals or industrial machinery.

Technology.  Defined as a purposeful application of knowledge, skills and experiences in using

resources to create products or systems to meet human needs.

Research. A systematic investigation (i.e., the gathering and analysis of information) designed to
develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.
Control. Used for comparison who are not given the treatment under study or who do not have a
given condition, background, or risk factor that is the object of study. Control conditions may be
concurrent (occurring more or less simultaneously with the condition under study) or historical
(preceding the condition under study). When the present condition of subjects is compared with
their own condition on a prior regimen or treatment, the study is considered historically
controlled.
Benefit. A valued or desired outcome associated with a research project. Anticipated benefits
may express the probability that subjects and society may benefit from the research procedures.
Research may benefit the individual or society as a whole. If research will not benefit
individuals, it is required to provide a reasonable likelihood of resulting in benefits to society.
 5
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

Automatic Fish Feeder Concept

Basically, there is a lot of inventions had been made and been classified as “automatic
fish feeder”. From those previous designs, a few are chosen due to their criterions which are
quite interesting and also useful.
The first design is by David C. Smeltzer which is patented in 4th April 1985. His design
is capable of dispensing feed having various sizes of grains over a wide range of dispensing
volumes with a high degree of accuracy. The device was able to do this by utilizing an adjustable
counterbalance weight which the amount of water required are changeable to produce a
dispensing action and simultaneously adjusts the vibration movement made by the fish feeder to
differentiate the amount of food given out.

Consequently, both the frequency of feeding and amount can be controlled by the
counterbalancing the weight. Furthermore, the number of feeding can also be adjusted by
changing the rate flow of the water supply by using a valve and the water supply line, plus an
additional water container which is capable of measuring the volume of water supplied to the
water container so as to provide an additional degree of accuracy in degree of accuracy in setting
the frequency of feeding.

However, as stated by Mohapatra, Sarkar, Sharma and Majhi (2009) and Noor, Hussian,
Saaid, Ali and Zolkapli (2012), for most automatic fish feeder, it is not easy to control the
amount feed released. Too much will pollute the water in the pond or the tank. Plus, the constant
speed to deliver the food pallet limited its usage. At the same time, it is also a waste of food. The
size of the device will depend on the location it will be used or install, whether the device is used
for normal aquarium or pond. For indoor aquarium, a small device will work well and the outer
pond will require a bigger device with a big storage. The size of the storage will determine the
number of trips the user needs to do to replenish the feed. Not to mentioned, for most of the time,
the cost are proportional the size of the device

A research conducted by Faridi, Ezri, Saidin and Faizal (2011) has stated that there are
two types of automatic fish feeder. There are fixed fish feeder and also mobile fish feeder. From
this statement, I can infer these two types have their own usefulness based on the situations. A
fixed is useful for owners that have a single pond or an aquarium. On the other hand, mobile
feeders are useful to owners who have more than two or more ponds. Faridi et al. (2011) also
stated, controlling the feeders will requires high precision programmable logic circuit (PLC) and
also efficient.
Furthermore, instead of feeder that are situated in pond, there are also automatic fish
feeder feed feeder that are placed on the ocean by installing inside a buoy (James & Stanley,
2006). It is understandable that by placing the feeder inside a buoy on the ocean, by installing a
camera, microphone or any other appropriate sensor, oceanic aquamarine life can be easily
monitored. As long the ponds are large enough, such fish feeder can be used.
 6
Review of Related Work

There are a lot of inventions that have already been made and been classified as
“automatic fish feeders”. From those former designs, a small number are selected based to serve
as useful yardsticks for this study. David C. Smeltzer was the first person to design a fish feeder
and was patented in April 4th, 1985. His design has the capacity to dispense feed at different
sizes of grains over a wide range of dispensing volumes with a high degree of accuracy. The
device was able to achieve this by using a regulating counterweight weight required for the
volume of water, which were changeable to produce a dispensing action and simultaneously
adjusts the vibration movement made by the fish feeder to differentiate the amount of food given
out. Consequently, both the frequency of feeding and amount can be controlled by
counterbalancing the weights (Aderolu et al., 2010).

Furthermore, the number of feedings can also be adjusted by changing the rate flow of
the water supply by using a valve and the water supply line. An additional water container which
is capable of measuring the volume of water supplied to the water container provides an
additional degree of accuracy in setting the frequency of feeding. However, as stated by
Mohapatra et al. (2009), and Noor et al. (2012), for most automatic fish feeders, it is not easy to
control the amount feed released. Too much will pollute the water in the pond or the tank. Plus,
the constant speed to deliver the food pellets limited its usage. At the same time, it is also can
waste food. The size of the device will depend on the location it will be used or install, whether
the device is used for normal aquarium or pond. For indoor an aquarium, a small device will
work well while out-door ponds will require a bigger device with larger storage. The size of the
storage will determine the number of trips the user needs to do to replenish the feed. Costs also
tend to be proportional to the size of the device.

Nation Plan of action for management of fishing is target to achieve an efficient,

equitable and transparent management of fishing capacity in marine capture fisheries by 2018.
However, several factors influence the fishery production and efficiency of marine system such
as automatic fish feeder machine could be taken in consideration. Two latest fish feeder
machines have been chosen as the reference for this study. Based on the observation, it has found
that the both machine was made with heavy structure, low water and temperature resistance
materials.

Asian countries, such as Thailand, have been the top ten aquaculture producers in the
world. The region has the highest variety of cultured species. Asia has also been the highest
seafood-consuming region of the world, accounting for two-third of the world’s food fish supply,
the increase of which mainly came from aquaculture in recent years (Liao, 2001). The fisheries
sector in Malaysia has provided direct employment to 89,453 fishermen and 21,507 fish
culturists. The consumption of fish in Malaysia is expected to increase by 14% by 2010 and
currently, the country is producing 89% of the fish supply for its own consumption. With the
marine harvest almost stagnating, the industry is dependent on the aquaculture to cater for the
growing demand. Currently, the aquaculture industry contributes to about 13.2% of the total fish
produced. Malaysia has the potential to become a major player in the aquaculture industry in
Asia Pacific, if more companies enter the sector (Subasinghe, 2007; Alongi et al., 2003). The
 7
importance of aquaculture in the overall fish supply is growing. In the future, aquaculture
production is expected to overtake capture production of food supply. The growth in aquaculture
for high value species has an important impact on international fish trade. In recent years, tilapia
and catfish have also entered international trade successfully. The unit values of tilapia and
catfish were surprisingly strong and have shown an increasing trend (Helga, 2006).

Sufficient proteins containing all essential amino acids, essential fats, vitamins and
minerals which are very important to gain a healthy balance diet. Seafood such as fish can be
considered a source of these nutrition. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2016
reported that a significant growth in fisheries and aquaculture production in the past fifty years,
has enhanced world’s capacity to consume diversified and nutritious food [1]. In Malaysia,
aquaculture industry contributed 268,500 tan (about 16 percent) to the national seafood supply,
valued at about RM1.3 billion. The Department of Fisheries Malaysia has established the
National Plan of Action for the Management of Fishing Capacity in Malaysia (NPOA Fishing
Capacity) which was published in 2008.

The long term objective of the Nation Plan is to achieve an efficient, equitable and
transparent management of fishing capacity in marine capture fisheries by 2018 [2]. However,
there are several factors influence the fishery production and efficiency of marine system such as
the tool and machine use in fisheries management. According to the World Fish Centre, the
global fish production was increased to 160 million tan in order to satisfy the high demand and
the demand has growth to 238 million tan. Fish farming is one of the marine sectors to overcome
the deficiency of supply. First automatic fish feeder machine was designed under intellectual
pattern by Anthony Christopher Halford in 15 April 1999. Then, it had been improved by Chang
et al. in 2004 by installing with programmable logic controller (PLC) [3]. Others than that, some
of the fish feeder machine was designed with solar energy such as Koisan automatic solar
powered fish feeder and FIAP solar feeder.

Related News Articles

Nation Plan of action for management of fishing is target to achieve an efficient,

equitable and transparent management of fishing capacity in marine capture fisheries by 2018.
However, several factors influence the fishery production and efficiency of marine system such
as automatic fish feeder machine could be taken in consideration. Two latest fish feeder
machines have been chosen as the reference for this study. Based on the observation, it has found
that the both machine was made with heavy structure, low water and temperature resistance
materials. This research's objective is to develop the automatic feeder machine to increase the
efficiency of fish feeding. The experiment has conducted to testing the new design of machine.
The new machine with maximum storage of 5 kg and functioning with two DC motors. This
machine able to distribute 500 grams of pellets within 90 seconds and longest distance of 4.7
meter. The higher speed could reduce time needed and increase the distance as well. The
minimum speed range for both motor is 110 and 120 with same full speed range of 255.
 8
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY

Functional Requirements

The goal of this project is to design a system for automatically feeding a fish. The following is a
list of the functional requirements for the system.

Tank and Fish Requirements

1. Feeds a single goldfish

2. Usable with a 10 gallons tank
3. Tank will not have a lid
4. Dispenses food once per day
5. Works for medium goldfish pellets
6. Food in a closed container to keep fresh and dry
7. Device must not touch the water when hung over the tank.

Operational Requirements

8. Mountable to tank without damaging any part of the tank

9. Dispenses proper amount of food per serving
10. Should dispense food at set intervals
11. Can hold a minimum of 7 days’ worth of food
12. Can be filled in advance
13. Ability to resolve/avoid food clogging
14. Waterproof/resistant

Miscellaneous Requirements

15. Does not damage or affect the surrounding environment

16. Setup within 10 minutes out of the box
17. Set up with basic tools
18. Must cost less than our budget to design and prototype
 9
19. Producible with our group’s skills
20. Must be no larger than 5in x 5 in x 10 in, not including any external mount

Mechanical Structure

The material that is required is very simple where the device is mostly constructed by
using plastic. This is because the body of the device needs to be highly stable to hold all the
electronics components. There are many types of materials can be used to make a robot body, for
example, wood, metals, glass and other suitable materials. Each of these components has their
own advantages and disadvantages and they normally been selected based on the type of
projects. In this project, plastic is selected due to its light weighted and is cheap.
As for the rod used as the limit switch, plastic is preferred to be used as the material. The
opening for the feeder is at the bottom of the device.

Electronics Components

Arduino
Is an open source physical computing microcontroller board. This device is just needed to
connect to the computer with a USB cable to begin uploading the necessary coding. Arduino was
selected to be the microcontroller since it is a new component and its features are simpler and
complex coding also can be done in such a way that easy to understand.

Fig. 1 Arduino

Furthermore, this microcontroller has its own a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP
header and a reset button. Between the two, Arduino Mega is selected due to the high number of
digital I/O pins as this project may require more than 16 I/O pins.

Servo Motor
Different than normal motor, the servo circuitry is built right inside the motor unit and
has a positional shaft, which usually is fitted with a gear. The motor is controlled with an electric
signal which controls the shaft movement.
 10

Fig. 2 Servo

Inside the servo is a simple set-up: a small DC motor, potentiometer and a control circuit.
As the motor rotates, the potentiometer’s resistance changes, thus the control circuit can
precisely regulate how much movement there is and in also which direction to turn. This is
possible due to the motor is attached by gears to the control wheel.
When the shaft of the motor is at the desired position, power supplied to the motor is
stopped. If not, the motor is turned in the appropriate direction. The desired position is sent via
electrical pulses through the signal wire. The motor’s speed is proportional to the difference
between its actual position and desired position. So if the motor is near the desired position, it
will turn slowly, otherwise it will turn fast. This is called proportional control. This means the
motor will only run as hard as necessary to accomplish the task at hand.
Servos are controlled by delivering an electrical pulse of pulse width modulation (PWM)
or variable width, through the control wire. There is a minimum pulse, a maximum pulse and a
repetition rate. Most servo motors can usually only turn 90 degrees in either direction for a total
of 180 degree movement. The motor’s neutral position is defined as the position where the servo
has the same amount of potential rotation in the both the clockwise or counter-clockwise
direction.
The PWM sent to the motor determines position of the shaft, and based on the duration of
the pulse sent via the control wire; the rotor will turn to the desired position. The servo motor
expects to see pulse every 20ms and the length of the pulse will determine how far the motor
turns. For example, a 1.5ms pulse will make the motor turn to the 90-degree position. Shorter
than 1.5ms moves it to 0 degrees and any longer than 1.5ms will turn the servo to 180 degrees as
diagramed below:

Fig. 3 Turnigy Servo Specification

 11
CHAPTER 4
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSES, AND DISCUSSIONS

System Design

In this chapter, the project description will be elaborated as well as the design and
component selection and justification will be presented. The components for this project will be
discussed into two separate categories which are mechanical and electronics.

Hardware Design
First, The hardware system uses three
main components,
namely (1) Gyroscope sensor, (2)
Arduino Uno, (3) Servo
Motor. The system uses the Arduino
Uno microcontroller as a
control module. A shield is installed as
an interface of Arduino
Uno with two other devices. The GY-
521 MPU-6050
gyroscope sensor is connected via I2C
(Inter-Integrated Circuit)
interface. This sensor will capture the
value of the axis X, Y,
and Z at the same time and send the data
to Arduino Uno. The
standard 180-degree servo motor is
installed as output by
providing a pulse width modulation
signal (PWM). The form of
hardware design can be seen in Figure 2
below
Hardware Design
First, The hardware system uses three
main components,
namely (1) Gyroscope sensor, (2)
Arduino Uno, (3) Servo
Motor. The system uses the Arduino
Uno microcontroller as a
control module. A shield is installed as
an interface of Arduino
Uno with two other devices. The GY-
521 MPU-6050
gyroscope sensor is connected via I2C
(Inter-Integrated Circuit)
interface. This sensor will capture the
value of the axis X, Y,
and Z at the same time and send the data
to Arduino Uno. The
standard 180-degree servo motor is
installed as output by
providing a pulse width modulation
signal (PWM). The form of
hardware design can be seen in Figure 2
below
Hardware Design
First, The hardware system uses three
main components,
namely (1) Gyroscope sensor, (2)
Arduino Uno, (3) Servo
Motor. The system uses the Arduino
Uno microcontroller as a
control module. A shield is installed as
an interface of Arduino
Uno with two other devices. The GY-
521 MPU-6050
gyroscope sensor is connected via I2C
(Inter-Integrated Circuit)
interface. This sensor will capture the
value of the axis X, Y,
and Z at the same time and send the data
to Arduino Uno. The
standard 180-degree servo motor is
installed as output by
providing a pulse width modulation
signal (PWM). The form of
hardware design can be seen in Figure 2
below
Hardware Design
First, The hardware system uses three
main components,
namely (1) Gyroscope sensor, (2)
Arduino Uno, (3) Servo
Motor. The system uses the Arduino
Uno microcontroller as a
control module. A shield is installed as
an interface of Arduino
Uno with two other devices. The GY-
521 MPU-6050
gyroscope sensor is connected via I2C
(Inter-Integrated Circuit)
interface. This sensor will capture the
value of the axis X, Y,
and Z at the same time and send the data
to Arduino Uno. The
standard 180-degree servo motor is
installed as output by
providing a pulse width modulation
signal (PWM). The form of
hardware design can be seen in Figure 2
below
Hardware Design

First, The hardware system uses three main components, namely (1) Arduino Uno,
(2) Servo Motor. The system uses the Arduino Uno microcontroller as a control module. A
shield is installed as an interface of Arduino Uno with two other devices. The GY-521 MPU-
6050 gyroscope sensor is connected via I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) interface. This sensor will
capture the value of the axis X, Y, and Z at the same time and send the data to Arduino Uno. The
standard 180-degree servo motor is installed as output by providing a pulse width modulation
signal (PWM). The form of hardware design can be seen in Figure 4 below

Fig. 4 Hardware Design

Software Design
The process as shown in figure 6 starting from the
initialization of the setup value of the gyroscope sensor and
servo motor, which is on 0° position. The gyroscope sensor
reads water ripple data in the experiment tank as input. Then
the selection of conditions is carried out to determine the
process of opening the food storage valve. Given the condition
whether the water ripples generated by the fish when gasping
will make the slope of the sensor with the initialized value of
XY-axis that is > 5° or < -5°. If conditions are met, the servo
motor will move to open the food storage valve for 3 seconds.
If conditions are not met, the valve will remain closed, and the
Software Design

The process as shown in figure 6 starting from the initialization of the setup value
of the gyroscope sensor and servo motor, which is on 0° position. The gyroscope sensor
reads water ripple data in the experiment tank as input. Then the selection of conditions is
carried out to determine the process of opening the food storage valve. Given the condition
 12

whether the water ripples generated by the fish when gasping will make the slope of the
sensor with the initialized value of XY-axis that is > 5° or < -5°.

If conditions are met, the servo motor will move to open the food storage valve for 3
seconds. If conditions are not met, the valve will remain closed, and the system will repeat the
process to read the gyroscope sensor input data.

Fig. 5 Software Design

R
ESULTS
This system has been tested to achieve
research objectives;
the ability to reduce the handling time.
The system records the
time interval between each opening of
the fish feed storage
valve. There is a difference in the
time interval due to the
opening time of each valve by the water
ripples that are read by
the gyroscope sensor due to the
movement of fish while
gasping. The time interval data obtained
from this experiment
can be seen in Table III. In addition,
there is also a difference
between the number of opening of feed
storage valves between
the time of the experiment. The
opening of the feed valve is
dominant at the time of the experiment
from the period of 1:00
p.m. to 6 p.m. This is due to the fact
that activities of fish are
dominant in the morning than in the
evening. In Table III, it
can be seen that in the morning and
evening the fish do not
move excessively.
Results

This system has been tested to achieve research objectives; the ability to reduce the
handling time. The system records the time interval between each opening of the fish feed
storage valve. There is a difference in the time interval due to the opening time of each
valve by the water ripples that are read by the gyroscope sensor due to the movement of fish
while gasping. The time interval data obtained from this experiment can be seen in Table III. In
addition, there is also a difference between the numbers of opening of feed storage valves
between the times of the experiment. The opening of the feed valve is dominant at the time of
the experiment from the period of 1:00 p.m. to 6 p.m. This is due to the fact that activities of fish
are dominant in the morning than in the evening. In Table III, it can be seen that in the
morning and evening the fish do not move excessively.

13
CHAPTER 5
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

The increase in growth of fish farming/aquaculture has led to a lot of research work in
this field. Management of food delivered plays an important role here. The purpose of this
research is to reduce the manual work and save labour time through making system automated.
This is related to a system device which feeds the fishes with predetermined amount of food at
the decided time. The principle of the working model is based on controlling the amount of food
fed in the fish tank unit at different intervals of time. The prototype which is a combination of
mechanical and electrical devices, uses the concept of step wise rotation of stepper motor for
giving precise amount of food output in proper time thus, saving labour time. This helps in order
to get good spreading of food across the water body and by own it feeds the fishes after a day,
thereby making the system reliable and accurate.

Conclusions

It was observed that the motor revolved taking ten steps with delay of one whole day.
The delay could also be extended to several hours as per the requirements. If this concept is
implemented on large scale than we can use in pond management, fish farming, aquaculture etc.
This automatic fish feeder system can be used other pets other than fishes for example birds,
turtles etc.
To create an automatic fish feeder device is not an easy task. Plus, adding the sensor for
environment monitoring that is the water temperature is new to me. It requires a lot of research
and reading. I also have to consider balancing the optimum cost with it practical usage as, in
terms of marketing, no customer will want to buy an overpriced product.
This will be a challenge to us, because with my limited knowledge, I do not know all the
cheapest component that are available in the market that fulfill the requirement and achieved the
desirable result. I already did some literature review to get the idea on the component used to
make this device. I also already have my design and also the initial idea on how everything will
be put together.

Reccomendations

For the next semester, I will work on how to program the Arduino using Arduino IDE,
how to code the servo motor at desired interval and desired opening angle, how to use the
GMS900 and interface it with the Arduino, how to use the display connected to the keypad, how
to connect temperature sensor with its coding and also how to create the overall algorithm. I will
also need to prepare for trouble shooting as combining all the coding into one big program will
usually cause a lot of error. At the same time, I also need to make sure the device is stable and
somewhat robust.

14

REFERENCES

[1] Patrick Henry G. Baniqued, Martin Joseph C. De Castro, Chael Triston T.

Luzano,Microcontroller Based Fish Feeder, 2009

[2] M.Z.H.Noor,A.K. Hussain, M.F. Saaid, M.S.A.M.Ali, M.Zolkapli, The Design and
Development of automatic Fish Feeder System Using PIC Microcontroller, 2012

[3] S.J. Yeoh ,F.S. Taip, J.Endan,R.A. Talib and M.K. Siti Mazlina, Development of
AutomaticFeeding Machine for Aqualculture Industry
[4] Mohd Nizam Bin Mohd Noor, Development and Prototyping an Automatic Fish Feeder,
2008

[5] Allen Goldblatt, “Automatic feeder for marine mammals”, Laboratory for marinne mammal
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[6] Ding Jie, Wang kecheng. A new Type Speed Regulator for a PWM Speed
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InternationalJournal of Scientific Research in Computer Science, Engineering and
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[10]Francisco A.A, Vignaud G.A (2013). Using open-source platform for trajectory control of
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