Here I’m sharing my results with a project I started last summer. I finished it in the winter but forgot to share the results, so here they are.

The project turned out quite simple, but I think it’s pretty solid. It does what it is supposed to do – entertains my cat 🙂

Hardware

I’ve modeled a set of parts to be 3D-printed

Then I assembled it into a turtle-like robot. As for the main MCU, I took an STM32 Nucleo Nano:

I bought a cheap cat toy with a feather and attached it to the DC motor, so my cat could play with a familiar toy:

Software

Approaching software, I tried to implement it with a meaningful software architecture, so the application part is separated from the hardware-dependent drivers. The software is buildable as a Windows application, so I could debug the application logic:

You can read more about the software decisions and the structure in the Architecture document

Outcomes and Links

The project is open source and open hardware, so you can try to build your own version using my results available on GitHub and Hackaday.io:

• https://hackaday.io/project/192732-leon-a-toy-for-cats – project blog
• https://github.com/an-dr/LeOn – source code