Smart bird Feeder is a project freshly created and built by a group of 9 children, aged from 5 to 9 yrs old. The purpose of the project is to create a smart squirrel proof bird feeder. A real time bird/squirrel detector is running on solar powered Arduino TinyML kit. The bird feeder is waterproof and has been successfully tested under various weather conditions.
Design and Build the Bird Feeders
Children design their own bird feeders and build them using traditional Lego blocks in various unique ways. The design considers lighting, spacing, and rain proof.
The bird feeder sketches
Image Collection and Model Training
A total number of 2912 images containing birds and squirrels are taken from multiple locations to train a bird-squirrel classifier. The model is modified based on Mobilenetv1_0.25_96 backbone, and is trained from scratch. An 8 bit quantized model is further converted and deployed on lower power Arduino tinyML kit. The kit contains OV7675 as an image sensor to capture grayscale image as model input. The entire pipeline, including data preprocessing, model training (with tuned hyper-parameters), model quantization and conversions are fully uploaded to our repository for reproducing results.
Real time bird-squirrel classifier running on Arduino
Assemble the TinyML Kit
The kit is further assembled with a speaker (with audio amplifier) and powered by a rechargeable battery. To keep the system environment friendly and stay green, solar charging is integrated into the final product to power the smart bird feeder.
The assembled tinyML kit
The Integrated Smart Bird Feeders
When a squirrel is detected, the speaker will create noise to scare them away. While birds are detected, the speaker will keep quiet.
The integrated smart bird feeders
A close look on the integrated smart bird feeder
Waterproof Design and Testing
The system has been tested to be 100% waterproof after thunderstorms.
Waterproof design and tests
Stay Green
To keep the project environment friendly and stay green, solar charging is integrated into the final system to power the smart bird feeder. To further save power, the system only turns on when it is in daytime. Here comes a close look of one of the final products -- a complete waterproof, 100% solar powered smart bird feeder! From initial design, drawing to building, from image collection to model training and quantization, from speaker integration on Arduino board to solar charging assembling, the smart bird feeders are freshly created and has been completely tested under various weather conditions by these 9 kids.
Solar powered smart bird feeders
Smart Bird Feeder Testing and Presenting
6yrs Audrey testing and presenting the smart bird feeder
Product Deployment
birds enjoying the snacks
Smart bird feeder deployed in backyard to prevent squirrels getting closer
The bird feeder design considers lighting, spacing and rain proof.
Assembled tinyML Kit
The assembled tinyML kit with speaker and rechargeable battery
The integrated Smart Bird Feeders
Integrated smart bird feeder products
Smart Bird Feeder Powered by Solar Charging
stay green, keep environment friendly
Waterproof Design and Tests Under Extreme Weather
Waterproof design and tests under extreme weather
Snapshots of Project Daily Progress
1-3: bird feeder design; 4-6: image collection and model training; 7: learning principles of camera and AI fundamentals; 8: assemble tinyML kit; 9: bird feeder tests with hand made images
Demo: squirrel detection running on Arduino
A close look on the low bit model running on Arduino board for real time squirrel detection before assembled into the birdfeeder.
Demo: bird detection running on Arduino
A close look on the low bit model running on Arduino board for real time bird detection before assembled into the birdfeeder
Demo: the integrated smart bird feeder system
Demo on smart birdFeeder. The speaker gives noise and scares squirrels away when a squirrel is detected, while keeps quiet when a bird is fed.
Demo: Integrate speaker with audio amplifier
Audio amplifier is added to increase the noise volume when squirrels are detected.
Demo: birds enjoying the snacks
Solar powered smart bird feeder is feeding birds
Code
BirdFeeder
The entire project code, including Arduino sketch, scripts to create data, train the model, eval the model, freeze the model, quantize and convert the model, and the pretrained model file that can run on Arduino tinyML kit for bird-squirrel detector.
Chen Feng
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