It’s 2 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon, and Willow’s stomach is starting to growl.

But without a bowl of kibble around, the miniature dachshund could be waiting a while for her next meal.

A group of Grade 7 and 8 students at Glen Ames Public School in Toronto have set out to solve this doggie dilemma. They’ve invented a robot, called Petportion, which allows dogs to eat on their own and stay healthy all at the same time.

“If you’re a person that has to go to work and you just leave your dog at home, they can eat food without any person interacting with them, if they wanted to,” said Grade 8 student Alexander Stathopoulos.

Using Lego Mindstorms, a programmable robotics kit, they built the robot to enter it into the annual First Lego League competition. This year’s contest called for entries related to human-animal interaction.

In February, the team finished second in the East Ontario Championships. They’ve also qualified for the league’s North American Open in California, where they’ll be headed May 19-21, as the only Canadian school, to compete against 80 others from around the world.

From a distance, the Petportion prototype looks like a standard enclosure. But wearing an infrared sensor on its collar, a dog can activate the system when nearby, opening up a door which allows it to get inside.

There, it climbs up on top of a scale which weighs the dog and determines how much food it should get, before dispensing the correct amount. The dog can eat the food comfortably inside the enclosure before carrying on with its busy day.

More than 100 calculations take place within the robot, its four sensors and three motors, according to teacher Luke Martin.

“It also takes into account the activity level of the dog which is a big factor in how much food it should get,” said Grade 7 student Arion Harinarain. “Active dogs require more food.”

The students began designing Petportion in September on their own time before and after class.

The team hopes its entry could provide a solution for weight management of pets.

“One of the reasons why we need this is because at the beginning of the season, we found out that a lot of dogs are really overweight and if they’re overweight, it can lead to severe back issues which can cause a lot of pain,” said Grade 7 student Megan Farrow.

The amount of food a dog should receive relative to its weight is based on nutritional data provided by Royal Canin, which sponsored the project.

The robot is equipped to make sure dogs living among other animals, like Martin’s pet Willow, don’t have to fight for their own rightful serving.

Each pet’s specialized collar carries a unique frequency which opens the front door, and once Willow enters the enclosure, the door behind it shuts closed immediately.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The robot also operates on a 12-hour cycle, meaning if the same dog tries to get its paws on a second helping within that time period, Petportion won’t allow it. That dog’s entry would be denied once the machine detects a collar sensor it’s already seen.

“We thought it would be a good idea to choose a project that involved dogs, as a lot of people can relate to problems in terms of dogs,” said Grade 8 student Matthias Pahlavi.

The team hopes to one day get their project on the market, believing it could sell for more than $500 once they have a patent. The students say they are optimistic as they head to California, but know winning isn’t everything.

“We still do want to go to win and we do want to go to do our best, but we don’t really care if we lose because we already made it so far. The amount of time we spent here with the team, it’s like a second family,” said Grade 8 student Satchel Gore.