TailTagger Maryland Zoo

Note: All animal images are public knowledge or have received permission to share.

TailTagger on Hanging Enrichment

TailTagger: A Tracker for Animals

During my 4th year of undergraduate studies, we collaborated with the Maryland Zoo to develop a tracking device for them capable of monitoring the amount of animal interaction with enrichment devices, known as TailTagger! As the product design lead, I collaborated with a multidisciplinary team of Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering students to drive design, prototyping and testing.

Background

Enrichment devices (EnDs) are any tools used to help zoo animals learn and replicate behaviors that would normally occur in the wild. EnDs can serve many needs, from feeding habits to play. Without proper stimulation from EnDs, captive animals exhibit boredom, stereotypy (unnatural repetitive behaviors), or self-harm, which all contribute to a lower quality of life.

Design Challenge

MD Zookeepers need to automatically track the duration and time of day of interaction with EnDs for multiple species because current manual logging is inconsistent and time-intensive.

Design Requirements:

Waterproof
Durable
Animal-Safe (non-toxic if consumed)
Integrate with existing zoo software
Enrichment Device (EnD) compatible

Our Solution: TailTagger Tracker

TailTagger is a device for hanging enrichment that tracks the movement and duration of every interaction an animal has with their enrichment devices (i.e. balls, nets, feeders). It attaches to any hanging enrichment device and uses an IMU (inertial measurement unit) built into our Arduino Nano to track the acceleration of the device in the x,y, and z directions. The clock module logs the time at which that enrichment happened and stores the IMU and clock data inside the SD Card.

Whats's Inside?

Our Arduino Nano, clock module, and SD Card reader allow our tracking device to monitor the amount of time animals spend interacting with their enrichment devices per hour.

Our tracker’s electronics are placed inside a 3D printed encasing and attached to any hanging or ball enrichment device.
After our Tailtagger is taken out of the exhibit, the SD Card is removed, and its contents are uploaded to our interactive Enrichment Tracker app, where zookeepers can visualize the amount of animal interaction per hour for each enrichment device.

Our TailTagger tracking device is water-resistant, animal-safe, and durable – it offers a solution for zookeepers to accurately detect when an enrichment device is being used, which will allow for an enriched animal quality of life.

CAD Design Work

As the product design lead, I led the design and product development of "TailTagger" from concept to deployment in habitats
Designed water-resistant, durable, and non-toxic electronics housing in SolidWorks, producing iterative prototypes using FDM 3D printing, suitable for animal habitats

Arduino Electrical Wiring & Soldering

Integrated Arduino Nano, RTC Module, and SD Card Reader to log hourly animal interaction with each enrichment device
Soldered all electrical components and ensured seamless hardware-software integration

Moving forward, we would have made a PCB Board as a continuation of the soldered Arduino Nano component design & reduced the battery pack sizing.

After being placed in the exhibit, what does the data from the electrical components look like?

After being processed by our app, our electrical components yield data that can be seen as number of minutes interacted with per hour of the day.

Waterproof Sealant - Gasket Design

Fastening

Tested Drywall Anchors to fasten console to the EnD feeder ball - hard to remove toggle once screwed inside
Tested U-Bolt to fasten console to the EnD feeder ball but too difficult to maneuver
Tested
Tested screw through threaded ball idea + worked successfully!

Skills Used:

SolidWorks Modeling
2D/3D CAD Technical Drawing
Rapid Prototyping
Arduino Electrical Wiring & Breadboarding
FDM 3D Printing
Hardware-Software Integration
App Development

TailTagger used in the Rhino Exhibit to track how much the Rhino is interacting with its enrichment devices

TailTagger Inside

TailTagger used in the Donkey Exhibit

The assembly and electronics behind our TailTagger Tracker

Why use food-grade certified PLA filament?

PLA is non-toxic to animals because it is a biodegradable material derived from plants like corn and sugarcane, compared to ABS, which is petroleum-based. When this PLA breaks, it breaks into duller, less sharp pieces compared to ABS, which is likely to fracture into sharper pieces.