CaterPrepper

The Team

Meet Team 5 & Their Creation

Problem Statement

Why CaterPrepper?

Rushing out the door in the morning, many of us forget essential items: a coat when it's cold, an umbrella when it's raining, keys we'll need later. Phone-based reminders don't solve this well: notifications are easy to swipe away, and "alert fatigue" means we stop paying attention to them altogether.

Daily preparation ends up feeling like an invisible mental checklist. There's no physical, ambient feedback loop that ties the act of leaving the house to the items you actually need.

CaterPrepper addresses this gap by turning the coat rack itself into the reminder systems. Using tangible cues (light, vibration, sound) instead of screen-based notifications, embedded in an emotionally engaging caterpillar form that makes the routine feel like caring for a companion rather than checking a list.

Conceptual Design

How CaterPrepper Works

CaterPrepper is a wall-mounted or tabletop caterpillar with modular body segments, each equipped with a hook and a reed switch. Users hang items on the hooks using small magnets. When you're ready to leave, you tap the caterpillar's touch sensor, and it walks you through collecting your things.

Sketches & Diagrams

Early concept sketches showing the caterpillar form factor, feedback states, and attachment interaction model.

Design Process & Artifacts

From Sketch to Prototype

Our design evolved through several stages: initial brainstorming and concept sketches, low-fidelity physical mockups, circuit prototyping on a breadboard, laser-cut wooden segments, and final assembly with embedded electronics.

Prototype Demonstration

See It in Action

A video demonstrating the working prototype: how items are hung, the touch-to-start interaction, sequential reed switch checking with audio/haptic/visual feedback, and the "all clear" state.

Components

Hardware Overview

Technical Details

State Machine

The system is driven by a finite state machine. After a touch press, it checks each reed switch in sequence, playing the corresponding audio prompt and activating the motor until the user removes the item.

Dependencies

Libraries Used

Source Code

Code Snippet

Core logic showing the IDLE and START_DELAY states. Full source with inline comments is in the GitHub repository.

void loop() {
  switch (currentState) {

    case IDLE:
      digitalWrite(motorPin, LOW);   // motor off
      digitalWrite(redLED, LOW);     // red off
      digitalWrite(greenLED, LOW);   // green off

      if (newTouchPress()) {
        if (anyItemPresent()) {
          playTrack(1);               // welcome sound
          startTime = millis();
          currentState = START_DELAY;
        } else {
          goGreen();                 // nothing to grab!
        }
      }
      break;

    case START_DELAY: {
      unsigned long elapsed = millis() - startTime;

      // blink green during 3-second countdown
      if ((elapsed > 100 && elapsed < 300) ||
          (elapsed > 500 && elapsed < 700)) {
        digitalWrite(greenLED, HIGH);
      } else {
        digitalWrite(greenLED, LOW);
      }

      if (elapsed > 3000) {           // begin checking reeds
        if (anyItemPresent()) {
          digitalWrite(redLED, HIGH);
          digitalWrite(motorPin, HIGH);
          // → first active reed state
        } else {
          goGreen();
        }
      }
      break;
    }
    // … remaining states follow same pattern
  }
}

Getting Started

Setup Instructions

Roadmap

Future Work

Repository

Source Code & Documentation

All source code with inline comments, plus the full README, are available on GitHub.