M.O.D.O.S-99

A robotic security dog that integrates with the systems a household already owns.

2020 – 2021·Completed·Testing and Maintenance Leader · six-person group project

M.O.D.O.S-99, Mobile Organism Designed Only for Security, is a robotic security dog for domestic and commercial use. It can operate as a standalone appliance or integrate with the CCTV, alarm and access-control systems a site already runs, combining Arduino-driven movement, facial and voice recognition, environmental sensing and a mobile control application.

The project began from a specific observation. Households that cannot afford a security guard fall back on a dog or on a neighbour, and households that install CCTV, alarms and motion sensors still depend on a person watching the feed and deciding what to do. Both routes leave the same gap: detection without response. A real guard dog is also typically a one-person animal, so the rest of the household cannot direct it.

A ten-question survey established both the demand and the design constraints. CCTV was the most common existing solution, 95.8% of respondents wanted continuous around-the-clock cover, and the qualities that mattered when buying were remote access, redundancy, reliability, timely response and ease of use. Respondents were willing to add a robotic unit to an existing setup but not to replace it, which made integration a requirement rather than a feature.

The architecture pairs Model-View-Controller with an Event-Bus pattern operating inside it. Recognition data and footage are stored on the unit rather than on external servers, a deliberate privacy decision that also removes a dependency on cloud availability. Because a minimum of four users can operate the unit, arbitrating simultaneous conflicting commands is a controller responsibility rather than an afterthought.

What I contributed

  • Feasibility study: authored the full four-part analysis (economic, operational, technical and organisational) plus the outline budget, identifying the Wi-Fi dependency, range degradation beyond 2.5 rad and the battery endurance limit, with repeater and solar-charging mitigations
  • Network design: produced the network diagram covering the path from cameras and alarms through the DVR to the unit and out to the user’s mobile device
  • Development methodology: defined the architectural approach, specifying MVC with an Event-Bus pattern inside it and the responsibilities of each layer, including multi-user command arbitration
  • Testing and maintenance ownership: owned the reliability agenda: water resistance, wear and tear on moving parts, database overflow monitoring, and defect reporting to the group leader