Sensors and Chips Trained to Serve Pets
By Sonia Zjawinski
Published: May 20, 2009

Litter-Robot

One thing I constantly hear while rescuing cats is, “I love them, but I hate litter boxes.” Who doesn’t? Try smart engineering instead. Plenty of litter boxes have claimed automated self-cleaning, but the Litter-Robot is the only one I’ve seen that delivers. A weight sensor marks when your feline enters and leaves the device, which looks a little like the Death Star. The Litter-Robot then counts down from seven minutes and, as long as the sensor hasn’t been activated again, the globe begins to spin counterclockwise.

Gravity pushes the litter — any clumping or scoopable type — over a sifter, which separates the clean from the soiled. Waste is dispensed into a plastic bag in the bottom of the machine. Once the bag is full (about a week of single cat use) you open the drawer, pull out the bag, tie it up and throw it out.

There are two drawbacks to the Litter-Robot: its price, $329 (litter-robot.com), and its size — 29-by-22-by-24 inches — but that is a small price and a minor loss of floor space for never having to clean a litter box again.

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