2025 Pet Hacks Contest: Fort Bawks is Guarded by Object Detection
1 min read
Summary
The owner of a chicken coop, [donutsorelse], wanted a way to protect their flock from local predators and decided to use a Raspberry Pi to create a guard system.
The device uses a webcam connected to the Raspberry Pi, with a motion-activated light to deter predators at night and a speaker that plays predator-specific sounds to scare them off.
If the predators aren’t scared off by the sounds, the system alerts the owner by turning on an internal siren via a cellular USB stick connected to the Raspberry Pi, and controlled via a smart home hub.
This system has already proved successful at keeping predators at bay since its installation.
