Keep Quimby Safe.
Autonomous Edge Robotics
An edge-computed quadruped robot programmed with one singular directive: preserve domestic feline peace through real-time on-device computer vision, non-contact deterrence, and strictly bounded kinetic safeguards.
Inspired by Science Fiction. Built for Cat Peace.
In a classic episode of Rick and Morty, Rick's ship AI receives a single, unyielding directive: Keep Summer safe. The AI takes that mandate with absolute dedication, calculating every angle to protect its charge.
KQSafe (“Keep Quimby Safe”) was born from a very real, very relatable domestic challenge: one of our beloved cats, Jasper, had developed a persistent habit of routinely ambushing and bullying our sweet girl Quimby — affectionately known as “Queen-B.”
While we love both of them endlessly, human refereeing is reactive, inconsistent, and can’t be everywhere at once. So we built this autonomous robot and programmed its software with a single clear directive: keep them safely separated and keep the peace.
Powered by on-device edge neural vision, the robot constantly evaluates approaching motion. When he approaches Queen-B’s safe zone, the robot autonomously intervenes using strictly humane, non-contact techniques: rising to an alert stance, flashing warning lights, emitting frequency-modulated acoustic signals, and physically repositioning to break line-of-sight before he can ambush her. The governing charter: “The interaction is safely concluded without physical harm to the robot or either cat.”
Nobody is the villain here. Jasper just needs a gentle reminder, and Quimby deserves to nap without watching her back. So we solved it the only way we knew how — with love and tech.
How the Autonomous Sentinel Works
Every intervention is fully automated, aimed only at Jasper, and governed by strict physical safety bounds — keeping Quimby safe without either cat ever being harmed.
Autonomous Zone Watch
Stationed at perimeter zones, the quadruped watches the entryways into Quimby’s space using its wide-angle optical sensor. Neural models run continuously on local silicon without sending frames off-premise.
Telling Jasper from Quimby
The visual pipeline identifies which cat is approaching. Quimby is always allowed to pass freely — only Jasper triggers a response, and only when his approach matches a stalking or ambush pattern.
Humane Non-Contact Intervention
If Jasper is closing in on Quimby, the platform rises to an alert stance, pulses warning lighting, and emits frequency-tuned audio chirps — then repositions to break his line of approach. He is redirected, never touched.
Proximity Abort & Reset
Optical bounding box area is checked at 20Hz. If either cat closes within the critical proximity radius, all movement instantly freezes. Once Jasper disengages and Quimby is safe, the sentinel returns to rest.
Core Safety & Architecture Pillars
Built from first principles for humane domestic coexistence, low-latency edge inference, and zero-compromise physical boundaries.
On-Device Edge Vision
Neural detection runs directly on local ARM compute silicon. Optical data is evaluated locally in real time; private home video is never streamed continuously to third-party cloud models.
Hardware-Enforced Limits
Kinematic calculations strictly enforce mechanical angle boundaries (pitch and roll ≤ 31°). Emergency stop invalidates all active motion, ensuring the platform immediately returns to a safe, neutral stance.
Humane Non-Contact Pacing
Protocol rules mandate peaceful de-escalation: dynamic audio signaling, expressive head and posture cues, and proximity abort thresholds prevent physical contact with pets and domestic obstacles.
Zero-Ingress Relay Mesh
The robot maintains zero open listening ports to the outside world. All communication travels via outbound authenticated SSH tunnels to the cloud gateway, eliminating internet attack surface.
State-of-the-Art Technical Stack
From modern 64-bit Linux kernels and containerized robotics runtimes to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and hardware-enforced boundaries, KQSafe is built with zero-compromise engineering.
Robot Platform & Silicon
- Hiwonder PuppyPi Quadruped: An 8-DoF aluminium-alloy robot dog — two coreless HPS-0618SG servos per leg driving a linkage-structure leg, 720g, running from a 7.4V 2200mAh LiPo pack.
- Raspberry Pi 5 (16GB): Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Cortex-A76 at 2.4GHz. Every frame of perception and every motion decision happens on this board — nothing is offloaded to a cloud service.
- Vision & Depth: A 130° wide-angle HD camera feeds detection, while a spinning TOF lidar supplies 360° clearance data used both to gate forward motion and to build floor maps.
- Audio & Display: A Hiwonder WonderEcho Pro voice box drives the acoustic deterrent, alongside a 16×8 dot-matrix panel on GPIO for at-a-glance status.
- Vendor Documentation: Hiwonder publishes schematics, tutorials and stock source at wiki.hiwonder.com. KQSafe replaces the stock control software entirely.
Languages, Models & Applications
- Python: The robot controller, perception pipeline and REST API are Python — 3.8 inside the ROS runtime, 3.11 on the host. Control logic is covered by a 700+ case automated test suite that must pass before anything deploys.
- TypeScript & React: The operator console is a strictly-typed Next.js application, server-rendered, holding no secrets client-side.
- YOLOv8-Nano (Ultralytics): Object detection runs in an isolated Python environment on the robot itself, distinguishing which cat is approaching. No camera frame ever leaves the device.
- SLAM & Odometry: Occupancy mapping via GMapping, fused with laser odometry and an Extended Kalman Filter to estimate pose during autonomous floor exploration.
- Federated Identity: Operator sign-in supports Google, GitHub and Microsoft Entra ID, with invite-gated authorisation and role separation.
Operating System & Kernel
- Debian 12 (Bookworm) 64-Bit: Running on high-performance quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A76 silicon with 16GB RAM.
- Modern Linux 6.12+ LTS Kernel: Configured with BBR congestion control, real-time GPIO handling, and hardware watchdog integration (
/dev/watchdog0). - Containerized Sandbox: Production robotics run in isolated Docker containers with restricted device pass-through and unprivileged service boundaries.
- Thermal & Power Oversight: Continuous active monitoring of core SoC temperature, throttling flags, and rail voltages.
Robotics Runtime & Perception
- ROS (Robot Operating System) Noetic: Decentralized message-passing architecture coordinating kinematics, sensors, and telemetry.
- Real-Time YOLOv8 Edge Vision: Computer vision inference runs on local silicon at 20Hz, identifying which cat is approaching — Jasper or Quimby — with zero external cloud dependencies.
- Custom Autonomous Controller: Proprietary
gizmo_controllerstate machine managing posture transitions, acoustic alerts, and collision aborts. - STM32 Real-Time Sub-Controller: High-speed UART serial bus managing 8-DoF bus servos with closed-loop voltage and position telemetry.
Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)
- Hybrid Post-Quantum Key Exchange: Production transport enforces TLS 1.3 with
X25519MLKEM768andSecP256r1MLKEM768algorithms. - Store Now, Decrypt Later (SNDL) Defense: Built to withstand future quantum cryptanalytic attacks by adopting NIST-standardized lattice-based key encapsulation.
- Quantum-Hardened SSH: Administrative access and tunnel handshakes utilize OpenSSH post-quantum key exchange algorithms.
- Strict AEAD Ciphers: Exclusive enforcement of ChaCha20-Poly1305 and AES-256-GCM; legacy CBC modes and RSA key exchanges are permanently disabled.
Security Measures & Failsafes
- Zero-Ingress Network Policy: The robot maintains zero open public listening ports; all command channels run via authenticated reverse SSH micro-tunnels.
- Hardware-Enforced Kinematic Bounds: Mechanical pitch and roll are strictly clamped (≤ 31°); emergency stop invalidates motion instantly.
- Constant-Time API Authentication: Gateway endpoints enforce constant-time HMAC token validation, sliding rate limits, and replay protection.
- Optical Proximity Watchdog: Real-time bounding-box calculation aborts forward locomotion if either cat enters the critical proximity radius.