Multiple Questions regarding robot kits and programming

I am working on Science Fair and I wanted to come up with a project that i could use a robot. I have a dog that is untrained and i wanted have a project where I have a robot teach my dog basic commands. I have two robot kits available to me but i’m not sure they are right to do this job because this is a big project I am trying to accomplish. I have three boxes of lego mindstorms available and a vex protobot available too. Are these good kits or should I use a more advance kit. Also I am want to make a vibrating collar made from scratch or I was going to use a cell phone. And I was wondering is this could be in cooperated into the design of the kits some how. I am doing voice commands from my voice in which i know the Lego mindstroms can do, but i’m not sure about vex. I want the robot to know if the dog is obeying the commands and i wanted to know what kind of motion sensors can be used and if i should attach it to the dog or the robot.

Typing this made me realize how crazy this project is, but i really want to win this year. Your help would be greatly appreciated

Hi DPG2013,

Welcome to the RobotShop Forum. You may want to first brainstorm how you would go about training your dog, then how the robot will take over those tasks, and then, as you indicated, how it would get feedback. It’s certainly an ambitious project, especially since the dog may not recognize the robot as an “authority”. You can certainly make a vibrating collar and hacking a cell phone would take more time than it’s worth. Vex has the edvantage of being able to use third party sensors.

Sincerely,