17. Applications and implications¶
- Define the scope of a project.
- Develop a project plan.
🤌🏽 What does it do?¶
My ACCSM devides bottle caps by color, therefore it is able to collect caps, recognize their color and devide them in 8 different colours automatically.
🕰️ Who’s done what beforehand?¶
🏭 Industrial solutions¶
On the market, there are a lot of industrial colour sorters. Here I link just one example since they all work in the same way. In this example, the sorter is able to recognize small particles of plastic.
👾 Makers solutions¶
Of course, the maker world has found solutions for the color sorting problem, that may not concern only the bottle caps. I guess that people like Skittle to be divided by colour (KIDDING) since there are a lot of Arduino projects that devide the skitles by colour.
What I find interesting in these projects are the structure solutions, for example the fact that the Skittles are collected in a circular frame.
These projects used an already made colour sensor to recognise the colour and an Arduino Nano.
I found interesting also this project because it devides bottle caps and it is circular structured, too. However, there is no information on how it was made.
This following project also divides bottle caps by colour and I really enjoyed the feeding part and the coveyor belt.
👑 FabAcademy examples¶
Among the FabAcademy projects, I found this mechanical design assignment by Nada Abdelfattah and Lamiia Nail that is a Skittle colour sorting machine. Of course, they did not use an already made colour sensor but they used a phototransistor with RGB LED and two servo motors.
👩🏽🎤 What did you design?¶
I will design almost everything for my project, with the exception of the electronic and mechanical components.
For the structure I designed the internal tree in Fusion360. It is a structure done in 3 different levels that ramificate in each level.
The back and the front of the machine will be designed by me, too: the first will be in wood and the second one in plexyglass.
I will design also my pcb board!
🛠️ What materials and components were used? and 💸 How much did they cost?¶
For this project I used only materials and component that were present in the lab. As for the materials and their cost I made a table with each material, its quantity and its cost.
| Material | Specs | Quantity | Cost € |
|---|---|---|---|
| STRUCTURE | |||
| MDF | 400x400x5 mm | 1 | 0,50€ |
| Transparent PETG | 100g | 0,30€ | |
| Plexyglass | 400x400x4 mm | 1 | 0,50€ |
| ELECTRONICS | |||
| Servo motors | micro | 9 | 20,50€ |
| Color sensor | 1 | 0,40€ | |
| ESP32 | 1 | 3,92€ | |
| Phenolic paper | 200x100 mm | 1 | 10,00€ |
| Resistors | 6 | 0,60€ | |
| Capacitors | 6 | 1,20€ | |
| Switch buttons | 3 | 1,00€ | |
| LED | 5 | 1,25€ | |
| Voltage regulator | 2 | 0,5€ | |
| Diode | 5 | 0,03€ | |
| Pin Connectors | 60 | 15,00€ | |
| FTDI | 5 | 0,20€ | |
| IR sensor | |||
| Photoresistor | |||
| TOTAL COST | 55,90€ |
🧞♂️ What processes were used?¶
- 2D & 3D modelling:
I designed everyhting using Fusion360 and I sketched with Figma.
- 3D printing:
The internal tree is 3D printed with PETG.
- Laser cutting:
The back and the front of the machine are laser cutted.
- PCB milling:
I milled two PCBs: the first one for the color sensor and the second for the servomotors.
🕵🏽♂️ What questions need to be answered?¶
-
Which shades of colours need to be merged together?
-
How will be the caps fed into the machine?
🏅 How will it be evaluated?¶
The machine will be evaluated by seeing if the caps will be properly recognised and sorted. I would also want this machine to be aesthetically pleasant and not only technical. I think, indeed, that since it will be a small machine that it could be a cute add on in every house/lab environment.
Develop a project plan¶
Before this assignment, I developed a project plan. I have to admit that doing a plan was quite difficult, and most of all it was difficult to stick to the plan. I leave here the first plan I had in mind, and you can find it also in the Final project where you can compare it with the harsh reality.
| Week | Plan |
|---|---|
| Principles and Practices | Sketch |
| Computer Aided Design | 3d models |
| Computer Controlled Cutting | Laser the structure |
| 3D Scanning and Printing | print part of the structure |
| Electronics Design | Design a board with a button to learn how it works |
| Embedded Programming | Control the servo |
| Output Devices | Control the servo |
| Input Devices | Test color sensors |
| Networking & Communications | Make communicate a board with servos with one with color sensor |
| Project Development | Put everything together |
For this assignment, I had to do a plan for my project work. I divided my tasks by main elements:
Structure¶
- 3D Modelling and lasercutting front and back: max 2 days of work (both)
- 3D modelling of tree: 1 day of work
- Printing tree: half a day
- assembly: half a day
TOTAL: 4 days
Must be finished by the end of June 2022.
Electronics and programming¶
- Testing the color sensor: 3 days (since it is a complicated matter and the light will change a lot the shades)
- Designing and producing PCB boards: 2/3 days
- programming: 1 week and a half
Must be finished by the end of July 2022.
Assembly and final testing¶
- 1/2 days of work
Must be finished for September 2022.