Created by Sachdeva, Vinamr, last modified on Sep 27, 2020
NameNetIDCourse
Vinamr Sachdevavls4ECE 110

Statement of Purpose

There is a need for robots capable of handling materials by transporting them from one place to another in factories. This involves picking them from a slot, making a course to the desired target location and placing them into a target slot. The simplest machine for this purpose can be a car which can load materials, follow coloured strips pasted on the floor (guiding it to a desired location) and identify colour coded pick & place slots. I will use PID (proportional-integral-derivative) control system to make it capable of following coloured strips on the floor. A PID based control system will allow it to follow tough courses with a lot of turns, smoothly.

Background Research

Machinery used for material handling is diversified based on usage and scale (“Material-handling equipment”). This type of material transporter might be helpful for unusual transportation off the conveyor belt in the assembly line. A network of coloured lines drawn on the floor of the factory (with some additional identifiers) can enable it to travel anywhere in the factory.

Design Details

Block Diagram



System Overview

Overall system: The robot is initially at the “pick up” location. When it reaches the desired slot, a person places the goods on it and gives it commands so that it knows the desired "drop off" location. It is directed by coloured strips on the ground to the “drop off” location. It searches for the slot it has to place the goods (since pick and place slots are colour coded) and drops the goods. 

Specific Operations:

  1. Line following: The onboard IR sensor senses infrared radiation emitted from the floor and send the signals to the PID controller to determine the location of the line. A differential drive system is used to complete the course. 
  2. Obstacle Avoidance: There will be an IR sensor onboard which will enable it to avoid objects during its course.
  3. Pick and place: A person/secondary robotic arm is needed to put objects on it; however, the tray on which the objects are kept will be attached to a servo motor which will rotate it such that the objects fall onto the drop off slot. 

Parts


IR Sensor:


  1. Operational Amplifiers (LM358)
  2. Potentiometers

  3. IR LEDs

  4. Photodiodes
  5. LEDs

PID Controller:

  1. Operational Amplifiers (TL084)

  2. Resistors
  3. Capacitors
  4. Diodes
  5. Potentiometers
  6. Switches

Obstacle Avoider:

  1. 555 Timer
  2. IR Led
  3. Photodiode
  4. TPOS Receiver Station


Pick and Place System:


  1. Goods Tray
  2. Motor driver
  3. Servo Motor

Drive System:

  1. 2 DC motors

  2. Motor driver

  3. Wheels
  4. Caster wheel

Misc:

  1. Ceramic chassis

  2. Switches
  3. Wires

Possible Challenges

The challenge is to implement a PID control system and an obstacle avoidance system without using a microcontroller, only with hardware. I've only written codes for implementing such stuff in the past.

References

[1]"Material handling", wikipedia.org, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_handling. [Accessed: 16- Sep- 2020]

[2]"Material-handling equipment", wikipedia.org, 2020. [Online]. Availaible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material-handling_equipment [Accessed: 18- Sep- 2020]

[3]"PID controller", wikipedia.org, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller. [Accessed: 16- Sep- 2020]







Attachments:

industrial_material_handler.png (image/png)
industrial_material_handler.jpg (image/jpeg)

Comments:

This project is a bit too similar to (at least what used to be) the ECE 110 final project, which was an autonomous car. Would you consider maybe taking out the Arduino and implementing a basic PID algorithm using only components such as capacitors, resistors, and op-amps?

You mentioned a HC-05 bluetooth module, but you didn't specify what exactly it was used for (are you remote controlling the car? If so, using what?). Could you please update your proposal to clarify this?
Posted by jamesw10 at Sep 22, 2020 20:05

I can try implementing a basic PID algorithm using capacitors, resistors, op-amps. That will be more interesting!

HC-05 will be used to tell the robot from where are the goods supposed to be picked. I have mentioned this under Design Details>System Overview>Overall System: "The staff gives commands to the robot remotely so that it knows from which slot it should pick up the good from."
Posted by vls4 at Sep 23, 2020 12:40

James is correct, this is very similar to the 110 project, worryingly so.

I will caution you, if you get the car working + basic line following, this won't qualify for honors credit. But, if you successfully get the autonomous navigation/color sorting/etc working, along with the hopper/cargo tray, it will qualify. Essentially, if you can pull off the whole thing, you're fine for honors credit, but it's an all-or-nothing thing. Only having line following will not qualify for honors credit.

Approved. If you have concerns about this, message me please. 
Posted by fns2 at Sep 30, 2020 16:55