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48 Automated Multi-Mode Garment Folding System with Arduino Control
Bryson Maedge
Nolan Opalski
Tyler Hirsch
Angquan Yu design_document1.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
**Automated Multi-Mode Garment Folding System with Arduino Control**

Nolan Opalski nolanfo2
Tyler Hirsh thirsh3
Bryson Maedge bmaedge2

**Problem**
No one likes to fold laundry. It's dull, boring, and tedious. The only positive is that it gives you an excuse to listen to your favorite podcast that you may have had a backlog on. On top of that, folding laundry can prove to be a difficult task for the elderly and disabled. In commercial settings, employees of large retail clothing stores have reported getting carpal tunnel syndrome from the repetitive and manual task of folding clothes.

**Solution**
To solve this crisis, we want to create an automated multi-mode clothes folding system. This will allow the user to decrease the time and effort involved in folding laundry. The system will have four modes of folding; one for short sleeved shirts, one for long sleeve shirts, one for shorts, and one for pants. The system will also dispense folded clothes onto a pile, thus only requiring the user to load the machine and collect the pile once it reaches the maximum height. All of this will be performed at the touch of a button allowing minimal manual, tedious labor.

**Subsystem Components**

**Mode Selection**
This subsystem will comprise four modes that the user will select in order to fold either a short sleeve t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, shorts, or pants. This subsystem will take the user’s input and send a signal to the arduino control. The mode selection will be four buttons feeding a three digit binary signal representing the four different modes created by logic gates. The first digit will represent the actuation of the machine to start its function with one being “on” and zero being “off”. The two lowest bits will represent each of the four modes.

**Arduino Control**
This subsystem will contain the software to operate the machine. The inputs are described within the “Mode Selection” subsystem. Based on what input is received, the software will send signals to switches/transformer/power supply (still need to decide what would be best/most cost-efficient) to power the servos. It will also send a signal to the servos indicating which direction the servo should turn. The software will be programmed to have each servo rotate 135 degrees before returning to its original state.

Here are some rudimentary outlines of classes and functions our arduino control system will probably include:
Classes:
Panel
Name/number - which panel this object refers to
Servos - list of servos/outputs that corresponding panel servos connect to
Direction - list of same size of list called “Servos” with value 1 or -1 to indicate which direction that servo should rotate

Functions:
Rotate
Inputs
Servos - list of servos/outputs to send signals to
Direction - which direction the servos are oriented
Description
Rotate each servo 135 degrees * direction and then rotate again by 135 degrees * -direction

**Mechanical Folder**
The mechanical folder will consist of a power supply and servos. Each folding panel will have 1-2 servos at the folding point. The power to these servos will all be controlled by the arduino system. Additionally each panel will be 3-d printed in a checkered or grilled like fashion. This will reduce the weight, thus reducing the torque needed to fold each panel.

**Criterion for Success**
Success for this project will be the completion of folding four different types of clothes and the creation of a small pile of roughly three to five clothing items. Specifically, the mode selector will send the proper signal for the user selected mode to the Arduino. The Arduino will take the input signal and then output the proper signals in the correct order based on the input signal. Finally, the mechanical motors and arms properly fold the clothes and create a neat pile next to the device.

Automatic Piano Tuner

Joseph Babbo, Colin Wallace, Riley Woodson

Automatic Piano Tuner

Featured Project

# Automatic Piano Tuner

Team Members:

- Colin Wallace (colinpw2)

- Riley Woodson (rileycw2)

- Joseph Babbo (jbabbo2)

# Problem

Piano tuning is a time-consuming and expensive process. An average piano tuning will cost in the $100 - $200 range and a piano will have to be retuned multiple times to maintain the correct pitch. Due to the strength required to alter the piano pegs it is also something that is difficult for the less physically able to accomplish.

# Solution

We hope to bring piano tuning to the masses by creating an easy to use product which will be able to automatically tune a piano by giving the key as input alongside playing the key to get the pitch differential and automatically turning the piano pegs until they reach the correct note.

# Solution Components

## Subsystem 1 - Motor Assembly

A standard tuning pin requires 8-14 nm of torque to successfully tune. We will thus need to create a motor assembly that is able to produce enough torque to rotate standard tuning pins.

## Subsystem 2 - Frequency Detector/Tuner

The device will use a microphone to gather audio measurements. Then a microprocessor processes the audio data to detect the pitch and determine the difference from the desired frequency. This can then generate instructions for the motor; direction to turn pegs and amount to turn it by.

## Subsystem 3 - User Interface/Display Panel

A small but intuitive display and button configuration can be used for this device. It will be required for the user to set the key being played using buttons on the device and reading the output of the display. As the device will tune by itself after hearing the tone, all that is required to display is the current key and octave. A couple of buttons will suffice to be able to cycle up and down keys and octaves.

## Subsystem 4 - Replaceable Battery/Power Supply

Every commercial product should use standard replaceable batteries, or provide a way for easy charging. As we want to develop a handheld device, so that the device doesn’t have to drag power wires into the piano, we will need a rechargeable battery pack.

# Criterion For Success

The aim of the Automatic Piano Tuner is to allow the user to automatically tune piano strings based on a key input alongside playing a note. We have several goals to help us meet this aim:

- Measure pitch accurately, test against known good pitches

- Motor generates enough torque to turn the pegs on a piano

- Tuner turns correctly depending on pitch

- Easy tuning of a piano by a single untrained person

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