Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46 | COVID Convenience locker |
Chenghao Lu Junsheng Liu Yimeng Qin |
William Zhang | design_document1.pdf design_document2.pdf final_paper1.pdf other1.JPG other2.JPG other3.pdf proposal1.pdf |
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| Problem Description: COVID has affected students' lives for around a year and has caused tremendous inconvenience to us. It is likely that the COVID pandemic will continue for a long time. Here at U of I, we are required to take saliva tests day by day at specific locations. This will make our life inconvenient since we need to move to the Illini Union and somewhere else to take tests. Some students may live far away from these test locations and it is difficult for them to go to these test locations day by day. On the other hand, too many students presenting at the test locations at the same time may also cause potential infections. While we think it is feasible to arrange some lockers around student’s apartments which will make it easier to access the testing tube and then store them. Solution overview: We propose a locker with testing tubes inside locating at each large student apartment. The students are required to access the testing tube every other day and then store it inside the locker before a specific time. The testing staff should pick up the tubes each day. Our objective is to design a machine that can use mechanical structure to distribute and store the testing tubes. To identify the tester information, we would try qr-code verification or facial recognition to print identity labels. A mechanical component should be designed for each user to pick up and store exactly one testing cube, for example, mechanical FIFO or rotation distribution design. There could be an interface with safer illinois app which could record the testing times and locations. This would be considered for the extra point sections. We also expect there is an energy saver module which could let the whole locker in sleep mode when there is no person accessing the locker. Solution components [Microcontroller, PCB] We would use Arduino or Raspberry Pi for main control. It should operate the physical machine and control every operation for the prototype. [Battery] A battery will be needed to provide energy. It is optional to use solar panels for recharging the battery. This will also be considered as extra point sections. [Mechanical component] There should be some physical components to distribute the testing tubes and then store them. The mechanical distribution system could be designed and assembled using 3D printing. To power this mechanical system, several servo motors with gear transmission boxes are necessary to functionalize the system. [Camera or qr-code identification]: We would choose one way to identify who the person is and then give the information to the printer to print a label. The camera could be used for facial recognition or there could also be an qr-code identification machine which requires the students to scan their qr-code. [Sensors]: To store testing tubes in a safe environment, temperature and humidity sensors are required to detect the environment factors. In addition, an IR sensor can be used to detect whether there is a tester in front of the locker. If no one is around the locker, the machine will automatically go to sleep mode to save power. [Safer-illinois interface]: We could design a system which will automatically record the test locations and time and then update it into the safer illinois app. This is certainly an extra point section. We do not expect enough time to do it. Criteria for success The success of our solution is based on the functionality of the testing tube distribution system and coordination of microcontrollers. We can foresee the potential difficulties of this distribution system, such as jamming of testing tubes. Therefore, a well designed mechanical structure (for example, mechanical FIFO system) guarantees the basic function of this project. Besides, due to the nature of highly automation, the microcontroller should control the behavior of electronic components and power systems under the desired procedure. Furthermore, we should have enough on board memory or wifi-chip to store all the student information for label identification purposes. Thus, a reasonable data-transmission algorithm is key to the success of identification function. |
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