Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
55 Automated Drink Maker
Brian Smalling
Charlie Thiery
Luke Singletary
Akshatkumar Sanatbhai Sanghvi final_paper2.pdf
other1.pdf
photo1.jpg
photo2.jpg
presentation1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
**Team Members**

Luke Singletary

Charles Thiery

Brian Smalling

**Problem:**

The problem our group plans to solve is the inefficiency of service at restaurants due to the lack of staff. Many restaurants are severely understaffed due to the pandemic, which has caused an increase in the time for service. This leads to less repeat customers and lower reviews for the restaurant, leading to lost revenue for these establishments. It is crucial for many of these restaurants to keep these repeat customers to stay open during these hard times.

**Solution:**

Our solution to this problem is to automate the drink ordering process which would make the restaurant staff's job much more efficient. To do this we would use a Bluetooth remote to send orders to a machine to make these drink orders. The remote would use preset button presses to send a signal to the machine of which drinks to be made. The machine itself would be able to make multiple orders in succession. For this feature, the machine would use a conveyor belt to load and unload cups. It will take a cup and position it under the nozzle, and after the cup has been filled with the ordered drink, it will then move the cup to the unloading area. The filling system will be timed to the flow rate of the nozzle and use small motors to control the amount dispensed for each liquid. The liquids will be gravity fed to the nozzle to help keep costs low for the machine. For all the timing we will use a microcontroller since this can be a complex task since some fluids will have different flow rates.

Solution Components:

System 1:

Our first system will be the remote for the device. The remote will need to have four different buttons for the different drinks to be made. There will also be a Bluetooth transmitter to transmit the drink order to the machine. Lastly, this system will include a AA battery so that the remote will be able to keep a compact size.

System 2:

The next system will be the cup loading and unloading system. We plan to use a small electric motor attached to a gear attached to the conveyor belt. There will also be a photo sensor on the filling platform to confirm that a cup has been properly positioned. This will be done by the photo sensor sending a signal to our microcontroller to stop the belt and as well start a timer for the filling. Once filling is complete the conveyor will then move the cup to a holding area.

System 3:

Our next system will be our filling system that will be made up of four motors. These motors will control the valves for each type of liquid. The liquid will be gravity fed and be held in containers suspended above the conveyor belt. They will all be connected to the same nozzle by their own feeding tubes. The process of filling the cups will be controlled by our micro controller and will precisely let out the exact amount of liquid to properly fill the cups.

System 4:

Lastly, our final system will be our micro controller and Bluetooth receiver system. Our Bluetooth receiver will receive which button has been pressed and then send the signal to the microcontroller. After this the microcontroller will activate the belt to move a cup into position till the photo sensor detects the cup. Then it will activate the motor to begin filling and triggering a timer to turn off these fill motors. These components will be stored in a water resistant protective covering which will also hold the batter pack to power the machine.


**Success Criterion:**

We have a few success criteria for the machine, since we have many components that will need to be working together in unison.
- First our remote is able to send different signals to the receiver properly and at range.
- Secondly, our conveyor belt is able to safely move glasses. It must also properly start and stop the glass in the appropriate positions.
- Then, our filling system is able to open and close the valves to release the same amount of liquid into every cup.
- Lastly, that all of these are able to be properly timed so that all of this occurs in a timely manner with no spillage or breakages.

Electronic Automatic Transmission for Bicycle

Tianqi Liu, Ruijie Qi, Xingkai Zhou

Featured Project

Tianqi Liu(tliu51)

Ruijie Qi(rqi2)

Xingkai Zhou(xzhou40)

Sometimes bikers might not which gear is the optimal one to select. Bicycle changes gears by pulling or releasing a steel cable mechanically. We could potentially automate gear changing by hooking up a servo motor to the gear cable. We could calculate the optimal gear under current condition by using several sensors: two hall effect sensors, one sensing cadence from the paddle and the other one sensing the overall speed from the wheel, we could also use pressure sensors on the paddle to determine how hard the biker is paddling. With these sensors, it would be sufficient enough for use detect different terrains since the biker tend to go slower and pedal slower for uphill or go faster and pedal faster for downhill. With all these information from the sensors, we could definitely find out the optimal gear electronically. We plan to take care of the shifting of rear derailleur, if we have more time we may consider modifying the front as well.

Besides shifting automatically, we plan to add a manual mode to our project as well. With manual mode activated, the rider could override the automatic system and select the gear on its own.

We found out another group did electronic bicycle shifting in Spring 2016, but they didn't have a automatic function and didn't have the sensor set-up like ours. Commercially, both SRAM and SHIMANO have electronic shifting products, but these products integrate the servo motor inside the derailleurs, and they have a price tag over $1000. Only professionals or rich enthusiasts can have a hand on them. As our system could potentially serve as an add-on device to all bicycles with gears, it would be much cheaper.

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