Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
32 Automatic trading card sorter
 Andrejun Agsalud
David Medina
Steve Guzman
 Nikhil Arora appendix1.pdf
design_document1.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
photo1.jpg
photo2.jpg
presentation1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
video
# Automatic trading card sorter

# Team Members:
- Andrejun Agsalud (agsalud2)
- David Medina (davidrm3)
- Steve Guzman (steveg3)

# Problem

Trading cards have become a market which have sold collectibles for as high as thousands of dollars. Knowing this, it has become important to be able to differentiate and sort cards when trying to sell. The problem is that some people own thousands of cards. Going through each card individually to find what’s worth selling as a single and what can be sold in bulk would take a significant amount of time.

# Solution

We plan to automate the process of sorting trading cards using OpenCV to control a machine to sort cards into separate bins. The machine would take a single card out of the card holder and place it into a spot to be read by a camera and raspberry pi using OpenCV. Using info from the pi, the machine would place the correct bin to the correct place before dropping the card off.

# Solution Components

## Mechanical module

This system will encompass a physical card holder that will be emptied out by two wheeled motors that will grab one card and move it onto a conveyor belt. Once on this belt, powered by another set of motors, the camera will detect what color the card is and move the card to the appropriate grouping. This could be achieved through rotating banks that will organize the cards into different slots or a set of banks in sequence for them to drop into, another set of motors will be needed to move the card off the camera spot. To sense the distance the cards will be moving, we can use software to calculate the distance of each step of a stepper motor.

## Card Analysis

This will consist of a raspberry hat that will allow for the use of a small esp32 camera that will be sending its picture to the raspberry pi for OpenCV analysis. The module itself will house the camera and the pi since both will need to be in communication with each other. From here, the module can then send the necessary signals to the mechanical module for reading of the next card.
Raspberry Pi
Pi-cam
Other resistors/regulators for the motors


# Criterion For Success

To demonstrate the success of the project, a deck of pokemon cards should be able to be inserted and sorted by color in a reasonable manner. This should function without any of the cards being damaged and without jamming. If an error occurs, there should be a mechanism to stop the system for the user to see what has happened and reset.
Correct calculations for stepper motors to move the card into camera and sorting bins
90% color rating accuracy for the camera.

Resonant Cavity Field Profiler

Salaj Ganesh, Max Goin, Furkan Yazici

Resonant Cavity Field Profiler

Featured Project

# Team Members:

- Max Goin (jgoin2)

- Furkan Yazici (fyazici2)

- Salaj Ganesh (salajg2)

# Problem

We are interested in completing the project proposal submitted by Starfire for designing a device to tune Resonant Cavity Particle Accelerators. We are working with Tom Houlahan, the engineer responsible for the project, and have met with him to discuss the project already.

Resonant Cavity Particle Accelerators require fine control and characterization of their electric field to function correctly. This can be accomplished by pulling a metal bead through the cavities displacing empty volume occupied by the field, resulting in measurable changes to its operation. This is typically done manually, which is very time-consuming (can take up to 2 days).

# Solution

We intend on massively speeding up this process by designing an apparatus to automate the process using a microcontroller and stepper motor driver. This device will move the bead through all 4 cavities of the accelerator while simultaneously making measurements to estimate the current field conditions in response to the bead. This will help technicians properly tune the cavities to obtain optimum performance.

# Solution Components

## MCU:

STM32Fxxx (depending on availability)

Supplies drive signals to a stepper motor to step the metal bead through the 4 quadrants of the RF cavity. Controls a front panel to indicate the current state of the system. Communicates to an external computer to allow the user to set operating conditions and to log position and field intensity data for further analysis.

An MCU with a decent onboard ADC and DAC would be preferred to keep design complexity minimum. Otherwise, high MIPS performance isn’t critical.

## Frequency-Lock Circuitry:

Maintains a drive frequency that is equal to the resonant frequency. A series of op-amps will filter and form a control loop from output signals from the RF front end before sampling by the ADCs. 2 Op-Amps will be required for this task with no specific performance requirements.

## AC/DC Conversion & Regulation:

Takes an AC voltage(120V, 60Hz) from the wall and supplies a stable DC voltage to power MCU and motor driver. Ripple output must meet minimum specifications as stated in the selected MCU datasheet.

## Stepper Drive:

IC to control a stepper motor. There are many options available, for example, a Trinamic TMC2100. Any stepper driver with a decent resolution will work just fine. The stepper motor will not experience large loading, so the part choice can be very flexible.

## ADC/DAC:

Samples feedback signals from the RF front end and outputs the digital signal to MCU. This component may also be built into the MCU.

## Front Panel Indicator:

Displays the system's current state, most likely a couple of LEDs indicating progress/completion of tuning.

## USB Interface:

Establishes communication between the MCU and computer. This component may also be built into the MCU.

## Software:

Logs the data gathered by the MCU for future use over the USB connection. The position of the metal ball and phase shift will be recorded for analysis.

## Test Bed:

We will have a small (~ 1 foot) proof of concept accelerator for the purposes of testing. It will be supplied by Starfire with the required hardware for testing. This can be left in the lab for us to use as needed. The final demonstration will be with a full-size accelerator.

# Criterion For Success:

- Demonstrate successful field characterization within the resonant cavities on a full-sized accelerator.

- Data will be logged on a PC for later use.

- Characterization completion will be faster than current methods.

- The device would not need any input from an operator until completion.

Project Videos