Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | Automatic cloth folding machine Area Award: Automation |
Anran Su Suicheng Zhan Xudong Li |
Yuchen He TA | design_document0.pdf final_paper0.pdf presentation0.pptx proposal0.pdf |
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| Team member: Anran Su(anransu2), Xudong Li(xli113) and Suicheng Zhan(szhan8) General Description We propose to design a low cost, feasible semester long, automatic clothes folder. This project is inspired by TA Yuchen He’s pitch. The current market has a similar product, but it costs $800 (https://www.foldimate.com/). Our design is based on existing manual cloth folder like the one shown below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjAWsY9padQ Design Plan Illustration of our folding board: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7KH5wt5-XV2UE1TSHdNM21tTkE/view?usp=sharing We plan to install our control circuits, power circuits, and all wires below board A(since board A is the only board that stays still during folding process). 3 servo motors at edge 1,2 and 3 to turn boards B,C and D. Four IR sensors will be mounted on top of board B,C D to detect presence of cloth (their wires will be routed below board B,C and D back to control circuits located below board A. This automatic clothes folder will be powered by 110 V AC power outlet therefore we will also design a 110 V AC to DC (voltage value is dependent on the microcontroller and motors of our final design choice) power converter. The operation of our project is as follow: If the sensors circuits detect no presence of cloth on board, the project does nothing. As soon as the sensors detect user has properly laid out a piece of cloth on the board, the folding process is initiated. Once boards B,C and D have completed their folding, our project will beep to remind the user to remove cloth from the board. Once sensors detect cloth has been removed, the project is ready for the next piece of cloth. Modules needed: Existing manual cloth folder and other mechanical components from machine shop. 3 servo motors similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/Futaba-FUTM0031-S3003-Standard-Servo/dp/B0015H2V72/ref=sr_1_5?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1485453181&sr=1-5&keywords=servo 110V AC to DC power converter. We will build this using knowledge from previous circuit design class. Some programmable microcontroller that control motor movement and handles data from sensors. IR Sensors that detect the presence of cloth on the board. Voltage protection circuit that prevents motors from burning out. Challenges faced: Feedback: We need to implement some feedback system so that the control circuits knows a motor has turned a folding board(such as board B,C and D) for 180 degree and this motor should be reversed to turn this folding board back to original position. Control circuits also need to know this folding board has returned to original position in order to initial movement of the next folding board. Folding boards order and speed: The control circuit need to be able to turn boards in the order of B,C and D. And each board has to be folded fast enough otherwise the part of cloth on a particular folding board will slip off. This involves calculation of motor torque and friction. Sensor precision: Need an effective sensing scheme to detect presence of cloth and this cloth has been properly laid out by user, and also the current cloth has been removed. We have 4 IR sensors on top of board A,B,C and D. Only after 4 sensors have detected presence of clothes, the folding process will be initiated by control circuits. |
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