Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
49 Automated Boba Station
 Hunter Huynh
Jordan Wu
Timothy Ko
 John Kan appendix2.pdf
design_document1.pdf
final_paper2.pdf
presentation1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
## Problem
Boba, a popular drink among millenials, has prices that are still largely dictated by the manual labor involved in making it, so shops still require many employees. Unlike coffee, making boba tea requires handling both solids (boba, etc), and liquids (tea, syrup, milk). With the large variety of recipes, human workers are prone to make mistakes. Finally, taste consistency is hard to achieve without an automated solution, leaving drinks sometimes oversweet.

## Solution Overview
This automated boba station would have multiple dispensers connected to tubes that would all drip into a cup. For simplicity, we would start off with 3 liquid dispensers, one for the tea (cold), one for the milk (cold), one for sugar syrup (cold) which would be controlled by a microcontroller (maybe raspberry pi). We also would have an additional dispenser that dispenses the boba (solid). This part is a little tricky because boba needs to bathed in a water, only retrieved during serving.

The software portion will include Web UI that is able to connect to the microcontroller to control the amount of ingredients/amount of time the valve is open for each dispenser. We can also then record exactly how much ingredients is used throughout the day, and in the future prevent overbuying ingredients and causing food waste.

The goal is to make these dispensers modular to allow for permutations of drinks using different tea and topping and other ingredients by just adding more dispensers. However, for our proof of concept, we’ll be making just 1 drink.

## Cup Platform
We’ve decided against a moving platform mentioned on the webboard due to the extra complications and cost. Instead, we’ll use a “gutter” system to let the ingredients flow/roll into a stationary position/platform. Software will be adjusted to account for delays from valve to pressure sensor.


## Sensors
We would have a pressure sensor built into the platform to measure liquids by weight in cup.This will measure the weight of the cup and will be in sync with the dispensers to ensure the correct amount is dispensed.

## Liquid Dispensing Mechanism.
A solenoid valve will be used in conjunction with the pressure sensor in the platform. Once a certain weight is reached, the solenoid valve would shut off. A microcontroller will be used to control this flow. We would also time the release of liquid as a emergency shut-off to when the pressure sensor isn’t working properly.

## Boba Dispensing Mechanism
The hard part would be to dispense the boba (solid). This is because boba is must be held in water to prevent drying out. To solve this, boba will be held in a funnel with a bottom made of both mesh and a solid material.

To dispense the boba, we first need to slide the solid material out of the way, via a servo, to drain the water. Then we can slide the mesh layer out of the way to allow the boba itself to drop.
We would measure the amount of boba using pressure sensors in the platform. After both layers have been closed, we need to then resoak the boba, perhaps using the previous liquid dispensing mechanism.

However, we are open to other ideas, and will be exploring the solution. This will perhaps will be the most time consuming and complicated part.

Funnel \ /
Mesh layer - - -
Filled in layer ___


## Criterion for Success
Our final product should be able to:
Dispense 2-3 different liquids with a preset amount
Dispense boba
Have parameters adjusted with a web user interface
Record and store the amount of liquids/boba dispensed, the time of usage.

## Previous Idea Posts
https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/pace/view-topic.asp?id=31804

S.I.P. (Smart Irrigation Project)

Jackson Lenz, James McMahon

S.I.P. (Smart Irrigation Project)

Featured Project

Jackson Lenz

James McMahon

Our project is to be a reliable, robust, and intelligent irrigation controller for use in areas where reliable weather prediction, water supply, and power supply are not found.

Upon completion of the project, our device will be able to determine the moisture level of the soil, the water level in a water tank, and the temperature, humidity, insolation, and barometric pressure of the environment. It will perform some processing on the observed environmental factors to determine if rain can be expected soon, Comparing this knowledge to the dampness of the soil and the amount of water in reserves will either trigger a command to begin irrigation or maintain a command to not irrigate the fields. This device will allow farmers to make much more efficient use of precious water and also avoid dehydrating crops to death.

In developing nations, power is also of concern because it is not as readily available as power here in the United States. For that reason, our device will incorporate several amp-hours of energy storage in the form of rechargeable, maintenance-free, lead acid batteries. These batteries will charge while power is available from the grid and discharge when power is no longer available. This will allow for uninterrupted control of irrigation. When power is available from the grid, our device will be powered by the grid. At other times, the batteries will supply the required power.

The project is titled S.I.P. because it will reduce water wasted and will be very power efficient (by extremely conservative estimates, able to run for 70 hours without input from the grid), thus sipping on both power and water.

We welcome all questions and comments regarding our project in its current form.

Thank you all very much for you time and consideration!