SECOND STAGE: week two

The Automatic Trash Bin

Year Two Group Project, University of Liverpool, Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department.

The developments of this project were supervised by Dr. James Bradley

The Group members are

 Haoran Cheng, Xuhui Gong, Shekhah Mobarak, A-ro Han 

WEEK TWO; 7 February 2020

Second Stage

The second week started with the weekly meeting held by the group members where the developments of the previous week have been discussed. Main goals were set for the week which were; to research what type of material is preferable for the design set by the group, please find figure 11 on week ones’ tab for the design in addition the group members were contemplating about a methodology of connecting the hardware and software together.

Following the brief meeting held by the group members the group met with the supervisor to discuss the project previous week progress (week one), additionally the group is to discuss what were the complications that they have faced for the week and how they intend to resolve those issues.

The development of the precedent laboratory session was;

-     -       A prototype has been assembled out of recycled cardboard boxes
-       A final design has been sketched on SHAPR3D
-       The code was tested, the code is functional hence the software part of the project is almost ready                                            

                                               

     Figure fifteen: The app utilized to create all 3D designs [3*]

Figure Sixteen: Final design of the automatic trash bin

Figure Seventeen: Side view of final design

The concerns of the week which are to be addressed;

- The group members were debating on a suitable material for the final design the group aimed to construct a product that could last for a longer period of time and is inexpensive when it is required to be repaired hence the following properties were considered during the research process;

The durability of the material.

How much will this material cost considering this is a group project meaning the group does not possess many resources.

The availability of the material

Is it easy to repair or replace the product?

- Another concern was how the all of the other components such as motor servo, Raspberry Pi 4 etc. are to be connected to the hardware (design) and whether the methodology used to connect them together is sufficient.

Suggestions of solutions were proposed by the group members for the concerns mentioned previously and are to be implemented during this week’s laboratory sessions.

The suggested solutions were;

-       For the structure 2, 3, 4, and 6mm MDF Sheets 800mm x 600mm may be used as shown in figure 18 below.

-       The software and all components are to be connected to the structure by printing 3D parts to be able to complete the whole structure.

Figure Eighteen: Material utilized for the structure of the trash bin  [4*]

Figure Nineteen: motor attached to 3D part

Figure Twenty: Part used to attach MDF to motor

The tasks assigned for this week were;

-       Initiate construction of the trash bin

-       Make final alterations to the software

-       Improve recognition by adding more images to guarantee that the machine will be able to recognize more objects rather than for instance one type of plastic bottle

-       Hold a meeting before the laboratory session to create a detailed task list for each member

The tasks set for the succeeding week were;

-       Finish the hardware part

-       Finish software and check if the machine is able to distinguish and detect supplemental objects

Figure Twenty-one: Supervisor meeting two log

 Laboratory session

During this lab session there were several tasks which the team intended to complete by the end of the end. The software team were to develop the software and improve the machines recognition, the system requires more images so that it is able to recognize more products hence chrome diver generation was utilized in order to obtain as much images possible this was achieved by a simple code written in python.

As for the circuit itself all components were gathered, the Raspberry Pi was connected to the circuit, the line connections were connected to the software, and the motor etc. therefore the circuit was ready and fully operational, hence the next stage was to connect the circuit to the structure of the bin itself.

The hardware team began working on the structure, the type of material utilized for the trash bin was MDF sheets, some of the sheets were too thick hence the only way to cut them is by using an electrical saw in addition the MDF sheets were to be cut by lab technicians and not the team. As the MDF sheet were cut by the technicians the team started cutting the other thinner MDF sheets which were used for the divisions of the automatic trash bin. 

Figure Twenty-two: Upper horizontal divider

Figure Twenty-three: Lower horizontal divider

As illustrated in figures 22 and 23, the MDF sheets were cut based on the design, the printed components have been attached securely to the MDF sheets, a bearing was attached to the end where the motor is situated. Afterwards the team aimed to all the MDF sheets together the hardware team was contemplating on a suitable angle for the servo motor where they would guarantee that no obstacles are faced when the automatic trash bin is operated and for instance to avoid the two levels from colliding together. Hence the team initially used tape as illustrated in figure 24 to ensure that they could dismantle the structure and make alterations before finalizing it.

Figure Twenty-four: Provisional structure

The motor functioned as expected, the following video shows the movement of the motor. 

Video One: Demonstration of motor movement 

By the end of the laboratory session the software was fully operational, and the motor was responding to the software, there were only minor alterations left for the machine to reach its full potential. In addition, the hardware is almost ready the wood just has to be joint together by drilling nails to ensure that it is stable, in addition a divider has to be created to separate the bottom part into four separate categories. 

The following videos will demonstrate the response of the machine to certain objects. 

This video shows how the machine is to operate in addition it illustrates how the object is to descend through out each level. 

                                     

Video Two: Movement of object 

The video below illustrates the full operation of the machine, it also shows that the machine now expresses the following phrases;  "I am thinking" in addition to what item it has recognised, in this case "this item is a paper" . 

Video Three: Identifying paper

The video below shows the machine recognising a plastic bottle. 

Video Four: Identifying a plastic bottle 

The video below shows the machine recognising a plastic bottle along with the code. 

                                                                                            Video Five: Identifying a plastic bottle with code

The video below shows the machine recognising a can along with the code and how the system is able to recognise and distinguish between the object which is by a camera which is situated in an angle where it is able to scan the whole item before determining what object is thrown in. 

                                                                                    Video Six: Identifying a can with code and screen display