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Assisted Home Storage. A proof of concept for automated solutions in the home. Original Concept. Scaling down existing technology for warehouse management for use in the household Initial Prototype: home refrigerators. Conception: the future of home refrigeration. Original storage concept.
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Assisted Home Storage A proof of concept for automated solutions in the home
Original Concept • Scaling down existing technology for warehouse management for use in the household • Initial Prototype: home refrigerators
Original storage concept • An internal robotic cycle of shelves • Inventory fully managed by software • Retrieval and storage are completely robotized
The Rube Goldberg solution Complicated! Long Lead Time Now with more moving parts!
Departures from initial design • Technical Challenges • Lack of Expertise Eureka?! • Changes in Design
Fatal flaw(s) • Motor synchronicity • No prior robotics experience • Lack of facilities for development of hardware • Only opportunity for construction was at personal residences
Redesign • Solves issues with motor synchronicity (single motor) • Easy to control via USB (see software) • Aesthetically pleasing
Motion and position sensing • Momentary switch is activated when set portions of the turntable go by • Arduino sends a signal back to computer when switch is activated • Character literal ‘g’ starts the motor • Character literal ‘s’ stops the motor • https://www.dropbox.com/s/n0l5skpb5pzmzdw/VIDEO0006.mp4 Momentary Contact Switch – wired as floating when open or short to ground
Inventory entry and management • Entry of items by barcode • Initially considered image processing approach • Too complex • UI program receives input from barcode scanner for food storage, which is managed in a database
Motor Control • Uses Arduino Uno board for motor control • The Arduino waits for a ‘g’ to be sent to start the motor and an ‘s’ to stop • Controls ESC via PWM signal through pin 9 • Certain PWM signal arms the ESC • Anything above the activation signal starts the motor
User Interface • UI was coded in C++ in Visual Studio 2010 • Consists of 8 screens which allow a user to enter and retrieve an item • Each screen contains buttons and some have a text box for the user to enter information
Data storage • All items stored, have 3 attributes • Name, Type, and Expiration date • All items get stored in a text file, named data.txt, in the format: • ItemNameItemTypeExpirationDate • Each itemName also gets stored in an Vector List to quickly determine stored items • The barcode scanner will read the barcode and send a string of numbers that correspond to the item. The program will then read from a text file, named barcode.txt, and determine which item has been scanned