Accessible Manufacturing Equipment ECE480 Fall Semester 2008 Design Team 1 Jeli Joegiono Kyle Coveart Vinod Natla Ryan Everaert Sponsored by:Executive Summary We have built an accessible automated machine that can accurately cut material (our main focus is material typically used in award ribbons and gift wrapping) to a user specified length. The machine has a simple interface for use by the impaired and provides audio/visual feedback of system settings. The machine has been constructed using a collection of simple electric motors, custom built mechanical components, and integrated circuits. The final product requires minimal supervision from the user, is be properly safeguarded, and is sufficiently mobile. The machine is simple to use, and it has repeatable output of accurate ribbon lengths. The total cost of this project has remained well within budget limitations. A far reaching goal of this project is to help create more employment opportunities for disabled persons, if only to demonstrate a universally accessible design. 2Acknowledgements Special thanks to Lettuce Duit for providing our design team with a meaningful project. We also appreciate that Lettuce Duit covered travel costs for two of their employees, Marty and Dave, to come to East Lansing on two separate occasions, once to give us feedback on our early design, and again this coming Design Day to demonstrate our final design. Special thanks to Marty and Dave, for providing useful feedback about our project and for coming out to East Lansing on Design day to demonstrate our design. Special thanks to Stephen Blosser, the Assistive Design Specialist at MSU. He has been with us every step of the way. Stephen provided an incredible wealth of support, technical and otherwise, to our group, and we have learned a great deal from him. 3Table of Contents Chapter 1- Introduction and Background...................... .................................................5 Chapter 2 – Exploring the Solution Space and Selecting an Approach...........................7 Chapter 3 – Technical Description of Work Performed....................................................9 Chapter 4 - Proof of Functional Design.........................................................................16 Chapter 5 – Summary and Conclusions.........................................................................16 APPENDIX 1 – TECHNICAL ROLES.............................................................................18 APPENDIX 2 – REFERENCES......................................................................................22 APPENDIX 3 – DETAILED TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS................................................24 **Appendix page numbers do not contribute to page progression of this document 4Chapter 1- Introduction and Background INTRODUCTION Problem to be Addressed Our sponsor, Michigan business Lettuce Duit, has many manually operated machines in their factory that are used for general purpose cutting of materials. Currently, workers are cutting ribbon material to length manually by hand using only scissors and rulers. Lettuce Duit would like to see an automated machine made that can efficiently handle this task. It is also required that the machine to be built be operable by individuals with disabilities (mainly seeing, hearing, and learning disabilities). Also, in terms of production volume, the machine should be able to at least match the production speed of the individuals who are currently doing the task by hand. Sponsor Specifications: - Machine will be manually fed material by the user initially, and the machine can then take over automatically with minimal aid from the user - Machine can accurately cut material from a minimum length (three or four) to seventeen inches, with 1/10 inch resolution - Machine accessible to disabled persons - Machine has simple user interface, with audio/visual feedback for the impaired - Material to be cut will have width no greater than two inches - Machine will be electrically and mechanically safeguarded - Machine must be reasonably portable BACKGROUND Research Conducted for Design Solutions Given the nature of the ribbon cutting task, we needed to find components that could successfully replicate motion in a controlled manner. We began by researching electric motors, particularly stepper motors and servo motors. These types of motors were considered because of their smaller size and precision control capabilities, while still being powerful enough to handle the expected demands of our final product. Finding that stepper motors are commonly used inside of printers to control the inkjets, we decided to focus on them and their implementation. For the audio/visual feedback of the machine, we researched many varieties of devices. For the display, we needed to locate a device that could display simple numeric information and be easy to read for the impaired. A collection of 7-segment display modules was decided upon because we had no need for more complicated display technologies, such as the dot matrix. 5Only a small amount of research was conducted for the audio feedback components because our sponsor contact, Stephen Blosser, donated to us an audio chip. Stephen is familiar with the functionality of the chip and is confident it will fulfill the needs of the project. We later acquired the software necessary to program the chip and implement it after becoming adequately comfortable with its functionality. To bring together and control these various components, we found that the Microchip 18F4520 microcontroller, provided to us by the ECE480 course curriculum, would be more than adequate due to the relatively low amount of processing power and task handling required by the project. Regarding the mechanical components of our design, we researched many premade and custom built options for linear motion stages, clamps and actuators. Some linear motion devices were even found to have stepper motors already built into them. Though many of the devices we came across would functionally fill the needs of the design, product cost and turn-around time prevented these options from being feasible for the scope of this project. However, our sponsor Stephen Blosser offered to build and machine these components himself free of charge. This solution was the best fit to our project because we can work closely with Stephen in
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