Image above cited from: https://www.reelpaper.com/blogs/reel-talk/how-to-recycle-paper

Project Narrative

Due to the inefficiencies in many current recycling systems, a substantial portion of recyclable materials are not sorted correctly.

Thus, our team’s aim was to develop a self-driven recycling system that employed sensors to evaluate the recyclability of containers and subsequently sorted them into appropriate recyclable categories.

The objective was to sort and transfer recyclable containers to their accurate bins using a Q-bot, physical mechanism, and line trajectory. Our team for this project was divided into 2 sub-teams, mechanical and computing. I was on the computing sub-team.

Timeline of Project: January 8 2024 to February 16 2024

As the team manager, I was responsible for leading weekly team meetings, managing and documenting our project’s holistic progress, and promoting collaboration within our team members.

Figure 1: Container Dispensing station in simulation [1]

Figure 2: Q-arm used for loading containers and Q-bot used for transferring containers in simulation [1]

Figure 3: Pathway of Q-bot to 4 bin stations in simulation [1]

Figure 4: Physical environment of project [1]

Objectives and Constraints

Within the computing sub-team, we aimed to develop a program divided into a virtual/simulation environment for the recycling system. Both environments had parallel yet acutely distinct objectives and constraints as the virtual environment code tested an indefinite program’s functionality and the physical environment tested the code with a physical mechanism developed by the mechanical sub-team.

<aside> 🖥️ Simulation Program

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Objectives

• Servo Table must dispense a random container out of 6 different types at the load station
• Each container contained 3 attributes: mass, type, and BinID
• All container types belonged to 1 of 4 bins
• After loading, transferring, and depositing the containers, the Q-bot was supposed to return to it’s home position and repeat the cycle indefinitely.

Constraints

• Q-bot could hold a maximum of 3 containers or a mass of 90.00 g at once
• The Q-arm was only supposed to load a dispensed container to the Q-bot if it belonged to the same container as the other containers on the Q-bot

<aside> ⚙ Physical Program

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Objectives

• The Q-bot took input from a user for which Bin the container belongs to
• One container was physically placed onto the Q-bot
• The Q-bot on transfers and deposits that one container
• The Q-bot returns home

Constraints

• Q-bot could only hold and transfer one container at a time

Sensor Exploration

Our computing sub-team explored and tested 4 different sensors planted on the physical Q-bot and researched their functionalities. We aimed to see which types of sensors were best to use to recognize the presence of the correct bins for the containers while the Q-bot was transferring them, as we were limited to using a maximum of 2 sensors. In my research, I documented the functions as well as the attributes used for the sensors.

• The sensor does this via emitting ultrasonic waves towards a direction and receiving the waves reflecting if a target is within the range [2].
• This sensor will be helpful in this project as it will allow the Q-bot to detect how far it should stop near a bin to drop off a container. | Distance between Q-bot and bin Range: 0 <= distance <= 2.5 | | Colour Sensor | - The colour sensor emits light and receives a reflected RGB light that it can record and determine a colour of the object [3].
• Within the Q-bot’s range, the nearest bin’s colour can be detected with this sensor.
• This sensor will be applicable in this project for the Q-arm to make decisions about which coloured bin to recycle the container to. | The RGB value and raw sensor values provided by the sensor help determine the colour of an object within its range. |

The 5 sensors we explored were:

• Ultrasonic
• Active Infrared (IR)
• Hall
• Color

The 2 sensors our team chose were:

<aside> 🏆 Winner 1: Ultrasonic Sensors ✅Could detect how far away from a bin the Q-bot should stop

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<aside> 🏆 Winner 2: Color Sensor ✅ Would allow Q-bot to decide whether the bin colour matches the BinID that the containers belong to

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Table 1: My documentation for the chosen sensors

Design Process

The 5 main functions in my team’s program that we created before incorporating them into a main function were:

<aside> 📩 Dispense Container

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<aside> 📂 Load Container

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<aside> 🚚 Transfer Container

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<aside> 📭 Deposit Container

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Simulation Code