Automated Belt Loader Evan Kellogg, Nan Sun, Andrew Wadsworth Faculty Advisor: Prof. William Leonard Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE 415/ECE 416 – SENIOR DESIGN PROJECT 2012 College of Engineering - University of Massachusetts Amherst SDP 12 Block Diagram ABeL Belt Pressure Sensors Motor Luggage PCB ATMega32 8-bit Timer with PWM EEPROM Power Circuit Belt Pressure Sensors Motor 5VDC Signal 5VDC Signal PWM 20VDC Abstract Anyone who has travelled via plane has noticed the extremely inefficient and possibly damaging manner in which bags are handled at an airport. If a luggage handler is behind while unloading luggage from an airplane, he/she must manually stop the belt, proceed to unload the luggage, and once caught up manually flip the switch to start the belt again. If a luggage handler were attempting to load/unload the plane as fast as possible he/she may be inclined to mishandle the traveler's luggage, potentially causing damage to their property. Our proposed system will eliminate both these situations, resulting in a more efficient way to load/unload luggage from airplanes. Acknowledgements: Russell Tessier, Christopher Salthouse, Alfred Defonzo, & William Leonard T.B. Soules & Michael Zink The ECE Department Fran Caron Sean Klaiber & M5 Staff PCB Design The PCB layout designed in EagleCAD The final PCB after etching and the soldering of components A view of ABeL after construction, prior to enclosing it Requirements The system must be able to autonomously vary belt speeds in order to reduce the amount of distance between luggage The system must be able to accurately sense the luggage’s location The system must be able to operate at an incline of at least 20 degrees The motors’ speeds must be able to reach the desired set point in under 2 seconds The height of the bottom of the system should be between 2ft and 3.5ft Production Cost Although it was our aim to replace existing belt loading systems, our system is scaled back due to size and budget constraints. The following totals represent the amount of $500 budget that was spent, and the total amount it would cost to reproduce our system with new components. Project Total Treadmills (2): $20 Pressure Mats (4): $160 Electronics (FETs, diodes, etc.): $10 A total cost of $190 was spent on parts Reproduction Cost PMDC Motors (2): $300 Pressure Mats (4): $160 Electronics (FETs, diodes, etc.): $15 Frame Materials (Wood/Metal): $150 Power Supply: $200 Building Materials (screws, wires, etc.): $30 PCB Fabrication: $20 In order to reproduce our project with new, professional components, it would likely cost around $875. ABeL From Left to Right: ABeL, Nan Sun, Andrew Wadsworth, William Leonard, & Evan Kellogg

State Chart Diagrams Control Flow Data Flow Experiments Experiments were designed and performed in order to determine the efficiency of our system. In order to compare with contemporary systems a chip that ran ABeL with no pressure input and ran both belts at the same speed. Average Time to Unload System (20 Pieces x 5 Trials) Project Description The goal of this project is to create a more efficient belt loading systems than ones that exist today. With this project, our team wants to provide an automated belt loading system, partitioned into various belts, each operating at various speeds. Currently, belt loading systems operate at a single operating speed and must be manually turned off when the user is running behind. Our system would be a solution to this problem by utilizing sensors at discrete points along the belts and using this data to automatically stop, slow down, or speed up each belt. Average Distance Between Luggage (20 Pieces x 5 Trials) ABeLExist Avg Stdev7.415 Std. Error ±3.3±7 ABeLExist Avg.10 Stdev0.70 Std. Error ±0.3±0 ABeLExist Avg Stdev Std. Error ±0.8±0.7 ABeLExist Avg Stdev Std. Error ±0.6±0.8 Average Distance of Luggage from Edge (20 Pieces x 5 Trials) Luggage Falling off Edge of System (20 Pieces x 5 Trials)