Automatic Beer Bottle Filler and Capper C-4P5 Automatic Beer Bottle Filler and Capper Aaron Landy IMDL Fall 2013 September 12, 2013

Motivation Homebrewing is fun, bottling beer is hard Time consuming process requires individually filling and capping bottles of different shapes and sizes ~50 bottles per 5 gal batch

Objectives Fill bottles with precise amounts Cap bottles securely without breaking Support inconsistent bottle shapes and sizes Seek/retrieve bottles automatically Do not contaminate, oxidize, damage, or waste beer

Mechanisms Four primary mechanisms: Bottle searching/retrieving claw Infrared and bump sensors to locate bottle Filling tube Stainless steel tube lowered into bottle Tube opening must be pressed against bottom of bottle to minimize agitation to prevent oxidation or contamination Cap retrieving/placing magnet Caps must be picked up from top of bottle and held during filling Cap must be replaced precisely on top of bottle Capping actuator Forceful linear actuator with capping “bell” crimps/seals cap onto bottle

Electronics Raspberry Pi (Model B rev. 2) Infrared Range Finder and bump to detect bottles Raspberry Pi Camera module to calculate bottle height and volume Arduino + Stepper Motors + Motor Driver to drive linear motion axes Servos to open and close, turn claw

Design and Operation

Questions ?