1. Automatic Pill Dispenser
Engineering Team:
Tyler Mack (EE) - Leader
Anthony Franco (EE) - Member
Joseph Petti (CSE) - Member
Jeremy Wentz (EE) - Member
Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Ezzatollah Salari
Course Professor:
Dr. Mohammed Niamat

2. Presentation Outline Introduction The Pill Problem
The Automatic Pill Dispenser
What It Does
How It Works
Why Is It Important
Issues
Mechanical Design
Electrical Design
Web Application Design
Testing
Future Outlook
Conclusion
Q & A
Presentation Outline

3. Introduction
The Automatic Pill Dispenser is a sophisticated design that helps people with taking their medication on time and in the right dosage.
The dispenser is comprised of both hardware, software, and a web application.
During the course of this presentation, we will cover all aspects of our design including suctions mechanisms, mechanical designs, electrical designs, and web application navigation.

4. Target Audience
People who take more than one type of pill a day, the same medication multiple times a day, or in any other odd amounts.
People who have a hard time remembering to take pills.
Elderly people who may be unable to take their pills on their own.
People of all ages who may take anything from medications to vitamins and supplements.
People who are constantly on the go.

5. Marketing Requirements
The system will be reliable in the sense that it will dispense the correct amount of pills in a timely manner.
The dispenser will save time for users and be easy to use.
Eliminate the need to count and sort pills
Different shapes and sizes of pills shall be dispensed accurately to the user.
The automatic pill dispenser will be more affordable than other dispensers on the market pill dispensers.

6. The Pill Problem
Medication noncompliance is estimated at 40% to 75% for elderly people.
Common forms of medication mistreatment involving people are overuse, abuse, forgetfulness, patients’ busy schedules, and dosage differences.
25% of elderly take at least three medications daily.
Sorting pills in pill boxes and counting pills is a tedious task.

7. Automatic Pill Dispenser Operation
Our proposed system pursues a simple solution to help patients in need for a reliable system for taking their pills.
The dispenser utilizes a Raspberry Pi, multiple pill banks, and a vacuum pump to function reliably.
Using two servo motors the cart moves along a ramp to a pill bank, drops down the vacuum tube straw, attains a pill, and delivers it back to the pill tray for a user to consume.

8. The Automatic Pill Dispenser
Vacuum Tube
Hall Sensors
Vacuum Servo Motor
Rail
Cart
Cart Servo Motor

9. Issues & Solutions
Issue 1: The vacuum pump and power supply were fried from incorrect connections to the outlet.
Solution 1: We bought another vacuum pump and power supply. We got a three prong receptacle so frying another power supply and vacuum pump would not happen again.
Issue 2: It was difficult to program the servomotors to achieve the correct frequencies in order to control the speed of the cart and vacuum tube.
Solution 2: We figured out the duty cycle and correct frequency to run the servo motors through trial and error testing.
Servo-
Vacuum pump - Transistor
Cart Stoppage - Hall Sensors

10. Issues & Solutions
Issue 3: We had to find a way to control our vacuum pump and suction mechanism from the Raspberry Pi.
Solution 3: We use a FDP6030BL transistor along with a 12 volt power supply to control the vacuum pump.
Issue 4: We needed a way to control where the cart stops at each pill bank in order to lower the vacuum tube to retrieve a pill.
Solution 4: We used hall sensors at each pill bank with a magnet on the cart to detect locations along the dispenser.

11. Pill Dispensing Flow Chart

12. Block Diagram

13. Mechanical Design Design Features
Conceptual Design
Model
Design Features
Cart - able to move to different pill banks
Uses wheels, bearings, and track
Drives two axles using a motor and belt system
Positions vacuum straw to pick up pills
Straw is raised and lowered using a smaller motor and rollers
Pill Banks - hold different types of medications
Constructed individually and can be combined together
Track on pill banks will align for proper movement of cart

14. Mechanical Design
Many parts were modeled and 3D Printed

15. Mechanical Design Challenges and Changes
Creating and aligning the track
Open-style track on both sides
The home location and first bill bank were combined into one base unit
Raising and lowering the vacuum straw
Two bottom guide rollers were replaced with a guiding tube
Rotor on servo was coated in rubber for more traction
Attached rubber band to driving roller to better interface with the servo rotor and straw

16. Overall Wiring Diagram
Electrical Design
Overall Wiring Diagram

17. Hall Sensor Circuit Diagram Transistor Circuit Diagram For Vacuum
Electrical Design
Hall Sensor Circuit Diagram
Transistor Circuit Diagram For Vacuum

18. Controlling the System
The design is brought together and becomes functional using a Raspberry Pi
Controls servos using PWM
Reads outputs from hall sensors to detect position of the cart and straw raised
Provides output and input to detect when the vacuum suction cup is compressed
Provides an output to turn on the vacuum

19. Web Application - Login Information

20. Web Application - Dispenser Creation

21. Web Application - Medication Information

22. Web Application - Alarm Assignment

23. Web Design - Calendar & Inventory

24. Python Code Design Constantly poll web server for an alarm.
Dispenses medication for active alarms.
Monitors various different control signals to different sensors and devices.

25. Testing - Vacuum Pump
Current/Voltage Test - The goal of this test is to find out whether or not either aspect changed while a pill has been picked up.
Current rises about 100 mA while a pill was on the end of the suction cup.
Transistor Test - Find the correct transistor that would work with the Raspberry Pi and vacuum pump.
Transistor must be used as a switch to pass 12 volts and controlled by 3.3V
Transistor must be rated at least 1 amp.
We found that the FDP6030BL transistor worked well for this application.

26. Testing - Vacuum Pump Tube
Functionality:
We sprayed both rollers and the Servomotor with Plastidip. Then tested whether the tube had enough traction to go up and down. This test fail because of lack of tread and the Plastidip was scraping of the the roller in contact with the Servomotor
We then super glued a rubber band to the roller that comes in contact with the Servomotor which allowed more grip on the tube. We had to adjust lower hose track for the fit of the tube.

27. Testing - Servomotors
Set the frequencies that the motors run at in order to control the cart and the vacuum pump.
Tested the speed of the cart servomotor to ensure that it utilizes code from the raspberry pi to stop at the correct positions.
Tested the speed of the vacuum servomotor to ensure that it picked up a pill from the desired locations.
Used the combination of the servomotors to ensure pills were picked up and delivered in under thirty seconds.

28. Testing - Hall Sensors
The output of the hall sensors are 5 volts and 3.3 volts is the logic HIGH for the Raspberry Pi .
We performed calculations and found the 180 kohm resistor suited us best. It brought down the voltage to around 3.1 volts.
The noise from the vacuum was triggering the hall sensor. This was probably being cause by a voltage drop, since the sensors are active-LOW. We tried using a capacitor to hold a small charge to power the hall sensor to keep them from triggering. We used an oscilloscope to monitor the effect of turning on the vacuum pump and soon realized that the problem was more that just a small initial voltage drop and that a capacitor could not solve this issue.

29. Testing - Overall Functionality
Raspberry Pi Testing with Hall Sensor, Servo Motor and Vacuum Pump -
Our team connected the Hall Sensor to the Raspberry Pi and ran a magnet by the sensor to trigger the servo motor to start and stop.
The Raspberry Pi needed to read the falling edge of the Hall Sensor and thus stop the servomotor controlling the cart.
The servo motor both had to be adjusted for the correct speed.
The Hall Sensor connections were loose and lost connection frequently.

30. Budgeting and Product Cost
Total Budget
Product Cost on the Market
Automatic Pill Dispenser Cost
Attributes we were not able to add due to budgeting and time constraints:
Finger Print Scanner
On-The-Go Pill Hopper
Battery Back-Up System

31. Future Outlook
Moving forward our team strongly believes that we have entered a market that is growing in the medical field.
The Automatic Pill Dispenser is the future of medication distribution:
Dispenses pills on time and reliably
Uses a website/database to document information and alarms
Takes away the pain of counting and sorting pills
Cost efficient and available to anyone that takes medications

32. Constraints
The biggest constraint was budget. We were not provided enough money to design the most technologically up to date project. Things that had to be excluded from final project:
Security features - fingerprint scanner/passcode access and locked protective container
On the go pill hopper
Indicating LED for when pills have been taken
Battery backup
Lack of a proper place to keep and work on our project.

33. Conclusion
The Automatic Pill Dispenser has been completed and accomplished our main goals of being able to dispense different size and shape pills and eliminating the need to count pills.
At the Senior Design Expo we will allow guests to log onto the website, create an account, select a pill, and the pill dispenser will deliver it to the user.
These actions will allow us to display the full functionality of the website as well as the Automatic Pill Dispenser.

34. Thank You Dr. Mohammed Niamat for being our course professor
Dr. Ezzatollah Salari for being our project advisor
Tom Jacobs for providing us with materials, equipment, and lab access

35. Questions