Automated Belt LoaderEvan 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 AmherstSDP 12

Block Diagram

ABeL

Belt

Pressure Sensors

Motor

Luggage

PCB ATMega32

8-bit Timer with PWM

EEPROM

Power Circuit

Power Circuit

Belt

Pressure Sensors

Motor

5VDCSignal

5VDCSignal

PWM PWM

20VDC 20VDC

AbstractAnyone 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 CostAlthough 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

ExperimentsExperiments 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 DescriptionThe 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)

1 2 3 4 50

20406080

100120140

ABeL Existing

Trial

Se

co

nd

s

ABeL Exist

Avg. 78.6 104

Stdev 7.4 15

Std. Error ±3.3 ±7

1 2 3 4 50

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5ABeL Existing

Trial

Fa

lls

ABeL Exist

Avg. 1 0

Stdev 0.7 0

Std. Error ±0.3 ±0

1 2 3 4 50

5

10

15

20

25

ABeL Existing

Trial

Inc

he

s

ABeL Exist

Avg. 13.9 24.8

Stdev 8.2 7.1

Std. Error ±0.8 ±0.7

1 2 3 4 502468

1012

ABeL Existing

Trial

Inc

he

s

ABeL Exist

Avg. 7.6 7.9

Stdev 1.3 1.9

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)