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WEEK-18
Applications and Implications
Lecture & Recitaton of a Week:
Lecture on 23rd of May, 2018: Applications and Implications by Neil Gershenfeld
Recitation on 28th of May, 2018: assistive technologies
Tasks for a Week
- individual assignment: Propose a final project masterpiece that integrates the range of units covered, answering:
What will it do?
For my final project I want to make a smart inventory system for FABLAB which is used to find the required component in lab and manage the quantity of items.
The idea was come from the experience of makerspace, where doing inventory is a difficult part of my previous job as Space Manager in "Tajurbagah". To place small electronic components we have cabinets with boxes, which are categorized and updated on excel sheets also. But whenever someone need any component from those boxes it takes time to find the desired component.
Electronic components placement at MAKERSPACE Tajurbagah Karachi
I want to solve that problem by making a smart inventory system which indicates the shelves in which desired components are present and then change the quantity of components after taking data from user
Who's done what beforehand?
The problem is not new as many labs and management companies design the inventory system as per their requirement beforehand, I found some previous projects on inventory system of FABLAB graduated students, and as part of FAB Community I love to mention their work in my documentation:
First Project: Inventory Bot
Inventroy Bot Front and Back View
Here is the link of this project page. This project is made by Kohei Morimoto from FABLAB Kitakagaya Japan in 2017. The mechanism is based on core XY sytem which is made and attached on back of the cabinet a shaft with servo motor is attached on the head which pushes out the desired drawer, when a person need any component he/she has to give two inputs to machine a name of component and no. of quantity after that if the component is available the core XZ system move toward that box and push it out. The arduino is used to control the core XZ system which gets instruction from PC and act according to it.
Second Project: Wally
A look to Wally
Here is the link of this project page. This project is made by Kenzo Prada Abiko from AS220 FabAcademy in 2015. This project also designed to maintain the inventory for the specific projects. To interface with machine, LCD is placed alongside buttons which are also fabricated, a person needs to input a number of project and the boxes which have component of those project light up to mention. After taking desired component a person need to enter the number of component he/she tooks. and inventory updated with respect to it.
What will you design?
I planned to design Inventory management system using skills which I learned while doing fablab course. While considering above mentioned project, my project working will be differnet from their work. I design a system in which an inventory is managed on webserver and items are present in honeycomb shaped shelves, a person excess inventory by using his mobile or laptop, able to modilfy number of quantity of items after entering ar taking items from shelves.
What materials and components will be used?
- 8x4-ft 16mm MDF Board
- 2x1-ft 3mm Transparent Acrylic Sheet
- .5x.5-ft 6mm Transparent Acrylic Sheet
- Elfy glue
- Hinges (12x)
- Screws 3mm (24x)
- WS2812B RGB Strip (36 RGB LEDs)
- Male/Male Jumper Wire (150mm)
- Female/Female Jumper Wire (150mm)
- ESP-12E along with programmable circuitry
- ATMega328p along with circuitry
- 5V 2Amp Adapter.
- PLA for circuit 3D printed box.
Where will come from?
most of the components and material are from FABLAB Khairpur, these are some components which I bought, the list is mentioned below:
- 2x1-ft 3mm Transparent Acrylic Sheet (Urdu Bazar- Karachi)
- Elfy glue (Local Shop - Khairpur)
- Hinges (Bohra Pir Electric Market - Karachi)
- WS2812B RGB Strip (from aliexpress.com Click here for link)
- 5V 2Amp Adapter (Chineese adapter bought locally)
How much will they cost?
| Components | Number of components * Price of components(USD) | Total price (USD) | link |
|---|---|---|---|
What parts and systems will be made?
- 3D printed Circuit Box
- Press-fit Wooden Shelf
- Laser cutted doors and door openers
- PCB of programmable ESP-12E board
- PCB of ATMega328P board
- Application on Web Server
- Networking between 328p and ESP-12E board
- Vinyl Cutting
What processes will be used?
- 3D Designing using Solidworks to do all 3D Designing of final project includes box for circuit, press-fit shelf, checking the fitting of door older in doors etc
- 2D desiging all done usinf InkScape in which files for laser cutting, vinyl cutting etc.
- Circuit designing done in Eagle 7.5 in which ESP-12E board and 328p board designing involves.
- Electronics Production generated .rml files from Fabmodules, milling using SRM-20 and soldering components.
- Interface and Application development made using Bootstrap, layoutit and ArduinoIDE
- Networking Using ESP-12E wifi interfacing with PC and wired intercaing with 328p board
What questions need to be answered?
- How to make application more user friendly so they increase no. of items as well ?
- How to add alarm system when some components are short supply ?
- How to easily implement it on whole FABLAB ?
- How to market this product ?
- How to make it more modular ?
How will it be evaluated?
upon successful completion of the project the webserver is used to trace the required components within shelf and updates the inventory (no. of components) after removing or adding components from shelf.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License