Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
26 Orion Med
 wenhao Zhang
XiangYi Kong
Yuxin Zhang
 Zhuoer Zhang proposal1.pdf
# ORION MED

Team Members :
- Xiangyi Kong (xkong13)
- Yuxin Zhang (yuxinz11)
- Wenhao Zhang (wenhaoz5)

# Problem

As the global population continues to age, the demand for elder care is rising faster than the number of available care workers. Care workers often spend much of their time on routine but necessary tasks, such as fetching medicine or preparing basic tools. These simple tasks leave them with less time to focus on what really matters: providing personal attention, comfort, and medical care to the elderly. This imbalance not only increases stress and workload for care workers but also makes it harder to ensure that the elderly receive the level of care they deserve
# Solution
We propose to design a line-following autonomous medicine cart that can navigate between a nurse station (HOME) and five fixed pharmacy locations along a predefined track.
The nurse will input a target pharmacy number (1–5) and a specific medicine type through a GUI. The cart will follow the track, detect the correct station using ground markers, and stop to wait. Once a medicine package is placed on the tray (detected by onboard sensors), the cart will first verify whether the correct pill bottle has been selected. If so, immediately return to the HOME position.
The system is divided into the following subsystems:
1. Locomotion & Navigation
2. Station Recognition
3. Load Detection
4. Medicine Verification
5. Control & Communication
6. Power Supply & Safety

# Solution Components
## Subsystem 1: Locomotion & Navigation
- Purpose: Drive the cart along the predefined track and keep it centered on the black line.
- Components:
- 2 × DC gear motors with encoders
- Motor driver: TB6612FNG (or L298N as alternative)
- QTR-8A IR reflectance sensor array for line tracking
- Functionality: Uses PID control with encoder feedback to follow the black line smoothly and reliably.
## Subsystem 2: Station Recognition
- Purpose: Detect when the cart has arrived at one of the five fixed pharmacy stations or the HOME position.
- Components:
- Ground marker system (unique tape patterns or RFID tags)
- Functionality: Each station has a unique marker or tag; the sensor detects it and signals arrival to the controller.

## Subsystem 3: Load Detection
- Purpose: Detect whether an object (medicine package) has been placed on the tray.
- Components:
- HX711 load cell amplifier + load cell sensor
- Functionality: Confirms stable load placement before triggering the RETURN sequence.

## Subsystem 4: Medicine Verification
- Purpose: Confirm that the medicine placed matches the nurse’s request before returning to HOME.
- Components:
- Color sensor module (e.g., TCS34725 RGB sensor)
- Functionality:
- The nurse specifies a medicine type (e.g., Red, Green, Blue pill).
- After load detection, the color sensor scans the deposited item.
- If the detected color matches the requested medicine → RETURN sequence is triggered. If not, the cart remains at the station, and an error/status is sent to the GUI.

## Subsystem 5: Control & Communication
- Purpose: Serve as the “brain” of the system, executing navigation logic and communicating with the user interface.
- Components:
- ESP32 microcontroller (Wi-Fi + control)
- Python Tkinter GUI or ESP32-hosted web interface
- Functionality:
- Receives target station input from GUI
- Executes finite state machine: IDLE → TO_STATION → WAIT → RETURN → HOME
- Sends status updates (Idle, Moving, Waiting, Returning, Done) back to GUI
## Subsystem 6: Power Supply & Safety
- Purpose: Provide stable power to motors, sensors, and controller while ensuring user safety.
- Components:
- lithium-ion battery pack
- Step-down voltage regulators (5V for motors/sensors, 3.3V for ESP32)
- Ultrasonic distance sensor (HC-SR04 or VL53L0X) for obstacle avoidance
- Emergency stop button with hardware cutoff
- Functionality: Supplies regulated voltages, ensures safe shutdown in emergencies, and prevents collisions.
# Criterion For Success
1. Navigation:
- The cart can travel from HOME to any of the five stations with high reliability.
- The cart stays centered on the line with little deviation.
2. Station Recognition:
- Correctly identify each of the five stations and HOME.
3. Load Detection & Return:
- Correctly detect object placement.
- Only allow RETURN if the correct medicine is placed.
- Trigger return-to-home sequence correctly after placement.
4. Task Completion
- Accept user input, reach target station, wait, detect load, and return to HOME.
5. Safety
- Stop within 20 cm of unexpected obstacles.
- Stable and safe operation with no exposed wires or hazards.

S.I.P. (Smart Irrigation Project)

Jackson Lenz, James McMahon

S.I.P. (Smart Irrigation Project)

Featured Project

Jackson Lenz

James McMahon

Our project is to be a reliable, robust, and intelligent irrigation controller for use in areas where reliable weather prediction, water supply, and power supply are not found.

Upon completion of the project, our device will be able to determine the moisture level of the soil, the water level in a water tank, and the temperature, humidity, insolation, and barometric pressure of the environment. It will perform some processing on the observed environmental factors to determine if rain can be expected soon, Comparing this knowledge to the dampness of the soil and the amount of water in reserves will either trigger a command to begin irrigation or maintain a command to not irrigate the fields. This device will allow farmers to make much more efficient use of precious water and also avoid dehydrating crops to death.

In developing nations, power is also of concern because it is not as readily available as power here in the United States. For that reason, our device will incorporate several amp-hours of energy storage in the form of rechargeable, maintenance-free, lead acid batteries. These batteries will charge while power is available from the grid and discharge when power is no longer available. This will allow for uninterrupted control of irrigation. When power is available from the grid, our device will be powered by the grid. At other times, the batteries will supply the required power.

The project is titled S.I.P. because it will reduce water wasted and will be very power efficient (by extremely conservative estimates, able to run for 70 hours without input from the grid), thus sipping on both power and water.

We welcome all questions and comments regarding our project in its current form.

Thank you all very much for you time and consideration!