2.

METHODOLOGY

2.1.Prototype Design
The proposed system is designed for automatic sorting of Red or Blue colored cable products.
The prototype consists of two DC motors, conveyor belt, a PIC and a color sensing circuit (1185)
. DC motors are used to control the conveyor belts. After integrating the programmed PIC and
the 1185 circuitry with the structure of the model, we measure the value of color signals
corresponding to each color (RGB) by observing them on a serial port. After color recognition
the product cable has been filled in a carton box using a pneumatic actuator.

L293D Hybrid IC is used to drive the conveyor where carton box is placed. IR sensors as object
detector , which is used to control the movement of the belt in order to position the carton box
nearly to separator (actuator for red / blue color).after positioning, actuators act as separators and
push the boxes out of the conveyor line to its respective collecting place according to its color.

The push assembly consists of DC geared motor energized by manipulated power supply. The
offset shaft of dc geared motor is extended with metal plate which is a diverter. The diverter
helps to push the object onto rail. The programming of anticlockwise or clockwise movements of
motor enables diverter to move along with it.

When the color sensor will sense the color of the object it will signal PIC to start main conveyor
for specific time period. Objects will have to pass from guider strips, which will align objects
before passing it from the front of product filling station. Basically, guider strips are used to
align objects in the centre of conveyor belt, so that objects will not stuck at any other part of the
system.

Once the objects on the conveyor passes through the guider, the logic programmed in PIC is such
that, will start the conveyor for fixed time and thus the object will pass from start position to
corresponding color sorting conveyor .the position of objects has been detected by PIC by
means of IR object sensors. After positioning of objects Actuator push action will be taken and
small object will fall in the corresponding color bin.

BLOCKS DETAILS
1. color sensor (1185)

This color sensor identifies color and gives serial output of RBG value. It can identify 16.7
million color shades giving RGB value for the detected color. The detected color is identified as
amount of three primary color values namely Red, Green & Blue with 8 bit accuracy for each
primary color. Any color can be separated or combined into three primary colors Red, Green and
Blue using the RBG values.
Features

Individual RGB color detected

Serial data output for complete RGB values
Simple 5V operation
UART interface for direct connection to any MCU or USB-TTL convertor

Applications

Color Detection & Sorting operations

Process control to printed materials
Ambience light detection
Robotics color detection

2.Dc motors
A DC motor usually means a permanent-magnet, direct-current (DC) motor of the sort used in
toys, models, cordless tools, and robots. These motors are particularly versatile
because both their speed and direction can be readily controlled; speed by the voltage or duty
cycle of their power supply, and direction by its polarity. Torque is a measurement of the motors
power.
The higher the torque(300RPM) of the motor the more weight it can move. DC motors provide
different amounts of torque depending on their running speed, which is measured in RPM
(revolutions per minute). At low RPM DC motors produce poor torque, and generally
the higher the RPM, the better the motors torque. However, in high torque, the speed may be too
high for an application. That's why we have to use gears (or geared motor) to reduce
the overall speed of the motor and running at the top speed to get the most power to, say, a wheel
attached to the shaft of the motor.

3.Serial I/O
Serial communication (also called MAX232 communication) enables a microcontroller to be
connected to another microcontroller or to a PC using a serial cable. The baud rate
and the data format can usually be selected by the user program. If any serial I/O hardware is not
provided, it is easy to develop software to implement serial data communication
using any I/O pin of a microcontroller.

4.Supply voltage
Most microcontrollers operate with the standard logic voltage of _5V. A voltage regulator circuit
is usually used to obtain the required power supply voltage when the device is
to be operated from a mains adaptor or batteries.

5.PIC Microcontroller (PIC 16F877A)

Microchip manufacture a series of microcontrollers called PIC. There are many different flavors
available, some basic low memory types, going right up through to ones that have
Analogue - To- Digital converters and even PWM built in. We are going to concentrate on the
16F877A PIC. Once you have learnt how to program one type of PIC, learning the
rest is easy. There are several ways of programming the PIC - using BASIC, C, or Assembly
Language. We are going to use the assembly language There are only 35 instructions to
learn, and it is the cheapest way to program the PICs, as you do not need any extra software
other than the freebies.

6.Pneumatic Powered System

A belt conveyor is used to feed the boxes. It is driven by means of a motor. IR sensors are fixed
at required lengths of conveyor to sort the respective boxes. Three double acting cylinders are
used to sort the boxes when actuated by the sensors.

A 5/2 solenoid operated spring return direction control valve and 5/2 solenoid operated direction
control valves are used. The setup consists of

Fig -3: Model Of Pneumatic Based System a belt conveyor moving at an optimum speed. This
belt conveyor is loaded with boxes of three different colors. There are three different sensors at
conveyor length used to sense the boxes. The RGB colored boxes will be passes through the 3
IR sensors after color recognition by 1185 sensor. According to the color sensed boxes will be
separated from the conveyor line using three actuators using IR sensors to position the boxes. It
is very typical and traditional method to make use of pneumatic pressure pump for pushing or
sorting the objects. But the major drawback in using all these old methods is the setup cost and
their maintenance. Using pneumatic pressure pump requires a heavy setup which includes air
compressor, control valves, air filter, pressure regulator, lubricator, direction control valve, flow
control valves and all linking assembly (pipes and joints).

Limitation
Every successful invention has its own limitations. There are
a number of limitations in the project also, which are as
follows:
a)
Here in case of color measurement and detection of color
over a wide range which might not gave the proper result
always.
b)
Here only two colored (red and green) products are asserted precisely. Other color can be
asserted by preparing a good and more accurate structure and highly efficient coding of
microcontroller.
c)
Sometime the belt slip on the roller as gripping mechanism
of belt with the roller is not good enough. Again no use of
timing belt and gear also causes the faulty power
transmission to the roller.