Browsing by Author "Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J."
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Item Autonomous Guided Vehicle for the local market(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Tharaka, H.A.D.; Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J.Autonomous transport vehicle for factory with auto charging dock-using Proportional, Integral and Derivative (PID) controlling falls under the autonomous guided vehicle (AGV). The intention of this research is to develop fully functional AGV with added functions like battery level indication, automatic docking, intelligent steering drive method using (PID), low-cost ect. Furthermore, this project aims to implement the PID algorithm, control the movement of the AGV by proper tuning of the control parameters, an optimized drive system to suit with the rough industrial environment, the affordable price tag for Sri Lankan market and deliver better performance. AGV mainly used magnetic line following method and the vehicle battery is charged automatically in specific charging dock (charging area). A PLC is used control of the AGV and implement PID algorithms for motor speed control, which governs the robot to smoothly travel along the line. Drive system used brushless direct current motors (BLDC) with the embedded gearbox. This BLDC motor and gearbox combination gives more robust operation compare to chain drive system. An 8-bit magnetic sensor used as the main sensor for the navigation. The end product of this research is to build up "mouse" type affordable AGV platform which can use in Sri Lanka Industries. Future developments will be focused to change the magnetic based guidance system to vision based guidance system and an auto charging system. Keywords.- PID, AGV, BLDC, DockItem Autonomous Human Following Shopping Trolley Integrated with Smart Shopping Android Application for Sri Lankan Supermarkets(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Jayah, S.P.; Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J.Robotics applications have made tremendous advancements in the previous decade and it has evolved to perform certain day-to-day tasks, despite it was generally used for industrial tasks. In developed countries, autonomous robot assistants who interact with people are currently employed in grocery industry scenarios with the intention of aiding consumers to make the shopping process more efficient. This research paper attempts to propose a smart shopping system that can be implemented in Sri Lankan supermarkets. The proposed system consists of three major components. a) a mobile device that is carried by the consumer b) a human following shopping trolley c) an Android application with auto billing generation capability. Previous researches have been carried out to implement a human tracking robot utilizing high end, costly technologies such as Laser Range Finders, Kinect cameras and low-end sensors such as ultrasonic sensors. The proposed human tracking unit utilizes Wi-Fi technology to reduce the cost for sensory devices and follow the trajectory of a consumer with higher accuracy. The trolley navigates inside the supermarket following a target consumer while maintaining a safe distance using ultrasonic sensors. The relative position and orientation of the target consumer are determined by utilizing Received Signal Strength Indicator values of Wi-Fi signals. Ultrasonic sensors are deployed to follow the customer while maintaining a safe distance and avoid collisions with obstacles in the supermarket. The designed Android application enables the consumer to scan the bar code printed on goods, prepare a list consisting of items that he wishes to purchase and calculate the total values of items purchased. This approach drastically reduces the time spent at the billing counter. The mobile platforms were developed using Arduino and Node MCU micro controllers and the Android application was developed using MIT app inventor.Item Autonomous Lawn Mower(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Mark, R.A.D.R.K.; Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J.Modern houses include a compound often used as garden with grass which grows and need to be maintained at a short height. Conventional lawn mowing is often a hassle and time consuming in cutting the grass. The task of manual lawn mowing can be replaced by autonomous lawn mower using a robot programmed to perform such task. A robotic lawn mower is designed and installed in this research, So the main research problem is creating an Automatic lawn mower that will allow house owners to maintain their lawn without spending much time and money, with the specialties of autonomous robot can mow the lawn of a given specific area of the garden without any human supervision, easy and simple preparation and the robot must be affordable cost for local market. For the implement part of the research following materials and soft wares used RF receiver and transmitter, Lipo- Polymer battery, Grass cutting blade and motor, Arduino Mega 2560 development board used DC gear motors with encoders and MPU6050 gyroscope was used for localization part and for the programming IDE Arduino 1.8.2 was used.Item Design a Modular Mechatronic Systems: Design a Packaging Machine(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Ariyarathne, Y.S.S.; Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J.Concept of modularity is practicing in many fields over decades, such as software engineering, computer science, civil engineering, and electrical engineering. It has been proven that modular architecture has much more advantage than traditional integrated architecture in certain fields. This paper proposes modular design architecture for a mechatronics system in more practical manner. Here we mainly focused on the increasing simplicity of the system, ability to upgrade according to rapidly changing market needs, and reduce the cost in manufacturing and maintaining using modular architecture. The proposed process is a combination of traditional methods such as top down approach, Bottom up approach, sequential approach and mechatronic design quotient. To demonstrate the method, it is applied to design a vertical dispenser packaging machine called the “VD packaging machine” – a multidisciplinary machine use to pack cubic products in a vertical display. There are several types of packaging machines available in modern world, but none of them are useful in this VD-package filling process. So in this paper we are going to examine the VD-package filling process and give a step vise guide about how to design a modular mechatronics system to automate the process. The use of modular concepts in mechatronics system allows simple as well as efficient and therefore low-cost sustainable product, easy to maintain and changeover.Item A Digital Device to Measure Distance on Multiple Surfaces(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Thevathayarajh, T.; Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J.; Ekanayake, R.M.T.C.B.Measurements are one of the daily procedures to separate the needed length in apparel industries. Measuring tape is the only available method for this process now a days. Even shoulder measurements in tailor shop is taken by measuring tape too. This might consumes time and causes error while taking measurements quickly. So there is a need for the independent measuring system to solve this deficiency. A pen like structure of diameter 3.5cm cylindrical wooden bar was cut and further diameter of 2cm was drilled in that where the components were set. A Keyes KY-040, rotary encoder was used to count the rotation was attached to the end of the cylinder. Smooth surface and rough surface shaped disc were made using 3D printers and those models were designed using SolidWorks software. These discs can be attached to the encoder shaft according to the surface where the device is used. Arduino Nano was used as microcontroller for performing algorithmic work. Liquid crystal display was used to display the output measurement. This measurement can be displayed in Centimeter, Foot and Inch scales at the press of a button. Error corrections were done according to the measurements obtained from the Measuring device. 96% percentage accuracy was obtained on the random measurementsItem Efficient Autonomous Guided Vehicle for Transporting Material in Sri Lankan Industry(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) De Silva, J.P.S.C.; Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J.Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGV) are used frequently in production lines for transporting various materials. Most of the times these AGVs are been controlled by Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), RobotQ, RaspberryPi and Arduino platforms. In SriLanka, most of the times apparel industry used the small size of AGVs to transport various materials. The intention of the research is to develop an AGV which is rich with path following, low turning radius, self-battery charging, PID controlling in a rough environment for Sri Lankan industry rather than specifying the apparel industry. A PLC has used here to control the overall process of the AGV. There is a special hooking mechanism and push-pull mechanism which are controlled by Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). AGV follows the paths of magnetic tapes which are located on the floor. Starting and stopping positions will be detected by the AGV and the loading and unloading will occur. Loading and unloading mechanism will be done by using a linear actuator. There is a special linear actuator which can be used as a special jack in the AGV. Overall AGV system is run by using a drive unit which consists of two brushless direct current motors (BLDC). An 8-bit magnetic sensor array is used to detect the path of the AGV. Future developments will be added to this AGV with digital image processing and artificial intelligence (AI).Item Portable Charger Powered by Piezo-electric Crystal Vibration(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Weerakoon, M. W. M. N.; Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J.With the increment of the world population, world has faced a huge problem in terms of generating the required power necessity. Due to the rapid industrialization, the world is expecting more and more power. In present, numbers of power sources could be seen both non-renewable and renewable. However, due to increasing usage, a lot of energy resources have been exhausted and wasted. Also, there can be identified another huge problem arising when generating power that is environmental pollution. Piezo-electric material can be identified as an alternative eco-friendly method for power generation. Piezo-electric materials have the unique ability to interchange electrical and mechanical energy. Because of this property, piezo- electric plates can be used to absorb the mechanical energy and transform it into electrical energy. Usually, the ambient vibration or pressure will act as the mechanical energy source. A small amount of piezo plates is not capable of generating much energy. Therefore, methods of accumulating and storing of energy generated until sufficient power is captured were developed. The research was carried out by combining several piezo electric plates serially and parallelly with the use of rectifying filters. Small vibration motor was used as the energy source to generate vibrations. It is observed that serial combination of three plates gives sufficient voltage to charge a battery. This stored energy is intended to use. In everyday life, as it can be identified some instances, where small-scale power necessities arise. As examples mobile phone charging, lighting a table lamp, charging rechargeable batteries. As a future development, the device will be tested in real-world applications such as harness energy from human walking and vehicle vibration. Keywords: Power, Piezo-electric plate, Vibration, Energy, ChargingItem Self-Navigated Vehicle for Industrial Applications(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Kumara, I.D.D.; Mark, R.A.D.R.K.; Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J.This study presents the innovation of the industrial autonomous navigation system. AVG installation consist of several building components; the vehicle, safety system, battery charging system, communication system, navigation system, traffic management system, job control system and other external components. Each of these systems has provided a specific function. Specially navigation system has provided the ability for the vehicle to identify its position. AGVs have to make decisions on path selection. The sensors installed on its on-board computer possessed all the data to calculate the position and orientation of the AGV. Sensors also capable of detecting magnetic markers made of tape of opposite polarity. Every AGV has a mapping system and a copy of the route map stored in its onboard computer. The route map contains routes, obstacles and pick up and drop up points. The encoders mounted on each wheel of AGV able to measure the steering angle and count the number of wheel revolution. Usually magnetic tape used as a path selection technique in AGVs. Here the position is identified using IMU (Inertial measurement unit) module. In here Euler angels were used to find the direction. Conventionally IMU module produces enormous noise and not enough accurate to use in specific applications. But in this study, the noise of IMU module is decreased and the accuracy is increased by the Kalman filter and the algorithm was built by us. The main purpose of this research is to make a more reliable automated industrial vehicle which can use and install easily. The sticking problems and maintaining difficulties are avoided. This modified AGVs have a high degree of flexibility to transfer material to the destined position. They only recharge when there is a gap in their auto planning and their recharge is a dynamic process. AGV provide an accurate and predictable material delivery, handling loads at different heights, complete routines, flexibility, clear aisles and organized workstations (Grid navigation) and its safe for people and loads.Item Smart Power Saving Climate Control System for Tea Nurseries in Sri Lanka(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Sribavan, B.; Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J.; Anuruddha, T.A.S.Tea industry is the one of main foreign exchange source in Sri Lankan economy presently faces many challenges such as newly developed competitors, poor yielding tea varieties, poor resistive cultivars for newly developed bio-attacks possibly due to climatic changes and other phenomena. Tea varieties from different regions of country have different qualities and bio-resistance issues. This project is to mitigate above problems by introducing an affordable climatic chamber for Tea nurseries, to generate artificial climatic condition. Climatic chamber is automated with a system that has the ability to control weather conditions constantly, despite of the fluctuations in external natural weather conditions. The system includes a smart power saving weather control system controlled by Atmel microcontrollers, for greenhouses in tea nurseries. Climate control is achieved by several actuators which are interfaced to the microcontrollers via high voltage contactors connected to relay board. Priority is given to low power consuming actuators to act first for the sensor readings by the programmed logic. If it fails to maintain desired climatic conditions, signals are given to activate power consuming, efficient actuators automatically by the program logic. The microcontrollers, sensors and actuators together maintain the temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, CO2 concentration and soil moisture of greenhouse to the reference ideal value which is a source of input interfaced into the microcontrollers through LCD screen and keypad. A priority order is programmed through logic preventing the impact of change in one factor affecting the other factor. All factors except humidity were controlled successfully, while system consumed more time to maintain humidity as it has high impact over temperature. A reference range of climatic factors instead of a single ideal climatic value as in our system will be more favorable and recommended for power saving.Item Vision Based Guiding System for AGV Using Robot Operating Systems(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Asanga, P.K S.; Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J.; Ranasinghe, S.An automated guided vehicle or automatic guided vehicle (AGV) is a mobile robot that is most often used in industrial applications to move materials or goods around a manufacturing facility, warehouse or stores. This research is based on making a vision based guiding system for AGV instead of follow markers, wires in the floor or magnets. For this task here used "rviz" and "Gazebo" visualizing interfaces in ROS (Robotic Operating Systems). In this guiding system, the initial map was generated of the working environment manually. Then, in this mapped environment AGV can navigate autonomously avoiding obstacles. To obtains a 3d and 2d map of the navigating environment, AGV used ROS RTAB map (real-time appearance based mapping) packages. Video cloud of the environment was obtained by Xbox Kinect 360. For communicating with Kinect video cloud, ROS freenect-opennii package was used. The AGV model was designed by URDF (unified robot designing format). This model is designed to its real dimensions through URDF. For first map generation, AGV moved manually in the working environment. Manual Navigation of the AGV achieved by ROS keyboard_teleop packages. These navigation commands pass to motors of AGV through Arduino board. For communication between Arduino and ROS, "rosserial" packages were used. This system can identify obstacle through video cloud with a small delay. The laptop was used as ROS working environment and also to monitor and mark the destination point of AGV. It is possible to use wandboard, Raspberry Pi board instead of laptop and HMI (Human Machine Interface) instead of the laptop monitor. AGV can identify its current position through ROS localization packages and use wheel encoders to obtain traveled distance accurately, while navigation to the given destination. Key Words: AGV, ROS (Robotic Operating Systems), RTAB MapItem Web Server Based Mobile Weather Analyzer System(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Wijesinghe, D.L.S.K.; Amarasinghe, A.R.P.C.C.J.; Ekanayake, R.M.T.C.B.Weather, which means the condition of the atmosphere at a particular time and a place is a fascinating topic since nineteenth century, as the monitoring of weather is helpful for various human activities. Barometer, Anemometer, Thermometer are separately used and data is analyzed in order to predict weather. Nowadays, lot of high-end weather analyzing systems are available in the world which are designed and developed in a large scale, for monitoring the weather in a city or a state. Enormous size of the available system, higher maintenance costs are some of the difficulties face with in the current large scale system. The designed system is designed for the individuals like farmers with large scale farms. The system is designed as a mobile unit which works with battery power as well as solar energy. System is portable and can be fixed at any suitable place as the data transmission is done through General Packet Radio Services. User is able to link the device with the official web site, which provides necessary details and the data can be accessed by logging in to user’s account. Temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, altitude and precipitation are measured and the data is automatically updated once per hour. User is able to take a clear image about the weather condition of the installed place for the next few hours and the tasks can be scheduled. The device should be placed at clear outdoor place for more accurate readings. The anemometer can measure real time wind speed with 85 - 95% accuracy. In addition, systems for getting weather details at local places such as homes, farms, are not available and the collected data aren’t stored in cloud. Therefore, this system can be used in order to collect a bulk of data which is important for advance forecasting algorithms.