VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

BELGAUM-590014

PROJECT PHASE-3(12MAR34) REPORT

on
DETECTION AND DISTINCTION OF COLOURS USING
COLOUR SORTING ROBOTIC ARM IN A PICK AND PLACE
MECHANISM

Under the Guidance of Submitted By

VIJAYAVITHAL BONGALE TRINESH T M
PROFESSOR & HEAD, 4MC13MAR12
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 4th Sem.I.A.R.
MCE, HASSAN. M.C.E. Hassan

 
 INTRODUCTION
 The importance of robotics in 21st century is increasing day by day to reduce human mistakes in their daily
tasks because of their ability to do much difficult tasks.
 The automotive industry fully operates with robot completing tasks on time without any mistake.
 The proposed system is an embedded system which will increase the speed of color sorting procedure,
provide the accurate color sorting process, decrease the cost of color sorting process and optimize the
productivity of an industrial object.
Problem Statement
The speed of color sorting process by an operator is very slow. this limitation can be covered by
using a computer. In this project, AT89S52 microcontroller is used to increase the speed of color
sorting.
 The accuracy of color sorting process by an operator is very slow. A machine will give accurate
result even after it has repeated a process for billions of times. In this project, AT89S52
microcontroller was used to substitute the operator and thus increase the accuracy of color sorting.
 The implementation cost for a color sorting process using the operator is very high. In this project,
a color sorting system was designed so that to increase the process time, increase the process
accuracy, and cut-down the cost of process of color sorting.

 
Functional Block Diagram:
Block diagram Description
 IR phototransistors: These are used to sense the size of the object.
 LDR’S :These are used to detect the colour of the objects.
 Reset Cirrcuit:It is used to reset the overall module.
 Power supply : It is used to supply power to all the modules.
 Micro controller : It is used for the overall control of the module.
Continued..

 Decade counter CD4017 : It is uesd to check the difference in voltage level.

 Serial port : It is used to communicate with Personel computer.
 LCD display : It displays the vital information to the users.
 Transistors BC548 : These are connected to trip voltage level.
 Rasbperry Pi A+ board:One powerful feature of the Raspberry Pi is the row of GPIO (general purpose input/output)
pins along the edge of the board.
These pins are a physical interface between the Pi and the outside world. At the simplest level, you can think of them as
switches that you can turn on or off (input) or that the Pi can turn on or off (output).
Seventeen of the 26 pins are GPIO pins; the others are power or ground pins.

 
 
Working Procedure of the whole system

The system sorts different size and colored objects by making measurements on a fixed start
point where the sample object is placed.
Depending on sorting criteria – Color, Size, Color & Size, the object can be picked and placed
by the robotic arm at different location or different bins placed in a circular path around the
robotic arm.
 
Color Sensing

 The color sensing is carried out by a semiconductor type reflective color sensor TCS34725FN
which is interfaced with the Raspberry Pi A+ board on its 2 nd I2C interface channel, running Linux
OS.
 The values are read using python script by calling the python I2C libraries.
 The color sensor requires a light source to illuminate the sample and a 5500K color temperature
white SMD LED is used for this purpose.
 The sensor assembly is housed in a circular black opaque plastic ring to avoid external light
interferences.
 As per standard RGB schemes supported by most computers and operating systems the 16 bit value
is converted to 8 bit and the resultant number of color which TC34725 can differentiate totals to
16.7 million colors.
Continued…
As with any instrumentation device a range calibration is always required and the same for this
color sensor is done by making measurements of known color patches from shade cards
 substituting an error value computed by inverse matrix multiplication of three different
elements Red, Green, and Blue measured by the sensor.
 Thus any other color measured will be multiplied with an error matrix to get compensated
color values reproducing real color of the sample scanned.
 The error mainly occurs due to light source used for illuminating the sample, the spectral
distribution of the light source and its color temperature, combined with the IR cut off filter
present in the color sensor lowers the color temperature
 Thus the scanned colors reflect a blue tinge, however after error correction the sample color
and scanned color can be rated with a delta E value of 1.5 to 2.0 which is very close to the real
color.
 
Size (Dimension) Sensing
A low cost approach had been used to sense the size of the sample object, wherein the
requirements are that the object should be opaque.
An array of 8x8 IR phototransistors and LED’s are used to scan for an object in X and Y axis
and evaluate the size in steps of 3-3.5mm, as each component’s diameter is 3mm.
 The circuit is realized using a set of comparators – 8 x LM324 for each axis, and 2 x CMOS
counter type CD4017 to generate scanning in both X and Y axis.
The LED on one axis is scanned in a stepped manner and the return signal is monitored at
the photo transistor end, which is converted to a logic level signal by the comparator.
Continued…
Thus any blockage of the IR light falling from source to target represents the X and Y axis
area occupied in multiples of 3mm by the sample. The circuitry is controlled by an 8051 core
MCU (AT89S52).
 And is interfaced by its UART to the Raspberry Pi A+ processor board. The communication
is handled in high level by the pySerial libraries.
Pick and Place Control
 
The robot is controlled using 3 x servo and 1 x stepper motor for complete pick and place
operation.

 The servo motors take PWM pulses from the AT89S52 MCU for varying and maintaining
their position, the stepper motor is controlled by a transistorized circuit based on a TIP 127
PNP darlington pair power transistor.

 The stepper motor is used to rotate the arm to required angle in 3.75 degree step.

An optical slotted switch is used to sense home position and end position to stop the motor
movement at both ends.
Continued…
The complete mechanical assembly is cut out of an acrylic 6mm panel with laser cutting
process and same is joined using fastening screws and cyanoacrylate adhesive.
The specific material is used based on its light weight and high tensile strength.
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS FOR ROBOTIC
ARM
The following equations are used to find out the calculate the torque of robotic arm.
L1=2cm,M1=.05kg,A1=.5kg,TorqueT1=1.51N-m
L2=15cm,M2=.125kg,A2=.052kg,T2=5.335N-m
L3=10cm,M3=.125kg,A3.052kg,T3=4.476N-m
Motor weight includes motor weight+Mass of actual mechanism.
Length of base =100mm
Length of Elbow=160mm
Length of Gripper=20mm
Overall thickness of Robotic arm=5mm
Thickness of Gripper=3mm
 
 APPLICATIONS

 It provides the sorting of objects, in flow of objects by multisensing.

 Agriculture field
 In industry it can be used for sorting of various objects and tools with different sizes.
 It ca n also sor different sized objects.
 It can be used to sort the fruits and grains.
References
[1] Abhishek Kondhare, “Colour And Shape Based Object Sorting,” AISSM’s Institute Of Information
Technology. Dept. Of Electronics Engineering, Pune, India et al IJSRE Volume 2 Issue 3 March 2014.
[2] Tamboli Amir S., Bhide Ameya D., Varhade Amit M., Mandlik Sachin B, “ Gprs Controlled Weighing
System Of Fruit Sorting And Transportation Gyro Car Based On Arm,” International journal of
technology enhancements and emerging engineering research, vol 2, issue 4 72 issn 2347-4289,2014.
[3] Aji Joy, “ Object Sorting Robotic Arm Based on Colour Sensing,” Assistant Professor, Department of
Electronics and Communication Engineering, Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam,
Kerala, International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,Electronics and Instrumentation
Engineering ,Vol. 3, Issue 3, March 2014.
[4] C. Chandra Mouli and K. Nagabhushan Raju, “A Review on Wireless Embedded System for Vision
Guided Robot Arm for Object Sorting,” International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research,
Volume 4, Issue 733 ISSN 2229-5518,July-2013.
[5] Yeow Khang Yung, “Color Sorting System with Robot Arm,’’ Faculty of Electronic and Computer
Engineering University Technical Malaysia Melaka,(2011).
[6] Arko Djajadi, Fiona Laoda, Rusman Rusyadi, Tutuko Prajogo, Maralo Sinaga , “A Model Vision Of Sorting
System Application Using Robotic Manipulator,” Mechatronics Department, Faculty of Engineering, Swiss
German University EduTown BSD City, Tangerang 15339, Indonesia, ISSN: 1693-6930 Terakreditasi DIKTI,
SK No: 51/DIKTI/Kep/2010.

[7] M. H. Liyanage, N. Krouglicof, R. Gosine, “High speed electro-hydraulic Actuator for a scara type
robotic arm,” International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS),pp.470–476, 2010.

[8] Mohd Johaneis Bin Abu Bakar, “Visualization Robot Sorter,” Faculty of Electrical & Electronics
Engineering Universiti Malaysia Pahang, November, 2007.

[9]Paul Fitzpatrick, “Role Transfer For Robot Tasking,” NE43-936,200 Technology Square,Cambridge, MA
02139, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
April 2003.
 
Thank You