College - Author 1
College of Engineering
Department - Author 1
Mechanical Engineering Department
Degree Name - Author 1
BS in Mechanical Engineering
College - Author 2
College of Engineering
Department - Author 2
Mechanical Engineering Department
Degree - Author 2
BS in Mechanical Engineering
College - Author 3
College of Engineering
Department - Author 3
Mechanical Engineering Department
Degree - Author 3
BS in Mechanical Engineering
College - Author 4
College of Engineering
Department - Author 4
Mechanical Engineering Department
Degree - Author 4
BS in Mechanical Engineering
Date
6-2022
Primary Advisor
Peter Schuster, College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Department
Abstract/Summary
The PolyGAIT Conveyor Upgrade Mechanical Engineering Senior Project consisted of the complete design process to construct an operational “smart” control system for the conveyor belt loop on Cal Poly’s campus. As requested by project sponsor Dr. Tali Freed, an Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering professor at Cal Poly, the control system requirements included connecting existing conveyor components together, such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader tunnels, photo eye motion sensors, motor powered rollers, and diverting elastic bands. The main design problem is when packages with RFID tags are moving at industry high speed (10 ft/s) they are occasionally not scanned by either of the tunnels and thus cannot be tracked by the user. To solve this issue, the team needed to control the variable speed section to decelerate when packages are not scanned, and therefore increase the probability of a successful scan in the second tunnel. If the package passes both tunnels and is still not scanned by an RFID reader, then the package must be diverted off the main loop to be manually scanned.
The process of creating a solution first involved extensive research on effective control system modules that would operate within the conveyor specifications. This research allowed for the creation of a conceptual design for the complete system, where each hardware component was then purchased, connected, and configured to serve as a complete verification prototype. Another component of the final design was the creation of the control program in LabVIEW, an application that intakes signals from the PLC, makes programmatic decisions based on those inputs, and sends output signals back to the PLC to control the variable-speed motors and diverting bands. Extensive testing and iterating of the program design ultimately resulted in a successful “smart” control system for the PolyGAIT conveyor loop.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/mesp/644
PolyGAIT Conveyor Control Update