Skip to main content

FindyBot3000 - A Voice Controlled Organizer Like Parts Warehouse

The parts warehouse usually we associate with large halls full of high racks along which forklifts or robots drive. Depending on the complexity of the structure, the use of mechatronic systems, parts warehouse are more or less complicated. Dustin Dobransky built his own warehouse system in microscale compared to industry solutions.

On the Dustin Dobransky's youtube channel we can find his first smart parts organizer built in 2015. It was a system which include LEDs and Arduino hooked over bluetooth to a Windows Phone app. It allowed to find different parts using voice. The system used the voice recognition to determine the part he was looking for just by lighting up the red diode below the bin filled with item you he was looking for. Recently, Dustin unveiled his upgraded mechatronic 'deskwarehouse'. He called it FindyBot 3000 - a voice controlled organizer.

The "will be useful" parts problem is known to all mechatronics, electronics and mechanics specialists. Dustin saw this problem as well:

As any maker can attest, over the years, one collects a lot of parts. Perhaps it all started with a few resistors and LEDs, a breadboard, and an Arduino. But soon there were motors and motor drivers, IR rangefinders and tactile switches. Accelerometers, microphones, heatshrink tubes, potentiometers, relays, hookup wire, all those things salvaged from that printer you took apart... and the list goes on.
Now, organizing such a collection of goodies is no easy task. Some may have turned to baggies, for others, boxes. And then there were those who filled shelves with boxes, filled with baggies, filled with parts. All intricately labelled, yet still so cumbersome to manage. 

The new version of his mechatronic project is an Internet-of-Things organizer, designed for hands-free searching and intuitive voice-controlled management of parts. The technologies he used are:

  • Google Home - Google Assistant, which is really doing all the work.
  • IFTTT - If-this-then-that, which is used to connect Google Home with Particle Photon.
  • Particle Photon - A WiFi capable microcontroller, which drives the LED display on the organizer.
  • Azure Function - A piece of code that runs in the cloud. This does all the heavy lifting in terms of processing text, building SQL queries.
  • SQL Database - Keeps track of all the parts: names, quantities, locations, search tags, dates, etc.
FindyBot3000 bundles the four individual organizer boxes in a slim wooden frame, sandwiched between slices of foam pad. The foam pads offer an aesthetically pleasing way of concealing all the wiring for the LED strips. Fusion 360 was used to design the CAD model and drawings for FindyBot3000. If you would like to build one too, Dustin shared instructions here. Dustin said, that there's a lot more that can be done. This mechatronic project looks great right now and we look forward to further improvements.

Comments

mechatronics said…
Automatic boxes closing-opening system and the project is finished. Good job! Congrats

You might also like

    Popular posts

    What is Mechatronics?

    Mechatronics definition Mechatronics is a synergistic combination of precision engineering, electronic control and mechanic systems. It is the science, that exists at the interface among the other five disciplines: mechanics, electronics, informatics, automation, robotics. It is one of the most dynamically developing fields of technology and science. The word 'mechatronics' appeared for the first time in Japan in 1969. mechatronics = mecha nics + elec tronics + computing

    Intro to Mechatronics [e-book pdf]

    Intro to Mechatronics - lecture by Professor Vikram Kapila, New York University Mechatronics Defined Mechatronics: Working Definition for us Product Realization Paradigm Disciplinary Foundations of Mechatronics Multi-/Cross-/Inter-Disciplinary Sequential/Concurrent Product Realization Mechatronics-based Product Realization Mechatronic Design Process

    DIY Low Cost 6-Axis Desktop Robot

    Learning how to build a robot is a long way. It is the way by mechanics, electronics and programming. Such a mechatronics project is associated with problems such as stiffness (mechanics), overvoltage (electronics) or bug (software). Of course, if something is wrong, we always say 'it's not a bug, it's a feature', but finally a robot has to start working properly.

    Ascento - The Two-Wheeled Jumping Robot

    All-terrain capabilities are required to extend beyond flat surfaces the application range of wheeled robots. First think is four or six-legged robots which have been well known for years. Nowadays, thanks to more and more perfect gait algorithms, the two-legged (bipedal) robots appears more and more often. ETH Zürich students combine the advantages of wheeled robot and two-legged robot.

    How 6-Axis Industrial Robots Work

    6-axis industrial robots are commonly used in the manufacturing industry due to their flexibility, powerful programming software, payload capacities ranging from 5kg up to 1000kg and accuracy to 0.1mm or better. Here is a basic breakdown of how a standard 6-axis robot works. The way it rotates, how it is programmed, and the different types of tooling and grippers.

    How Automated Parking System Works

    An automated car parking system is a mechatronic system designed to transport and park cars automatically. The first semi-automated parking system was used in Paris, France in 1905 at the Garage Rue de Ponthieu (the car was transported to selected level using an internal elevator and the vehicle was parked by attendants). An automated storage and retrieval system for cars is a solution to cities' parking problems, such as the space wasting in a multi-story parking.

    Mechatronic Systems Applications [e-book pdf]

    Mechatronics is the synergistic blend of mechanics, electronics, and computer science. This book is concerned with applications of mechatronic systems in various fields, like robotics, medical and assistive technology, human-machine interaction, unmanned vehicles, manufacturing, and education.

    Smart Home Makes Your Life Easier

    Smart homes are also called intelligent, automated or autonomous houses. Nowadays, you can also automate the flats. Dynamic development of automation technology gives you opportunities that were only seen in sci-fi movies in the past. Soon, probably only your imagination will be the limit. What gives us the smart home system?

    Automatic Sorting of Skittles or M&Ms by Colour

    Do you sort M&Ms or Skittles by colour before eating them?  For example, eat all the yellow ones first, then the red ones, then the blue and so on. Brian Egenriether, an electrical engineer, decided to make a small machine that looked like an appliance, which could perform these tasks automatically. This mechatronics project took him about 5 weekends to make. The use of the machine is very simple: pour Skittles or M&Ms into it, push a button and have candies sorted. Let us look at the construction.