Applications and Implications

Propose a final project that integrates the range of units covered.

Learning outcomes:

• Define the scope of a project
• Develop a project plan
• Think of your project plan as an ‘installation and implementation guide’ for the future. How will others be able to make your project by reading your documentation?

Guiding questions:

1. What will it do?
2. Who has done what beforehand?
3. What materials and components will be required?
4. Where will they come from?
5. How much will it cost?
6. What parts and systems will be made?
7. What processes will be used?
8. What tasks need to be completed?
9. What questions need to be answered?
10. What is the schedule?
11. How will it be evaluated?

1. What will it do?

Deliver pill-bourn medications on a schedule and monitor their receipt from the machine.

2. Who has done what beforehand?

Neil suggested past work that was hosted at the Smithsonian near the turn of the millennia. There are several examples of this sort of a product being commercially available, but many are very expensive. Philips is on the frontlines of this market, with a product that is $59 a month to use, at the time of this writing. There are also several similar products, with an apparent deluge of competing features. So much so that they have retail websites, bloggers rate them and Amazon carries them.

3. What materials and components will be required? Where will they come from? How much will it cost?

These questions basically all center on the Bill of Materials for the project. This document has been embeded below, and is linked here.

4. What parts and systems will be made?
• Pill hopper system -- This will hold the bottle of pills and allow them to be added to the queue one at a time
• Stepper Queue -- This will prepare the pill for dispensing, and monitor if there is only a small amount remaining, to notify the user
• Combine and presentation trays -- this will hold the pills once dispensed
• Control sections -- this will operate the LCD and buttons for user interface
• Possibly internet connection… -- this would be a delightful extension for time and alerts [never used]
5. What processes will be used?
• 3D printing -- hopper, queue, tray
• Laser cutting -- control section housing
• Board milling -- all electronics
6. What tasks need to be completed?

Almost all of it...

7. What questions need to be answered?
• How best to get pills from hopper to delivery queue -- actually doing this was easier than expected, however it could still be optimized
• How to measure weight of the final tray and pills [unresolved: load cell not implimented in presentation version]
8. What is the schedule?

Work as fast as I can!!! See the progress page for updates.

9. How will it be evaluated?

Can the system deliver pills on a schedule and keep from adding pills in order to avoid overdose of user. [UPDATE: the leveled success plan, developed later, modified this goal. Dispensing on a schedule became the new target. Load cell implimentation is required for avoiding overdose of the user.]