Modular Conveyor Belt System with Robotic Sorting

American of Engineering UNI Energy and Environment Coun-cil, College Diversity Committee, University Diversity Advisory Board, and Graduate College Diversity Task Force Committees. grants, than 50 publications are in the areas of AC/DC Power System Interactions, distributed energy systems, power quality, and grid-connected renewable energy applications including solar and wind power systems. IEEE, of ASEE, Beta Pi National Engineering Honor Society, and ATMAE. Pecen recognized an Honored Teacher/Researcher in Who among America’s Teachers” in Pecen Diversity Award the University of for his efforts on promoting diversity and international education UNI. of 2011 UNI C.A.R.E Sustainability for the recognition of applied research and development of renewable energy applications at UNI and Iowa in general. Pecen established solar electric boat R & D center at UNI where dozens of students were given opportunities to design solar powered boats. UNI solar electric boat team with Dr. Pecen’s two times a third place overall in World Championship on Abstract This paper presents a senior design project titled modular conveyor belt system with robotic sorting that was completed in a B.S. Engineering Technology program. The main objective of the project is to design and implement a modular conveyor belt system with a sorting robotic arm that can simulate several different industrial settings for improving student understanding of real-life manufacturing environments. The second objective is to maximize the system efficiency by minimizing both the sorting time and the power consumption. Senior design students working on this project researched the effects of a modular link belt with chain and gear conveyor system and reported its benefits over the prefabricated belts. Students also explored the functionality of a sorting robotic arm that worked in tandem with targeted conveyor belt system. This project is expected to enhance applied research efforts to reduce the overall operation and handling costs of an autonomous material transportation systems. Students initially planned to design a fully autonomous conveyor belt system that would be flexible enough to be implemented in any industry regardless of the materials being handled, however due to the complexity of the system and limited semester course hours, a prototype conveyor belt with a limited robotic sorting system was built using all 3D-designed and printed materials in the engineering technology laboratories.