 Capsule Sorter and Dispenser
This Project was submitted to Parallax by Chad Westbrook
Many elderly people have to spend hours sorting out medications each month and placing the capsules in different bins so that they are correctly medicated. A mistake of too many of one kind or not enough could be hazardous to one’s health.
The purpose of my project was to design and build a microcomputer controlled device that would be capable of accurately dispensing medications to elderly patients who take many medications and take them in differing combinations throughout the day.
My plan is to use servo’s connected to the BASIC Stamp® 2 Integrated Circuit to react to switch inputs. There will be 3 switches, one for morning, one for noon, and one for evening. The BASIC Stamp 2 microcontroller will be programmed to actuate the particular servo that allows one capsule out of the bottle to drop into a manifold and then into a common container. There would be one servo for each type of pill taken. This would eliminate the need for the patient to sort the pills each month. Simply unscrew the bottle lid and pour the entire contents into the proper bin. The microcontroller does the rest.
The device is modular so that as new medications are added, a new servo would be connected and then the Stamp re-programmed to allow for the addition of the new medication.
 When the morning switch is activated, those servos that control the pills taken in the morning actuate and those pills are dropped into a receptacle. Likewise, at noon and in the evening, only those servos actuate. There will be some overlap as some pills are taken twice daily, some three times, and some only once but this is taken care of in the software.
I won the Intel award at our Region Science Fair and $200.00 prize. I also won first place in the computer science category at our Region Fair.
Thanks to Parallax for making the BASIC Stamp 2 module so easy to program and use.
Chad Westbrook
Harmony Grove High School
Benton, Arkansas
|