arduino color sortor machine

INTRODUCTION
Arduino color sorter project demonstrate the operations of sorting machines that are commonly used by industries. This project features an Arduino board and a color sensor that able to organize objects based on color. The physical construction is design in 3D application which exactly fits to the operation.
Physical construction is made of fiberboard cut and glued with respect to the 3D design. The Arduino UNO serves as the primary controller in which the components such as color sensor and servo motors are connected. It analysis the data received from color sensor and then transmit a command to the servo motors. The color sensor is attached facing down as it checked the object color and this checking correspond to a color frequency with a custom made function that helps to identify the color of the object. The top servo ensure a piece of object is delivered after the object color is identified, which it moves the object from the source to the color sensor, then to the dropping hole with a slider platform handle by a bottom servo. This slider platform is then set in order to deliver the object to the group container where the colored object store.
This Arduino color sorter project is applicable in organizing small objects considering the capabilities of the hardware that drives this project. Aside of organizing the small objects based on color, it is also a good reference for developing larger system that able to sort larger objects especially in industries.
Objectives
To overcome the problems like sorting the husked paddy and rice in Grain (agricultural products) industry.
To solve the problems related to quality and social benefits in Agriculture industries.
To sort out the damaged or discolored Food in Food industries.
To measure the Transparency of Diamond in Diamond and mining industries.
Recycling
To recycle the colored and colorless PET and colored and colorless HDGPE flakes.
WORKING
When a supply of 3.4V is given to the DC motor (12V, 3.5rpm) it starts to rotate. It will control the movement of the conveyor belt on which the product is placed.
When the light falls on the product it is reflected back to the color sensor. As mentioned before, color sensor TCS230 has 4 color filters for green, red, blue and black (no color), which is opted by its select pins. Filters are selected by the program saved in the microcontroller. Frequency output from color sensor depends on the color of the object as well as the select pin configuration input from microcontroller. Select pin can select one of the four photo diode filters which can give output according to the color of the object. When there is no object in front of sensor it produces an output of 330Hz range frequency and when there is an object it produces an output frequency of 7-14 KHz.
The microcontroller can find the frequency of the output from TCS230 by counting falling or rising edge of sensor given to its TOCK1 pin using pre-scalar settings set by option register configuration. The pre-scalar was set for 1:16 arrangement and the time for counting is 50ms. Hence PIC counts the frequency using its timer at the rate of one increment for sixteen falling edges of input frequency given to TOCK1.
When there is no object in front of sensor it produces an output of 330Hz range frequency. Hence we set a break down value of 32H for deciding whether there is an object on the conveyor belt or not. Therefore the PIC can only proceed to the next step after checking this condition. If there is an object the sensor produces an output frequency which is proportional to the color of the object and the selected photo diode configuration in such a way that it provides maximum frequency for the respective color to the respective photo diode. Hence sensor gives maximum frequency for red colored object when red filter is selected, and in the same way other colored object are also sensed by corresponding filters. Frequency received during each filter selection is counted and saved to separate registers and these values are examined for taking the greater one, in order to identify the color of the object.
The second DC motor is in contact with another conveyor belt, on which a container is placed. The container has three sections; first section for Green, middle for Black, and third for Red. According to the color, the container will be moved in forward or backward direction by the conveyor belt, which is made possible by connecting the DC motor to L293D hybrid IC. The products will finally fall to the corresponding sections in the container.
BLOCK DIAGRAM
Color Sensor: The color sensor is embedded inside the color sorting section. Color sensor analyzes and classifies the RGB colors and provides the corresponding output values for the RGB colors to the Arduino UNO.
TCS 3200 Color Sensor is used with this Color Sorting machine. This sensor acts as a perfect color sensor for the Color Sorting Machine. The TCS3200 Color sensor’s PCB module includes a TAOS TCS3200 RGB color sensor chip, white LEDs (4 Numbers) and LED control circuit with some basic components.
Arduino UNO: The heart of the Color Sorting Machine is Arduino UNO. The customized Arduino board from mepits – “Arduino UNO BOB” plays a prominent role here. Actually we are making all the connections to the Arduino UNO board through this “Arduino UNO BOB”. This will scale down the connection complexities and boost the overall performance of the machine. The RGB Color Sensor and all the Servo motors are connected to Arduino UNO through the customized Arduino UNO BOB. An external 9-12 Volt supply voltage is used for powering the Arduino and the servo motors. This Color Sorting Machine is a Real Time running System according to the programming codes.
Chute controlling motor: A servomotor is used for controlling or arranging the chute according to the color sensed by the color sensor. The chute is arranged so as to store the colored objects in to corresponding containers/cups.
PROBLEM FACED AND TROUBLESHOOTING

PROBLEM FACED

 Coding the arduino program
 Balancing the light sensor
 Balancing the plate and servo motor rotation speed
 Sensing the color
 Balancing the bottom motor
 Balancing the pipe for gems and belt on bottom motor.

TROUBLESHOOTING

 Code has been taken reference from different sites.
 By fixing in the right position of color sensor.
 By coding the speed of plate and servo motor is fixed
 By maintaining the right distance between gems and sensor makes the sensor to sense to sense the color
 By coding the bottom servo motor, belt has been fixed
Advantages
• Color Sensors have a wide range of applications in the fields of image processing, digital signal processing, object detection, color identification, etc.
• In industries, Color sensors are often used in sorting objects based on color.
• Specially in Agro-based industries different varieties of Agro products can be sort out on the basis of color.
• If this arduino color sensor is wisely used many tedious work can be done easily.
• This arduino color sensor project is simple and familiar to user base interference.
• This is automated device, once the programming is done, no need to give manual instructions.
• The color Sorting Machine can be used for Industrial purposes, like sorting different industrial parts according to the colors.
• For sorting skittles, colored balls and M&Ms.
• Can be used in Automobile Industries.