Development of an Automated Storage and Retrieval

2015 International Conference on BioSignal Analysis, Processing and Systems (ICBAPS)

Development of an Automated Storage and Retrieval System in Dynamic Industrial Environment Farah Hanani Mohammad Khasasi, Abdul Malik. M. Ali, Dr. Zulkhairi Mohd Yusof Universiti Kuala Lumpur British Malaysian Institute, Electrical and Electronic Batu 8, Jalan Sg. Pusu, 53100 Gombak, Selangor. [email protected] are lots of benefits to researchers and students later on, which provide them the great exposure to automation system, microcontroller, wireless communication, programming, Computer Numerical Control (CNC) operations, etc. Most of production and automation industry nowadays are looking for an integrated automated workstation which operates without any interference of an operator as to cope with aggressive competition and rapid market variations. As stated in Industry Week website, the critical key factors in manufacturing success are productivity, connectivity and standardization [5]. These three key factors basically will help any warehouse to cope with its challenges such as inventory accuracy, inventory location, space utilization, redundant processes, and picking optimization. This is where an ASRS came in. The ASRS is a combination of automated equipment and controls that handles, stores, and retrieves a variety of items with accuracy and speed [7-9]. ASRS can be manually used as a stand-alone unit, but nowadays the automated system is more preferable upon leading towards productive, efficient and better performance of a warehouse or production center [10-12]. The ASRS has been widely used in distribution centres, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, production and automation industry due to its benefits; savings in labor costs, improving the material flow and inventory control, improving the throughput level, increasing the safety and stock rotation, increasing the storage capacity, and utilizing the floor space of a warehouse especially when it is developed in vertical storage system.

Abstract—An Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) is an integrated automated system consists of hardware, software and networking system which communicates with each other over a fieldbus network. It allows a range of control strategies to be investigated using the design and algorithm developed. This storage system commonly operates under computerized control known as Computer Supervisory Control (CSC) system to store and retrieve the items either raw materials, semi-finished products, or finishedproducts. It can be manually operated as a stand-alone unit, but all warehouses nowadays are looking for an integrated automated system which can operate without any interference of an operator for efficiency and better performance of a warehouse. Thus, the Microcontroller Arduino UNO, Bluetooth technology, and Servo Motor are used in this experiment to investigate how efficient these devices can support the working mechanism of an ASRS. Keywords—Preliminary; ASRS; Microcontroller UNO; Bluetooth; Product Identification

Arduino

I. INTRODUCTION This research project proposes on development of an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) prototype at Centre for Robotics & FMS (Flexible Manufacturing System), Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil. Within a dynamic industrial environment, the development process which accentuates on mechanical, electrical, and electronic approaches will be conducted in several phases; designing, developing, building, implementing, integrating, validating, testing and commissioning, analysis, and documentation of system specifications and user manual. The ASRS prototype consists of hardware, software, and networking components which communicate with each other over a fieldbus network. It allows a range of control strategies to be investigated using design and algorithm developed. The system consists of racks and cranes which serve the storing and retrieving activities, is fully controlled by a Computer Supervisory Control (CSC) system [2-4]. The functional cell of ASRS is used as a prototype to investigate either or not the system is operating on efficient real-time control, and how efficient this ASRS work with the system using Arduino microcontroller as its controller. The material handling and storage system consists of a precision movement of parts using the Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV), conveyor, a material stacking system for storing the raw material, finished products, and semi-finished products in ASRS, and loading/unloading stations [5-6]. There

978-1-4799-6879-4/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

II. METHOD The tasks involved will be in several phases; designing, developing, implementing, assembly, integrating, testing and commissioning, and documentation. In designing an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS), there are two things that need to put onto consideration; physical design and control issues, to be addressed in the right way to fully take advantage of all its pros [5], such as controller, mechanical system, and communication. Thus, microcontroller Arduino UNO, Bluetooth technology, and Servo Motor are investigated in this experiment as the controller, communication device, and mechanical part, respectively. Wireless communication technology is proposed to serve real-time control system and better communication between all equipment in this ASRS system. In real system

57


that will be developed, a serial Wi-Fi module of RN-131 PICTAIL will be used to provide the wireless communication between ASRS and central host, which known as Master Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), as shown in Figure 1. The wireless communication between master PLC and server farm is then supported by a point-to-point wireless platform from Ubiquiti Networks; airFiber. It is built for speed and long range; delivers amazing wireless gigabit performance and low latency, which contributes greatly on real-time application. It is a plug and play deployment.

Serial Bus (USB) connector to enable it to be connected to a Personal Computer (PC) or Mac to upload or retrieve data. The board exposes the microcontrollers I/O (Input/Output) pins to enable it to connect those pins to other circuits or to sensors, etc. [14-15].

Fig. 2: Arduino Microcontroller Board [13]

The Arduino UNO has only 14 digital input/output pins, which the 6 of them can be used as a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) outputs, 6 analog inputs, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection, ICSP (In-Circuit Serial Programming) header, and a reset button. As in [16], this Arduino UNO contains everything needed to support the microcontroller, which simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable, or just power it with AC-to-DC adapter in order to get started. In real system, the ASRS needs controller which provides at least 250 of input/output pins, upon controlling one whole ASRS system. One of the main advantages of this board is it does not use the FTDI USB-to-serial driver chip. Instead, it features the Atmega8U2 programmed as a USB-to-serial converter [19]. The Arduino microcontroller shared the same transmitting bus to the PC. At the end of the sampling procedure, the root microcontroller opens the communication channel, sending the data package (8 bytes) and at the completion issues a command (Port C bit 1) to the next (slave) microcontroller to take over the transmitting bus and transmit its own data package [18].

Fig. 1: ASRS as a Component of FMS

The server farm is a collection of servers which contains of database server and application server that perform logic and data storage. It is connected to master PLC through airFiber technology. The field devices and equipment such as Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV), Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS), robot, and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines are connected via serial network or wireless which will be chose accordingly to the topology and functionality. III. HARDWARE SYSTEM As mentioned earlier, there were three things that we used in this preliminary experiment of development stage; microcontroller Arduino UNO, Bluetooth technology, and Servo Motor, as they represented a controller, communication device, and a part of mechanical system, respectively. The LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is then used to display the output produced. The Arduino UNO microcontroller used in this application has an Analogue /Digital (A/D) converter built on the chip and a sampling rate of 20 sec/sample [18]. The Arduino microcontroller architecture is shown in Figure 2. The ATMega328 is the ATMEL Microcontroller on which the Arduino UNO is based, and the microcontroller root is connected via the ATMega328 which is the brain of the Arduino microcontroller. Arduino board is made of an Atmel328 AVR microprocessor, a crystal or oscillator (basically a crude clock that sends time pulses to the microcontroller to enable it to operate at the correct speed) and a 5-volt linear regulator [18]. Arduino board has a Universal

978-1-4799-6879-4/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

IV. RESULT & DISCUSSION A. Bluetooth Due to this project requirement, it needs two units of Bluetooth modules which have different personal address with each other. The address identification setting for Master and Slave module is same, but in different address. User can decide which module unit is Master or Slave. Address for Master Bluetooth unit that stated by user is “646e6c00beeb” and for Slave is “646e6c00ab56”. In this experiment, user stated that the Slave unit of Bluetooth is “646e6c00ab42”, but the hardware problem happened due to the Bluetooth module. Then, user replaced it with another Bluetooth module that has

58


same type, but different address. The command on the HyperTerminal automatically detect the address of SKKCA Bluetooth module by pressing the RESET button on the SKKCA v1.2 board which is mounted with KC-21. Every single KC-21 mounted to SKKCA v1.2 board which is the latest version in year 2011 has own personal address also same with others version.

B. LCD Display The latest version of SKKCA board is the enhancement and upgrading the performance of ready-made version circuit board. AT-ZV BD-Address “646e6c00beeb” means that the hardware or SKKCA Bluetooth Module address is “646e6c00beeb”. The KC-21 interface supports AT-like attention commands for configuration. The ZV mean the software was originally developed by Zeevo, Inc. under the name Zerial. AT-ZV–Command Mode-AT-ZV BD-Address 646e6c00ab56 display at HyperTerminal describe the basic command of Slave Bluetooth address.

Bluetooth UNO module

Fig. 3: Bluetooth Connections with PC

The output of wireless signal forms of Bluetooth are shown in Figure 4. With varying the frequency, the output signal became more clear and strong connection.

Fig. 5: Output on LCD

C. Servo Motor The objective of this experiment is to investigate the movement of the servo motor for each angle. This is to ensure that the stacker crane for ASRS moves in correct way. A Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) of approximately 1.5 ms is the “Neutral” position for servo. The servo neutral is defined to be the point where the servo motor has exactly the same amount of the potential rotation in the counter clockwise direction as it does in the clockwise direction. When the pulse width signal sent to the motor is less than 1.5 ms, the motor moves some number of degrees clockwise from the neutral point. The minimum pulse will be about 1.0 ms and the maximum will be 2.0 ms with neutral (stop) movement at 1.5 ms. Mapping the sketch code for each sensor and servo motor is starting for every angle. Each angle has difference mapping values which vary from 0 to 1023. Then, after mapping and conform the angle of the movements, download the program to Arduino UNO downloader. Now, the system is able to be tested and trained. Turn on the power supply for servo motor and Arduino board. Make sure servo motor and Arduino board use 12 volt DC and 5 volt, respectively. The waveforms

Fig. 4: Wireless Signal Form for Bluetooth

Bluetooth is one of the communication mechanism methods in order to communicate and transfer data in this project. It consists of an RF transceiver, baseband, and protocol stack. Due to its mechanism which related to Master and Slave, it needs platform or special channel that is able to differentiate channel between the two of them, it called BDAddress; Bluetooth Device Address. As stated in [17], there are two connectivity topologies are defined in Bluetooth system; the piconet and scatternet. The piconet is a WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) formed by a Bluetooth device serving as a Master in the piconet, and one or more Bluetooth devices serving a s Slave. This Bluetooth technology is intended to replace the cables connecting portable and/or fixed electronic devices. It is suitable the most for any application that requires a shortrange communication.

978-1-4799-6879-4/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

59


produced for two angle; 60o and 90o, are shown in Figure 6 below.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author would like to take this opportunity to express her appreciation to her respectful supervisor, Dr. Zulkhairi Mohd Yusof for his inspiration, supervision, ideas, and priceless advice upon enabling the author to produce this paper. REFERENCES [1] [2]

60°

[3]

(a)

[4]

[5] [6]

[7]

90°

[8]

(b) Fig. 6: Waveform for Servo Motor of Angle (a) 60° (b) 90°

[9] [10]

Servo motor is used in this experiment to control the orientation of the DC motor, and it is controlled using the Arduino servo library. The motor is kept in 3 positions; 90o for the neutral position, 45o for right turn, and 135o for left turn. Its orientation is totally depended on the output values of the two sonars.

[11]

[12] [13] [14]

V. CONCLUSION An automated system is now widely demanded in industry globally with latest and suitable technology being used. Productivity, quality, and Just-In-Time (JIT) production are become the key drivers of a successful integrated automated system. Reduction in cost is one of the reasons of the needs on automated system, regardless of labor cost, maintenance cost, and cost of tools and machines. It is proven that automated system may provide a better future for manufacturing and automation industry. It is much better if one system can sustain in this wide competition with latest technology applied. Thus, the effectiveness of Arduino UNO microcontroller, and Bluetooth technology on serving the ASRS operation in a warehouse can be investigated throughout this research project. Eventually, the preliminary finding of this research cannot be understated. Perhaps, the PIC (Programmable Interface Controller) microcontroller from PIC18F family can be used as ASRS controller, and the product identification task can be investigated further using barcode system or RFID (Radio Frequency Identification).

978-1-4799-6879-4/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

[15]

[16] [17] [18]

[19]

60

Travis Hessman, “3 Key Factors in Manufacturing Success”, IndustryWeek - Advancing the Business of Manufacturing, 2012. Material Handling Industry Solutions, “Material Handling Industry of America – Glossary”, July 2012. Howard Zollinger P.E., Zollinger Associates Inc., “AS/RS Application, Benefits and Justification in Comparison to Other Storage Methods: A White Paper Replenishment System for Distribution Center”, 2001. Karunakar Pothuganti, Anusha Chitneni, “A Comparative Study of Wireless Protocols: Bluetooth, UWB, ZigBee, and Wi-Fi”, Advance in Electronic and Electric Engineering, Volume 4, Number 6, 2014. Industrial Safety Solution, “Industrial Environments” Kees Jan Roodbergen, Iris F.A.Vis, “A Survey of Literature on Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems”, European Journal of Operational Research, 2006. Barnard, R.W.A.,“What is Wrong with Reliability Engineering?”, Lambda Consulting, 2008, retrieved 30 October 2014. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, “Automated Storage and Retrieval System”, last modified 9 February 2015. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, “Reliability Engineering”, last modified 2 March 2015. Rose Mary, “Wireless Communication and Its Types”, Engineers Garage Inspiring Creations, 2012. Gennaro Boggia, Pietro Camarda, L.Alfredo Grieco, Giammarco Zacheo, “A Real-Time Wireless Communication System Based on 802.11 MAC”, 2010. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, “Microcontroller”, revised on December 2014. Nicholas Borko, “Making Stuff with Arduino”, May 2013. Sarik, J., Kymissis, I., “Lab Kits Using The Arduino Prototyping Platform”, Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2010, ISSN 01905848. Yamanoue, T., Oda, K., Shimozono, K., “A M2M System Using Arduino, Android and Wiki Software”, International Conference on Advanced Applied Informatics (IIAIAAI), 2012, ISBN 978-1-46732719-0, pp.123-128. Arduino, “Arduino UNO”, Arduino Newsletter, 2015. Bluetooth, “How Bluetooth Technology Works”, Bluetooth SIG, Inc., 2008. Tarchanidis, K.N., Lygouras, J.N., “Data Glove with a Force Sensor”, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Volume 52, Issue 3, pp.984-989, ISSN 0018-9456, June 2003. Bin Ambar, R., Bin Mhd Poad, H. ; Bin Mohd Ali, A.M. ; Bin Ahmad, M.S. ; Mahadi bin Abdul Jamil, M., "Multi-Sensor Arm Rehabilitation Monitoring Device", International Conference on Biomedical Engineering (ICoBE), February 2012.