Inspiration
While testing an ultrasonic sensor, I realized that the distance value spiked when pointed at my clothes. After some research, I learned the physics behind ultrasonic sensors and realized that porous materials like clothes affect ultrasonic waves differently. I thought a good way to take advantage of this is to make a robot that deals with clothes, which led to the shirt folding robot.
What it does
The robot uses 12 servos and cardboard flaps to fold shirts. It only activates once the ultrasonic sensor reaches the threshold where distance values become flawed due to cloth detection. It has a back flap, two side flaps, and two middle flaps. The last flap flips the folded shirt in front of the robot, creating a stack.
How we built it
First, I measured a few shirts to get the dimensions of the flaps. I cut the cardboard flaps and make 3d printed clamps for each flap. For the side and back flaps with low weight requirements, I used two mini servos positioned at the 1/3rd marks to maximize stability and torque. For the two middle flaps, I used 3 mini servos because they need to carry most of the shirt.
Challenges we ran into
Current issues with the arduino running 12 servos,
Accomplishments that we're proud of
What we learned
What's next for Shirt Folding Robot
Built With
- arduino
- cardboard
- diy
- home-automation
- sensor
- ultrasonic
