SprayPal

Aerial View of Components
Aerial View of Assembled Product
Slanted Front View of Assembled Product

Inspiration

Jill works in a lab with a biological safety cabinet and has to re-sterilize her hands with ethanol every time she takes one of them out of the cabinet. However, she typically only removes one hand, which makes it difficult to squeeze the dispenser and actually spray her hand. So, something that helps dispense the ethanol automatically would definitely help. Enter SprayPal.

What it does

SprayPal uses an ultrasonic sensor to determine when your hand is within five centimeters of the ethanol spray bottle. If your hand is, the sensor will activate a servo unit, which forces the ethanol out of the bottle by depressing the spray bottle's plunger. SprayPal is designed to latch onto the neck of any standard spray bottle.

How we built it

We first used a track saw to cut out a sizable piece of quarter-inch plywood. We then laser-cut our basic design out of the plywood. Afterwards, we designed the electronics of our project and coded the Arduino to control it. Finally, we 3D-printed a sample spray bottle using Solidworks and an Ultimaker 2+ to test our design.

Challenges we ran into

Neither of us were familiar with the ultrasound sensor or the Arduino, which led to challenges with setting up the Arduino and collecting data. We also experienced difficulty with the ultrasound sensor's sensitivity to wire connections.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We came up with the raw idea this morning, and after twelve hours, we have a functioning product. Our laser-cut wood looks professional, and our 3D-printed sample bottle came out very well.