Group 7 – Scoopa Troopas

The ultimate objective of this project was to design an automated system for transferring precise amounts of soil from paper bags to empty vials at an efficient rate and with minimal cross-contamination. In our design solution, the user places a wooden container of soil bags onto an input tray, clamping the container down, then slides and locks the tray into place at the left-hand side of the machine. On the right side, the user does the same for an output tray, which is designed to hold containers of empty vials. After using the digital UI to specify the type of containers being used and the desired mass, the machine starts. For each bag, an extraction system (mounted onto a moving X-Y gantry) mixes the bag using an auger, takes a picture of the top of the bag, scoops some soil out of the bag using an excavator, then dispenses the soil in small amounts onto a tray (which rests on a digital lab scale) using a hopper until the desired mass is reached. Once finished, the remaining soil on the extraction system is released back into the bag and it repeats the process for the next bag. While this is happening, the scale tray is tilted to allow the soil to fall into a trap door (which is attached to its own gantry system), which moves to the correct vial, releases the soil, then moves back to the scale to accept more soil. This process continues until all the vials in the container are full. Then the user can collect the completed sample container and repeat the process, switching out the soil bags whenever appropriate.