Senior Project Design: A Smart Pantry System

This paper describes a senior design project in the scope of technical design and implementation of a concept incorporating an automated inventory selection system based on scanned items through the use of a user interface. The system, known as Smart Pantry, is designed to help average consumers organize purchased pantry items both by physical location and itemized inventory as well as purchase routine groceries more efficiently. Through incorporating elements of software integration in the user interface and a motor control structure, the development of this project encompasses a wide range of the team members’ acquired skills. The unit allows a user to scan an item and add it to a specific physical location which is then stored in a database on the microcontroller. When retrieving said item, the user simply makes a selection on the generated list on the touch screen display causing the motor to drive the carousel to the location in which the item is stored. The data is stored in an SQL database which is also available on a developed smartphone application to facilitate the organization factor for the end user. The automated portion expands upon techniques for motor control systems. In this project, a driven stepper motor is used while providing live feedback to the microcontroller which ultimately optimizes the precision of the rotation resulting in accurate alignment for item retrieval. The project was undertaken by three students who are pursuing BSEET degree at DeVry University, Addison, IL. The concepts involved in software application development as well as database management were widely expanded upon within the development of this project. The specific focus of this paper is to describe the overall methodology in this product’s development from the perspective of technical design and prototype development. The papers also describes in detail the structured approach in combining hardware with software processes, constructing relevant solutions to the technical problems encountered, and the development, testing and integration of a functional prototype.