Development of an Automatic Counting and Sorting Machine Using a Microcontroller

Abstract

The sorting of different products has been reported to be a very tedious industrial process, complex and a global problem. Manual sorting creates consistency issues and involves a lot of manpower with reduced efficiency and accuracy. This study presents an automatic sorting and counting device using an LGT8F328 microcontroller. The device uses a TCS320 RGB colour sensor, two servo motors and a serial terminal used to display the data read from the colour sensor. The circuit was simulated using Proteus ver8.2, and the prototype was developed and tested for sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Results show that the device sensitivity is 96.72%, specificity 95.08% and accuracy 95.90%. This implies that the device can accurately count and sort out 96.72% of colours but will fail to identify 3.28% of the same. Also, the device's accuracy of 95.90% implies that counting and sorting using this device conforms to the standard, and we are 95.9% sure. This work holds some significant advantages and benefits across various industrial applications, such as efficiency and accuracy, time and labour saving, consistency and reliability, versatility, customisation and reduced human intervention. It is very useful in a wide variety of industries, along with the help of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, especially in the packaging section. An automatic sorting machine enhances efficiency, practicality, and safety of operators. It ensures remarkable processing capacity.