8ARM : Open Source Precision Pump

Abstract: Today many tasks are executed by robots, but one business is not affected much by this, that is the restaurant business, and in more particular the bartender business. This project takes on the challenge to build an Open Source bartender robot with cheap parts and research how good precision can be achieved. The project does not take account for different viscosities of the liquids or abnormal temperatures. The key component for this project is the peristaltic pump, which is used to transport the liquid. The pump is an Open Source 3D-printable pump distributed through Thingiverse® and can be modified parametrically in the software OpenSCAD. Other components used in this project are an ArduinoTM Uno and a tachometer. These are put together to a demonstrator which is controlled by a feedback control. A graphical user interface is also constructed using an object based model-view-controller architecture which runs on the programing language PHP on a Raspberry Pi. The testing of the demonstrator shows that the robot has an error of 5 percent when pumping small amounts of liquid. The total cost for this project is 1930 SEK, but it can be dropped lower if a cheaper engine is chosen, resulting in a slower machine.