The M Sorter is a robotic mechanism that, when equipped with a TAOS color sensor and a properly programmed BASIC Stamp® microcontroller, will sort M&Ms® by color. The ESU competition is moddeled after a competition conducted by Parallax, the manufacturer of the BASIC Stamp®. The M Sorter Kit is a nice example of the TAOS TCS230 Color Sensor’s abilities. A video (.avi) of the M Sorter in action is available here.
Two M Sorter devices are set up in SH245 to use in your program development.
You must register to participate in the competition. Competition registration to pheattch@emporia.edu, midnight April 10, 2005. Programs must be submitted electronically by midnight April 11, 2005. Two prizes of $300 and $150 will be awarded to the first and second place entrants. All participants are invited to attend the gala awards banquet April 13, 2005, 6:00pm at:
Casa Ramos
201 S Commercial St
Emporia, KS 66801
620-340-0640
Basics
Submittals for judging must include fully documented BASIC Stamp code using the standard M
Sorter Kit with BOE Full Kit and Taos TCS230 Color Sensor
module, a one-page explanation of how the program operates. All submittals become the property of the judges
for our use.
The judges will review the submissions and award prizes at the gala awards banquet 6:00 pm April 13,
2005. You must be present to win. All materials must be received by the judges no later than midnight CST on
April 11, 2005.
Email your submission to pheattch@emporia.edu. Please include your name,
local phone number, and email address so we may contact you directly if questions arrise.
Judging
Contestents must use the PBASIC
language to program the actions of the basic stamp. Your program should have the ability to detect and manage unexpected
situations. As with any type of process control you will need to plan for the unexpected situations including an
empty or jammed feeder tube, malpositioned or broken candy, etc. Assessment of completed programs with include
both measures of system accuracy and efficiency. System efficiency includes the speed at which M&Ms are sorted,
reliability in different lighting conditions, management of rejected M&Ms, etc..
The Sorting Task
The program that you will submit must be able to sort M&M's present in the M Sorters feed-tube into one of the 8 containers associated with the device.
M&M's must be sorted into the following containers:
|
Container |
Color |
|
1 |
Red |
|
2 |
Green |
|
3 |
Blue |
|
4 |
Yellow |
|
5 |
Brown |
|
6 |
Orange |
|
7 |
unused |
|
8 |
Uncategorized M&M's. |
The M&M colors noted above are the standard 6 colors that appear in a typical bag of M&M'S® Milk Chocolate Candies. A summary of all available colors is available here. Any M&M identified as not being one of these colors should be placed in the Uncategorized M&M's container.
Calibration Routine
All color sensors have slight differences. Yours will probably be different from those of the contest judges.
Therefore, be sure to include color and white balance calibration routine to give your code the best chance of
running correctly on the judges' sorter.
User Interface
Using either a well-formatted DEBUG window to provide data about the colors and quantities of M&Ms sorted in the current operation.
A document to get you started with the basics is available here.
M Sorter Principles of Operation
BASIC Stamp Manual Version 2.1 (4.3 MB)
BASIC Stamp Frequently Asked Questions (108 KB)
The Elements of PBASIC Style (210 KB)
TCS230 Color Sensor Documentation (872 KB)
Color Matching Program for Windows 95-XP - Software, Code, and Documentation (.zip, 1,156 KB)
Nuts and Volts Column "Color Me Tickled" (599 KB)
Standard Servo Documentation (128 KB)
Texas Advanced Optoelectronic Solutions (TAOS) Web Site