Dayna Alaina

Riley McBrearty
Joseph Chi eng
Jaewoo Kim

Marble Sorter
March 29, 2016
Westwood High School

Problem Statement:
The National Recreation Park Association has asked our group to create a solution to
their problem sorting the different recyclable materials.
Constraints:
1. The process must not have any human effort, must be fully automated.
2. Components must be from the VEX kit and any other materials that have been
approved by the instructor.
3. Must separate amalgamated marbles into their respective bins.
4. Marbles must be under full control during the separation process.
5. Must separate sixteen different marbles; four half-inch marbles for each chosen
material. For sorting five marbles, extra credit will be awarded.
6. Two minute limit to be considered efficient.

Brainstorm:

My idea was to have conveyor belt will carry the marbles to a stop at the gate
using gears two and three. The flashlight will then shine on the marble. If it is the clear,
plastic marble, the whole conveyor belt will move right and drop it in the bin by opening
the gate. If it is the white, plastic marble, less light will shine on the light sensor, so the
whole conveyor belt will move the opposite side of the clear marble and be dropped in
its respective bin, again, by opening the gate. If it is neither of these marbles, no light will
shine on the light sensor, so a magnet will drop down and try to pick up the marble.
The magnet will be dropped by a pulley, then it will wait a few seconds and pull up
the magnet. If it is the steel marble, the magnet will pick it up, then be dropped into a bin
by using the solenoid, which will take it away from the magnet and into the bin.
Then, the remaining two marbles, wood and aluminum, will move onto the rocking
plate, which will be held by a wrench or some sort of device screwed in to allow the
movement so that the heavier one, the wooden one, will fall into a bin right when
reaching the plate, and the other will continue rolling straight into a bin at the end of the
plate.

Decision Matrix:

Name

Complexity

Reusability

Hardware Software Effectiveness Resources

BuildTime

Total

Dayna

2,2,3,

4,4,4

1,2,2

3,3,3

3,3,3

4,3,4

2,2,3

20

Jaewoo

2,2,2

3,3,3

2,1,2

4,3,3

3,3,3

2,2,3

2,2,2

17

Riley

2,2,2

3,3,3

2,2,2

3,3,3

3,3,2

3,3,3,

2,2,2

19

Joseph

3,3,3

4,3,3.

2,3,3

4,4,4

3,3,3,

3,3,3

2,3,3

21

1worst

4best

Our decision matrix was based on a one to four scale, one being the worst and
four being the best. The criteria we used would be how complex the structure of the
machine was, meaning in this case that the closest to one a person came was good.
Then was reusability, meaning how much of the machine could be reused after we were
finished with it, a four would be best here. Then came hardware and software, which
meant how difficult it was to build and program the machine, a one would be best here.
Then came effectiveness and resources, meaning how well the machine would work and
how much material we would need to use on the machine, a four would be best here.
Finally comes the building time, which means how much time it would take to build our
machine, a one would be best here.
We based our decision on the person who got the highest total. As a result,
Josephs idea was the chosen idea.

Final Design Solution:

For our final design we decided to go with Joseph Chengs idea.

The marbles will be dumped on a circle platform, then the marbles will
automatically roll down the ramp. When the marble hits the first gate (it says switch on
the image but it means gate), the motor will move to open the gate.
A magnet will separate the steel marbles away from the path and into the box. The
light sensor will then determine whether the marble is clear plastic and/or what color it is
as it makes a stop at the first gate.
While the marble is stopped by a second gate, the motors will rotate to move the
correct box into position. The switch opens and the marble falls into its relative box.

Final Design:

Our marble sorter was incapable of sorting any marbles due to the fact that my
group still did not have the values of the marbles for the light sensor. All the marbles
landed in the same bin. Fourteen of the sixteen marbles were capable of making it
through the machine and took about three minutes.

Design Modifications:
On our machine, we did not include the magnet as was supposed to. We did not
include a second gate, and we put in a flashlight so that the light sensor could detect the
marbles better than with the changing light of the room. Our group decided to put the
light sensor at the bottom of the path so that it had a more direct view of of the marble.
We added a cover at the end so that the marbles would not bounce off the machine and
would instead bounce into its respective bin. We added a narrow platform within the big
platform to keep the marbles in a single file line, and keeping that smaller platform in
place were small metal bars bent by one of our team members.
Design Process:
1.

Define Problem

2. Generate Concepts
3. Develop a Solution
4. Construct and Test a Prototype
5. Evaluate Solution
First we were given the problem, then we were to generate our concepts, which would be our
brainstorm. Then we developed our solution by using the decision matrix and decided on a
person. Then we constructed our prototype and kept on testing it and making corrections to it
until we finally got our final prototype. Then we evaluated the solution by stating how well it
worked and what we could have done differently (reflection questions).

Reflection:
1. What would your team do differently with your design solution and why?
What my team would have done differently would be to be able to create more space
between the gate and the light sensor so that the light sensor could have more room to
detect the translucence of each marble, and also providing a dark space so that the only
light would come from the flashlight.
2. What was the most challenging aspect of this design problem?

The most challenging aspect of this design problem was collecting values for the light
sensor since they would change everyday due to different lighting.
3. What did you learn?
I learned that using a light sensor can be very challenging so it needs to be used where
there will be absolutely no changes in the lighting.
4. What were some of the challenges of working in a design team?
Working in a design team is challenging at times because everyone has a different idea
on how something should be done and can sometimes lead to frustration because your
idea is not being listened to.

ROBOTC Program: