Automated Pill Bottling System

A design project in my junior year of college where teams of ten prototyped and built an autonomous pill bottling system. Design constraints included a budget of $500, a 80x20 frame with set dimensions that all components needed to fit inside of, and a pill fill requirement of 30 per bottle.

Finished pill bottling system.

Passive, gravity-fed cap dispenser and placer. All pieces designed by me and manufactured with either a laser cutter or 3D printer.

Friction based cap closure mechanism, all non-stock components were designed by me and manufactured using either laser cutting or 3D printing.

Consists of a single motor and lead screw to drive system up/down and provide twisting motion to secure cap on bottle. Bottom friction piece includes a passive mechanism to prevent cap being loosened by system on way back up.

Capping system in action.

Pill counting system. Top portion designed by team members, lower portion designed by me.

Red 3D printed piece connects top pill funnel to brass tube. This piece also holds a servo motor for restricting pill flow. Pink 3D printed piece connects to brass tube, holds sensors, and houses a second servo motor. System works by opening the top servo, allowing pills to funnel into a 30 pill long brass tube. Top servo then closes and if IR sensors detect presence of a bottle, the bottom servo opens, dropping 30 pills into the awaiting bottle. Bottom servo then closes, top servo opens, and brass tube is refilled as a fresh bottle rotates into position.

Pill counting system in action.

Electronics.

Arduino Mega with screw terminal shield and TB6600 motor drivers. Top green and red buttons start and stop the autonomous bottling operation. Bottom three buttons operate each subsystem individually.

Wiring diagram for demonstration purposes.

Main code. Finite-state machine to allow for multitasking with Arduino.

Code for subsystems.