Automated Storage & Retrieval System

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 04 Issue: 01 | Jan -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
© 2017, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 5.181 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 653
Automated Storage & Retrieval System
Girish Dalvi1 Sanjay Rukhande1
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, FCRIT, Vashi, Navi Mumbai
E-mail: gpdalvi@hotmail.com, sanrukh78@gmail.com
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Abstract— In industrial design ,Effective space utilization
is of prime importance. The need of an efficient andcompact
material handling system( MHS) in vertical direction is
arising day by day. This MHS may be used to transfer the
material at higher ratethansomeexistingmaterialhandling
system.
In this paper, The concept whicheliminatestheprocess
of manually carrying the items, the need of the workers
carrying the items and to maximizeverticalspaceutilization
is suggested. The design of an electronically operated
vertical storage system is carried out andtestedsuccessfully.
The design principle is based on the adaptation of vertical
carousel system. The ‘Automated Shelves’ is a motor-driven
vertical storage equipment that brings shelves up and down
so that they can be easily available for the user. Design
drawings are prepared and based on functionality,
durability, cost and local availability, the
components/materials selections is done. The system
performance was tested on fabricated model. It has wide
applications in material handling for industrial, domestic
and commercial purpose.
Keywords— vertical carousel system ; automated Shelves;
material handling equipment
I. INTRODUCTION
Automated shelves is a materialhandlingequipment.
Various manufacturing processes are carried out on
multiple floors. For example while manufacturing
wafers, soaps, biscuits and other cookies and also on
various assembly lines different processes are carried
out at multiple stations. These stations are built on
multiple floors for optimizing the space utilization. Also
the finished goods are stored at a higher level on racks.
Thus Organizations are trying to utilize every inch of
space. In wholesale stores, there is limited storage space
available. Business owners try to capitalize on their
existing space to accommodate maximum goods. Due to
this, they incure losses due to damage of goods. Also,
they have to employ people specifically to handle the
goods which are stored at theplaces whicharenoteasily
accessible. This paper presented the design of an
efficient system whichwilltransferthematerialbetween
lower to higher level. A system is designed in such a way
so as to maximize the utilization of vertical air space and
reduce the floor space consumption. The purpose of this
work was to design and fabricate an automated vertical
material handling system in order to ease the process of
storing and handling the products stored at inaccessible
heights. The system is designed for the storage of shoes
in the stores. The capabilities of theproposedsystemare
not limited to the storage of shoes but also designed to
carry books or similar sized products when applied for
commercial or domestic use.
Fig.1.Vertical Carousel Storage System used in industry
[1]
Figure 1 shows the Vertical Carousel Storage System
used in industry. The major parts of the system are the
main frame, electronic brake AC motor,thechaindrivefor
motor power transmission, the transmission shaft, main
chain drives for the shelves, chain to shelf attachment,
shelves and control system. These parts are fabricated /
selected and then assembled following the design
specifications.
II. METHODOLOGY
Figure 2 shows the Methodology followed for
Automated shelves. The Automated Shelves is an
electrically operated vertical conveyor storage system
with an integrated control system to accommodate
maximum material while optimizing the space and time
for operation and also to ease the process of storing and
handling the products stored at inaccessible heights.
Following methodology is used for the Automated
shelves. The design andfabricationofautomatedshelves
is done. The shelves are designed to carry a maximum
load of 32 kgs.

The automated shelves consists of following
components:
1) Main Frame
2) Electromagnetic Brake ACMotor
3) Chain drive for motor powertransmission
4) TransmissionShaft
5) Main Chain drive forShelves
6) Shelf to ChainAttachment
7) Shelves
8) Control System
Fig.2 Methodology for Automated shelves
III. Functional aspects
Functional aspects of various components used
in the assembly is illustrated as below.
a. Electromagnetic brake AC Motor
The main function of the motor istodriveandstop
the whole vertical conveyer system according to the
user requirement. If the motor requires to be stopped
instantaneously, electromagnetic brake ac motor is
used. Since the electromagnetic brakes exert holding
power even while the power is off, they are ideal for
use as emergency brakes and in vertical load
applications. The electromagnetic brake motor is
employed if the load should bemaintained.
Specifications of motor selected:
Motor type: Electromagnetic Brake AC motor
Rated power: 0.1 hp and Output RPM: 25 rpm
b. Metallic Frame
The metallic framesupports all the elements of the system.
The sprockets of the chain drive are to be mounted on the
frame. Material Used for the shelf is MS Hollow Square
Tubing. Dimension of material is 50 x 50 mm.
Frame Dimensions after the design calculations are as
follows:
i. Length = 900 mm
ii.Width = 960 mm
iii.Height = 1750 mm
c. Shelves
The shelves will be carrying the load i.e. all the
products will be stored in them. Material selected for
shelf is plastic so as to make the shelf lighter. The
base of the shelves is 600 x300 mm2. The height of
the shelf is 200mm. The self-weight of the shelf is 0.6
kg. Eight such shelves are used. The maximum load
that each shelf carries is 4 kg.
d. Chain Drive
Procedure for the design of hanging transmission
chain [2] is used and based on the design calculation
following chain is selected.
Table I Specifications of roller chain
ISO Chain
No
Pitch P
(mm)
Breaking load
(kgf)
08B-1 12.7 1820
Specifications of the sprocket selected are shown in
table II.
Selection of motor andshelf
Calculation for the design of hanging
transmission chainand mainframe
Selection of chain ,sprockets bearing and
shaft
Selection of control system
Fabrication of frame, attachment links from
the chain to the shelf
Assembly of all the components

Table II Specifications of the sprocket
Dimension Notatio
n
Value
Pitch Circle Diameter D 97.28
Root Diameter Df 91.48
Tooth side radius rx 12.7
Tooth width bf1 7.44
e. Control System
The control system facilitates automation to the
material handling system. It consists of a micro-
controller(ArduinoUNOBoard),acoloursensor(TCS
3200) and an input module. The control system
comprises of four main components:
1) Arduino microcontroller and interface
2) Color sensor TCS 3200
3) Arduino Board ATmega328P
4) Input Module
The TCS3200 programmablecolorlight-to-frequency
converters that combine configurable silicon
photodiodesandacurrent-to-frequencyconverteron
a single monolithic CMOS integrated circuit. Figure 3
shows the Pin Diagram of TCS 3200 sensor. In the
TCS3200, the light-to-frequencyconverterreadsan8
x 8 array of photodiodes. Sixteen photodiodes have
blue filters, 16 photodiodes have green filters, 16
photodiodes have red filters, and 16 photodiodes are
clear with no filters. In the TCS3210, the light-to-
frequency converter reads a 4 x 6 array of
photodiodes. Six photodiodes have blue filters, 6
photodiodes have green filters, 6 photodiodes have
red filters, and 6 photodiodesareclearwithnofilters.
The four types (colors) of photodiodes are inter
digitated to minimize the effect of non-uniformity of
incident irradiance. Allphotodiodesofthesamecolor
are connected in parallel. Pins S2 and S3 are used to
select which group of photodiodes (red, green, blue,
clear) are active. Photodiodesare110μmx110μmin
size and are on 134-μm centers.
Fig.3. Pin Diagram of TCS 3200 sensor
The flowchart for the function of the control system
is
shown in figure 4.
FIG.4. BLOCK DIAGRAM OF CONTROL
SYSTEM
IV. CONSTRUCTION AND
WORKING
Frame is the main skeletal support for the entire
system. It consists of three tie bars on each side for
rigidity. The top and the bottom tie bars have
plummer blocks on it formountingofsprockets.Main
chain drive consists of four sprockets on each side,
two on the bottom and two on top. Sprockets on each
side are driven by single strand roller chain. For
mountingofshelvesonthechainattachment linksare
used. One side of the link is inserted in the roller pin
hole of the chain and the otherendintheholesdrilled
on the shelves.
Control System consists of Arduino UNO Board,
Input Module and TCS 3200 Color sensor. The
Arduino board interfaces with three components
namely, Color sensor, Drive Motor and Input Module.

The eight shelves are assigned unique colours. These
colours are assigned to their individual number on
the input module. When a specific number button is
pressed on the input module, microcontroller will
send Start command to the motor. It will also
simultaneously command the sensor to detect the
specific colour. When the shelf with the desired
colour comes in front of the colour sensor,itwillsend
a signal to the microcontroller which in turnwillstop
the motor. This will result in the desired shelf
stopping in front of the user and its contents
becoming accessible. Figure 5 shows the The block
diagram for working system of automated shelves.
Fig.5 The block diagram for working system
V. FABRICATION and testing
a. Fabrication Process
The fabrication process for components is explained
as follows:
1] Fabrication of frame- Hollow MS square bars of
50mm side and thickness of 3mm is used for
fabricating the frame. 4 bars of length 1.75 m are cut
by using abrasive cutting machine. Height of the
frame is 1.75m. Width is 0.96m and the length is
0.9m. For mounting of sprockets, two bars of length
0.86 are welded on both sides of the frame. A bar of
length 0.8m along the length was joined at the center
to connect to two vertical structures. Holes of
diameter 10 mm were drilled for placing Plummer
blocks on the frame.
2] Welding of sprockets- Sprockets are weldedonMS
shaft of 20mm diameter and 12 mm length. These
shafts are mounted on Plummer blocks and thus
form a part of the chain drive. 12 sprockets were
welded in all. 8 sprockets are used to attach to the
chain drivingtheshelves.2sprocketstransmittorque
from transmission shaft to the main chain drive. A
sprocket of ½ inch pitch, 60mm diameter is welded
on the transmission shaft. A sprocket is mounted on
the motor shaft by a screw locking. The sprocket on
transmission shaft is driven using the sprocket at
motor.
3] Mounting of Plummer blocks- Plummer blocks are
mounted on the holes drilled on the frame at their
respective positions. Five plummer blocks are
mounted on each side. One for supporting the
sprockets on the transmission shaft while four to
mount the sprockets driving the chain containing
shelves.
4] Chain- ISO 08B1 chains of length 3.6m of ½ inch
pitch are used to form chains that carry shelves on
both the sides. Two chains of length 1.23 m are used
to connect transmissionshafttothedrivensprockets.
A chain of length0.4 m is used to connect motor
sprocket to the transmission sprockets.
5] Attachment Links-16 links of steel of 5mm
diameter & 70mm length are cut using abrasive
cutting machine. These links are used for attaching
the chain to the shelves. One side of the link is
inserted in the roller pin hole of the chain and the
other end in the holes drilled on the shelves. These
links are inserted at equal distances so as to
accommodate the shelves at equal intervals. This
ensures that the shelves don’t tilt during rotation.
6] Frame for motor- A frame for placing the motor is
made from MS angels. A plate is drilled with holes of
8mm diameter to bolt the motor to the frame.
7] Shelves-Eight shelves are mounted on the
attachment links. Colour strip of distinct colour is
glued to each shelf.

b. Component Specification list
The components are designed and fabricated. The
component specifications are shown in table III.
Table III Component Specification list
Sr.
No
Component Specification
1 Motor
Brake single phase AC
induction 0.1 HP, 0.36 amp,
220/230V, 25 RPM
2 Frame MS, 5mm square bar
3 Shelves Plastic
4 Sprockets
½ inch pitch, 100mm dia. (12
no) , ½ inch pitch, 60mm dia.
(2 no)
5 Chain IS0 O8B1 (10m)
6 Steel Rod 5mm diameter
7
Transmission
Shaft
Hollow MS round bar of 20
mm diameter
8
Plummer
Block
Axial load Plummer block of
20 mm diameter (10 no)
9 Arduino Uno Atmel 8-bitAVRRISC-based
microcontroller
10
Colour
sensor
TCS 3200
11
Solid State
Relay
Input-3V DC, Output- 230V
AC, 3A
12 Input Module 3 x 3 keypad
Final Assembly of the system is shown in figure 6.
The system is tested for the designed load and
work satisfactory.
Fig.6. Assembly of the automated shelves system
VI. Result and conclusion
The automated storage and retrival system for the
selected application is designed, analyzed and
fabricated. The system is tested and is found to work
satisfactorily. It takes twenty five seconds for the
shelf to complete one full rotation. The speed of the
shelf was found 14.4 cm per second.
In MHS, The automated shelves is an efficient system
which will transfer the material from higher to lower
level. It can be used in wide applications for material
handling for domestic, industrial as well as
commercial purpose. It can be easily tailored to the
applications individual needs. It optimizes the use of
vertical space and also reduces the time and effort
needed to bring the items kept at elevated height.
REFERENCES
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[4]Brook Crompton, “Brake Motors Catalogue”.
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[5]Aji Roy, “Object Sorting Robotic Arm Based on
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[10]Web-Link-
http://www.orientalmotor.com/applications/
conveyor-belt.html
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Uno
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php

Automated Storage & Retrieval System

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