Creating a Vending Machine with Lego Mindstorm :: Robotics

Creating a Vending Machine with Lego MindstormAbstractVending machines oblige come a long way, since their introduction to human societythousands of years ago. Although the basic concept of a vending machine has notchanged, modern twenty-four hours technology has significantly enhanced them. Our vending machineis no different. Although our vending machine is not top of the line, it is also not such a questioning one either. We started out with building the five main components of a vendingmachine the dispenser, trough, selection device, and payment reader entirely out ofLEGOs. We decided on a door like dispenser and buttons as a selection device. Thepayment we decided to accept were barcodes. The solely component that was actuallygiving us bustle was the dispenser. Our first dispenser design was severely flawed.After coming up with a door like mechanism, the dispenser was easily fixed. Althoughwe did prove our hypothesis to be correct, there atomic number 18 still many improvemen ts that wecould make such as improving the design to make it easier to maintain.QuestionIs it possible to create an operational candy machine with only LEGOs?PurposeTo build a candy machine that is capable of Reading a barcode Detecting if it is a fake or not Sending a signal to the other RCX to allow to user to1) Select the candy2) While making sure that the machine remains stationaryBackgroundThe History of Counterfeiting the US CurrencyThe counterfeiting of money is one of the oldest crimes in history. Therefore Ineeded to find out the ways I could use a LEGO RCX to recognize a correct billand reject it if it is fake.The HistoryDuring the American Revolution, the British counterfeited U.S. currency in suchlarge amounts that the Continental currency soon became worthyless. Not worth aContinental became a popular expression that is still heard today.During the Civil War, one-third to one-half of the currency in circulation wascounterfeit. At that time, approximately 1,600 reci te banks designed and printedtheir own bills. Each bill carried a different design, making it difficult to detectcounterfeit bills from the 7,000 varieties of real bills.A national currency was follow in 1862 to resolve the counterfeiting problem.However, the national currency was soon counterfeited and circulated soextensively that it became necessary to take enforcement measures. Therefore, onJuly 5, 1865, the United States Secret Service was established to bottle up thewide-spread counterfeiting of this nations currency.Although the counterfeiting of money was substantially suppressed after theestablishment of the Secret Service, this crime still represents a potential dangerto the Nations economy.