The "Peeler"

A MISSION IMPOSSIBLE Project

for ME 102B, and Professor Kazerooni

(Leslie Olston, Calvin Lee, Sachin Agrawal, James Mitchell)

 

What is it?

   I am glad that you have asked. The "Peeler" is a state of the art, computer controlled vegetable peeler. What you do is you connect a vegetable to a motor that rotates the vegetable, while a cutting tool moves across the surface to shave the peel off of the vegetable. The cutting tool moves based on computer control and user interface.

Videos:

How does it work?

   It is quite simple. It is a three part system, where the device is broken into three main components: the cutter, the cucumber drive, and the control mechanism. The chart above shows how these three systems are powered and connected. Where the DSP regulates the amount of voltage sent to both motors via a PWM signal, with varying duty cycles. The system is currently powered by a twelve volt power supply, while the DSP is powered by five volts.

 

   Cutter

 

        The cutting mechanism is designed to move the blade in a straight line across the length of the rotating cucumber.  It is a one degree of freedom device -- it can move forwards and backwards in a linear motion.  The motion of the blade is accomplished by having the cutter housing move on a track consisting of a threaded rod and two unthreaded support rods.  The threaded rod is powered by a motor attached to the side of the peeler housing.  The motor rotates the rod which causes the cutter housing and blade to move.

 

 

   Cucumber Drive

        The cucumber drive is the apparatus that holds and rotates the cucumber.  It consists of two skewers, placed at opposite ends of the device.  One is attached to a motor that powers the rotary motion of the cucumber, and the other supports the other side of the cucumber.  It is allowed to rotate freely as long as the motor is powered.

 

 

   Control Mechanism

        The speed and direction of the motor is controlled through a DSP (digital signal processor).  An input device (an optical encoder) is hooked up to the DSP where the user rotates the shaft of the encoder to indicate when they want to change the position of the cutting tool. Depending on the user, the cutting tool will move in the direction that the user rotates the encoder shaft. The DSP sends a PWM to an H-Bridge, which controls the amount of Voltage sent to both motors. For the cucumber drive this PWM is constant, while it is variable for the cutter. This is programmed in C using DMC Developer Pro.

 

 

Do you want to make your own?

    Here is our Bill of Materials.

    Here is some theory that might help you out.

    Check out our schematics.

 

CONTACT US:

Mission: Impossible -

    Leslie Olston (Jr. Machinist, Troubleshooting Specialist, Handling)

     Calvin Lee (Sr. Machinist, Assistant Programmer, Team Leader)

    Sachin Agrawal (Design Editor, Vegetable Handling Specialist, Jr. Machinist)

    James Mitchell (Webmaster, Initial Design, Lead Programmer, Purchasing)