Project Outcome

Comparison

The variance between simulation and practical is big due to the simulation not being affected by the other opening of storage unit with connection between the Microcontroller and the Raspberry Pi, built-in LEDs and reset buttons on the boards which have a slight influence on the results in practical model. This is applied to the Ethernet shield also as the IC of the shield heats up after a certain time and starts causing delays and influences the results by heating up other components.

Project Outcome

It is evident that the current parcel counter systems have not been working effectively enough to satisfy customers’ needs. As mentioned in chapter one that the main issues were based on problems like, customers belongings being misplaced, human error, and theft from the parcel attendant, availability and time consumption.

As these issues were proven in most of the retails, then the implementation of this system will eliminate many of the human errors and advance in more functionality that will make shopping more convenient for our customers. The backbone controlling the system includes raspberry pi 3 model B and 8051 Microcontroller (AT89S8253).

This the most useful feature to make a concrete security and efficient communication between the system and the customers. Hence, we agree this is a good solution to theft, misplacement and confusion of customer’s items.

This also come to another point that was raised in chapter one, which is the issue of availability and time consumption. It is clear that the storage system will be available anytime a customer wishes to store or retrieve the parcels. And the time that a parcel attendant takes to store the parcel of each and every person, it is time consuming for most customers. hence we solve the problem by making the storage boxes reachable by any customer at any time, where customer can store their parcel/items simultaneously and this will be possible because raspberry pi 3 provides Bluetooth and WIFI connectivity for a Website we created for the customer to store or retrieve their parcels using Web Browser on their cell phones, also the user interface will increase the process of storing/retrieving more faster.

The main interaction happens between the microcontroller and the raspberry pi. A raspberry pi carries the main functionality since is the one interacting with the user, but it is also depending on the micro controller so that the system can perform its function completely.

With serial communicating, a raspberry pi is depending on microcontroller for transmitting and receiving data such as sensor and locker mechanism. For doors to close, a microcontroller is depending on the relay to supply enough voltage to the magnetic locks, so this mean lock are depending on the relay to perform their function. Then the microcontroller can send back the status of the locks. This also applies to the sensors.

With the sensor mechanism, a microcontroller must get the parcel status using ADC0834 sensor interface, since is the interface between the actual sensor and the and the microcontroller. ADC0834 is depending on sensor and microcontroller is depending on it, this leaves a sensor being independent.