A FULLY AUTOMATIC SORTING MACHINE USING USB CAMERA - AN INNOVATION IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

This paper discusses the integration of research, teaching and learning. The Malaysian Education System is currently putting much emphasis on active learning, problem based learning and two-way communication in the lecture halls as opposed to the one-way lecture delivery systems. In the engineering education system, discovery learning promotes creativity, innovation and students ability to understand underlying concepts. This paper suggests research collaboration between lecturer and final year undergraduate student as a powerful extension to discovery learning. Both student and lecturer are actively involved in this lifelong learning journey, putting on great effort to ensure the success of their research. Recently, the end product of a research collaboration between a student and a lecturer of the Faculty of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka has received a bronze medal at the Ideas, Inventions, New Products 2009 (IENA '09) in Nuremberg, Germany and a silver medal at the Invention, Innovation and Technology Exhibition 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The product presents the idea of machine vision in a simplified manner. This paper further discusses on the experience gained through the research collaboration between an industrial electronics engineering undergraduate and a statistics lecturer. The outcome of this collaboration, an automatic sorting machine which consists of a PC-based controller with parallel port and a USB camera will also be discussed. This machine inspects and sorts objects based on pattern, colour and size. It comes with special features such as touch screen, GUI, HMI, voice feature, statistical info at fingertips and tower light. This product comes with an SMS alert system, which is helpful during emergencies and for sending reports.