Controlling Board Prototype for a Smart Weighting Device Using Ultrasonics and Loadcell Sensors

ABSTRACT

Online shopping and shipping agent are more popular with the outbreak of the disease COVID-19. Logistics companies are constantly competing with each other on delivery speed and shipping costs to attract customers. The measurement and classification of parcels is a crucial step in the product supply chain, determining the shipping cost and the accuracy of product classification. The transportation of goods requires speed and correct delivery at low-cost service and safe to the product. In particular, the stage of packaging and shipping pricing takes much time. From receiving, packing, weighing, measuring, and checking the area to calculate the price, all items must go through such a step to ship elsewhere. The shipping cost may be affected by space volume rather than the actual weight. This paper presents the development of the controlling board for a smart weighing device that can measure both the weight and 3D box-boundary dimensions of the parcel. The smart device includes three ultrasonic sensors, a loadcell set connecting in the form of Wheatstone bridge, a barcode reader, a process data by a PIC microcontroller, and store data on the computer via UART/Ethernet protocol. The results of the several experiments for checking the stability and accuracy of each quantity measurement prove the reliability of the smart equipment. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.