Problem Identification

We thought about making a pill cartridge rather than a pill dispenser at first but realised that they already existed. So instead, we changed our plans and built or design around a pill dispenser, which would be set to a clock timer, and would dispense a pill every (x) seconds. The background research we did was mainly about other pill cartridges that existed. There were some designed around a
Monday-Friday pill holder, so you knew which days you had taken them or not, there were some which literally just held the pill in a box until you needed it. When we researched pill dispensers, there was no line between non-complex pill dispensers, which didn’t do what we wanted them to do, or very complex pill dispensers worth thousands of dollars, which did way more than necessary.
So we decided to settle somewhere in the middle and make a dispenser which wasn’t several grand.

Design Brief

The problem statement is:
People who need to take daily medication forgetting whether they have taken the medication or not.

The success criteria are:

1. If the device dispenses the medication successfully
2. Does the device sound an alarm if it has gone over the period of not taking the medication?
3. Does the alarm make the person take the medication?
4. Is the device stable enough to dispense the medication?

Constraints:

1. Don’t overcomplicate the design, as we are short for time.
2. Try not to cater for every type of pill size, as this will result in no progress due to time
constraints.

Prototype Development

We thought that old people needed to take their drugs without forgetting if they had done them or not. This robot is perfectly designed to do this efficiently.

Evaluation and Reflection

The final version of the pill dispenser has successfully met the criteria of what we wanted to achieve. It successfully dispenses the pill once every (x) amount of time, it is not too complicated nor too simple. The device also sounds an alarm if the user has not taken the medication after a certain period of time. The device is also stable enough to support the motor of the pill dispenser. In Reflection, we learnt how to use correct rotation speed and timers to control a LEGO Mindstorms Robot, which could come in useful for other projects. If we had more time, we would polish the device more, making it be able to hold more pills, dispense more accurately and look nicer.