CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction
The history of teaching starts from the very beginning of mankind. Knowledge
was passed down from generation to generation. The materials used in teaching also got
advanced along with the teaching and learning methods. Writing was earlier done on
sand, walls, slates made out of wood, chalkboards and in recent times on white boards
and electronic boards. (Tsado Jacob, A Remote controlled motorized whiteboard
cleaner, AU J.T. 15(4),pp 273-280,Apr.2012)
Nowadays, there are many method which a teacher can use to deliver their
knowledge such as computer, notes written on a whiteboard or blackboard as medium to
deliver the information to studenst. Until now many schools and universities still use
whiteboard and blackboard. Thus, different methods of cleaning whiteboard or
blackboard were fabricated. (XY duster machine, Muhammad Zulfadhli Bin Zulkifli,
Faculty of Electrical Engineering Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, July 2012)
The increase in numbers of institutions and schools shows a sign of an increase of
students entering their school every year. Sometimes the number of teachers in a school
is not enough that will cause teachers to teach four or five times a day. This may lead to
fatigue in teachers. They had to write the information that they want to convey to their
students over and over again. A fix schedule in one day also can cause a fatigue to the
teachers in cleaning all information that they write on the whiteboard.
Sometimes, teachers or students often forgot to clean the whiteboard after the
class sessions. When the next class session starts, teachers will complain when the board
is not cleaned. Another problem is the loss of eraser. This problem always happens to the
primary and secondary school. Erasing the whiteboard or blackboard is also time
consuming.
The height of some board cleaners also affect the section of the board to be
cleaned. Even the board cleaners are available; it takes away time from the lecturer to
erase the board.
There are many solutions to prevent these problems from happening. One of the
solutions is the Automatic Whiteboard Eraser that is proposed. With this machine, the
board can be erased with a single key pressed or you can select the portion that you want
to erase because the eraser is divided into three portions. This machine will be created as
a convenience to the user to erase the whiteboard. It is fast, time saving and readily
available cleaner that can clean the board in the least amount of time available.
The mechanism of the automatic whiteboard eraser entails a vertical motion. The
design is aimed at reducing the stress of manual cleaning. The eraser, which spans
vertically, will clean the board from and to across the board. The design is such that when
the button which is connected to the Arduino microcontroller is pressed the motor will
transmit energy which turns the shaft which in turn, drives the pulley. The eraser is fixed
to the pulley chains which move to and from (vertical motion) along its plane, thereby
cleaning the board. The idea behind the project basically is to simplify the manual use of
eraser which is quite tedious.

Objectives of the Study
Generally, the study aims to develop an Automatic Whiteboard Eraser.
Specifically, the study aims to:
1. Design and develop Automatic Whiteboard Eraser.
2. Provide an alternative and consistent way to erase the whiteboard
3. Evaluate the project.

Significance of the Study
Lecturers. The result of the study will help the lecturers to lessen their time in
erasing the whiteboard. It will also help those who have allergic reaction on the ink of
whiteboard marker which is made up from organic solvent.
Students. This study will help the students to lessen the time in erasing the
whiteboard and will maximize the time for discussion.
Future Researchers. This study will serve as reference in searching for related
topics and information. It gives additional knowledge that they may need in developing
and improving similar studies.
Scope and Limitations of the Study
The study will focus on the design and development of Automatic Whiteboard
Eraser. This machine will be implemented and used in Audio Visual Room of MinSCAT
Bongabong Campus. It can also be used in a classroom as long as there is a source of
power. It can be used by lecturers to save time in erasing the whiteboard.
Automatic whiteboard eraser is not capable of detecting the text on the
whiteboard to be erased. It will just erase the portion of the whiteboard that will be
selected. It also operates only on vertical motion to erase the whiteboard.


Definition of Terms
For better understanding, the following words used in this study are operationally
defined:
Arduino microcontroller. An open-source electronic board used for prototyping. It is a
tiny computer that can be programmed to interact with the hardware.
Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE). It is a software used for
programming the MCU. Its programming language is C++.
MCU. It refers to Microcontroller Unit that contains program to be executed by the
electronic components and entire device.
Prototype. It is a standard example of a particular kind or class.
Hardware. This refers to the electronic components and materials used in developing the
project
Software. This controls the operation of hardware. Example of software used in
developing the project is Arduino IDE.
Humanoid. It describes a being that has the appearance or characteristics of a human.
Pulley. This is a mounted rotating wheel with a grooved rim over which a belt or chain
can move to change the direction of a pulling force
Current. It refers to an electric energy running in the circuit and measures in Ampere.
Program. It is the code made and stored in the MCU to execute the entire device
Voltage. It is an electrical power that runs in the circuit and measured in Volts.
Shaft. This is a rotating rod that provides motion or power for a machine.
















Chapter II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
In this chapter some projects related to Automatic Whiteboard Eraser will be
discussed and summarized. These theories will help to give some ideas how this machine
works.
Local Studies
Whiteboard Erasing Robot is an autonomously robot, that can erase a written
text on a whiteboard completely autonomously. Without human interface, the robot easily
finds the text on whiteboard with the process that were programmed. There are three
cases of study on how the robots function. First is method for the robot to find the written
text on whiteboard. Next step is defining a way for mechanism to move the text written.
Last step is to enable a robot to erase the text.
So in the first step robot is to find the written text on whiteboard. This step was
divided into two parts. First part is mechanism of the robot. It consists of a base with two
wheels which ride on the whiteboard track. This base is use to move on the X-axis of the
whiteboard. To make a robot move in Y-axis direction robot arm slider was constructed.
These sliders move the robot in up and down directions on Y-axis. At the end of the arm
the duster is attached to do the cleaning process
The second part is robot vision. This robot use webcam and computer base control
station that located at the opposite side of whiteboard. This vision use to find place of text
written and make sure the robot clean at that place. The vision capture with a webcam
will be processed with vision software, RoboRealm. This software use to find center of
gravity of text. The image color will be converted into negative image, black and white
using gray-scale filter. Any detection of text color in whiteboard will be converted into
negative image.
Once the center gravity of text was defined, it will convert the center gravity of
text into coordinate plane. Then using basic math program, it will tell the robot which
location is must move using motor command. In this project its used the Arduino Mega
to interface the code and allow RoboRealm to communicate with Arduino.
After finishing the vision part and analyzing the program, robot will move to the
location and do its cleaning task. This design of robot is suitable to be used in any school
whiteboard as long as the base of platform robot is the same with the criteria that was
developed that is the base must be suitable to place the wheels of robot.
([Link]
The study MinSCAT Bongabong Campus Digital Building Locator by
Romnick Amparo, Vincent Jay G. Gorospe and Anjeli S. Sonio, was designed to locate
easily a definite building inside the campus by encoding the correct code on the 3x4
keypad. The LED will glow and will indicate the exact location of a particular building.
The system was developed using the following steps: pre-design phase, design
stage, fabrication stage such as software section, electronic section, and mechanical
section, testing of components assembly, system testing and evaluating of the project.
MinSCAT Bongabong Campus Digital Building Locator is composed of 5
modules. It includes power supply, microcontroller unit, keypad, LCD and LED.. The
MCU powered by regulated 5 volts connected to the voltage input (VIN) and to the
ground pin. The Arduino act as a Microcontroller of the system. Pins of the MCU were
connected to LCD, keypad and output LED. The potentiometer is used to adjust the
brightness of the LCD.
The study entitled Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology
Bongabong Campus Main Gate Electronic Emergency Opener by Ryan M.
Malhacan, Noli Mark A. Paala and Mary Ann D. Panes was designed for the easy access
in the Main Gate by just encoding the correct password on the 3x4 keypad. The gate will
be unlocked by entering password and locked automatically when one closes the gate
without encoding again the password. The project used LCD to display the password and
LED as indicators.
Electromagnetic lock is used for strong capability to hold the gate and to give
better result than any other lock. The project can be operated by a chargeable 12 volt lead
acid battery or power from the outlet. The battery is automatically charged when using
power from the outlet. When there is blackout, the battery will automatically supply
power to the device. Main Gate Electronic Emergency Opener used Arduino
Microcontroller as the main controller of the system.
This study entitled MinSCAT Bongabong Campus Smart Street Light by
Ermalyn M. Malhacan, Lai Ann R. Pagluanan and Aljay G. Supetran was designed for
the improvement of the street lighting system of the campus by an automatically
switching On and Off of the street lights. This project applied electronic components such
as LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) which actually senses the light and relay to
automatically switch the system. The system supplied by 220v AC then step down by the
transformer into 12v and it was capable to operate with the maximum of 4500 wattage of
output.
This system was made to reduce human intervention when it comes to monitoring
the street lights. Its also avoids delay on turning OFF the lights during day time and it
could be possibly save energy compared to conventional street lights with a manual
switch.
The existing system was developed by the use of the following steps: pre-design
phase, design stage, fabrication stage such as software section, electronic section, and
mechanical section, individual parts testing, and evaluation. The project used Arduino
Microcontroller as the main controller of the system.
The study, MinSCAT Automatic Trash Bin by Denjones Anigan, Jayperson
de Borja and Casylyn Rodriguez, was designed for managing the use of the school trash
can. It has indicators of whether the trashcan is full, half full or empty to detect the level
of garbage inside the trash can. Red Light Emitting Diode (LED) indicates that trashcan
is full, Yellow LED indicates that the trashcan is half-full and Green LED indicates that
the trashcan is empty.
Students and other school personnel will know the status of the trashcan whenever
they throw garbage in it. MinSCAT Automatic Trash Bin has automatic cover that
automatically opens when the sensor sense a thrower. When the trashcan is full, the
trashcan will not open instead the indicator will blink to catch the attention of the
maintenance personnel.
The system used Arduino as microcontroller and was programmed using Arduino
IDE. Ultrasonic sensors was the sensor used to detect the garbage throwers to
automatically open the trashcan cover and to sense the distance of the trash inside the
trashcan that will be used to indicate the level of the trash whether it is empty, half-full
and full. A battery was used as the power supply to the system. Different electronic
components were used such as resistor, capacitor, DC Motor, relay, transistor and many
other more.
The Interactive Motorcycle Parking Notification in MinSCAT Bongabong
Campus by Mark Merville R. Almoguerra, Ian Ray M. Alban and Mhel John D. Gadon
was designed for limiting the number of motorcycles parked in the parking area to avoid
overcrowding, haphazard and congestion in the parking area. The project was intended to
have an organized and modernized parking area.
The project design used different electronic components. LED was used as
indicator to notify if the parking area is full or there are available parking spaces. DC
motor was used for the downward and upward position of the barrier. The project design
was composed of four major parts, the power supply unit, microcontroller unit, sensor
unit and the motor module. The project is operated by a 220 V power from the outlet.
The power supply unit supplies enough voltages to the project design. The
microcontroller unit controls the overall function of the project design. The arduino was
used as the microcontroller of the project. The sensor unit was the one who sends signal
to the microcontroller unit and the motor module controls the upward and downward
position of the barrier.
Those studies are related to our study because we will also use the Arduino
microcontroller for our design project.
Foreign Studies
The Humanoid robot by Italian and Japanese collaboration from Italian
Institute of Technology and Tokyo City University has a concept by the imitation
learning. This robot has a different type of control that is upper body control and lower
body control.
In upper body control, the design used the concept of kinesthetic learning. This
concept will be used at the robot arm. Same with the lower body of robot, but it is used to
stabilize the position of the robot to keep maintain the robot while upper body is doing its
work. The ankle and hip of the robot will react with the motion of upper body to keep the
balance of robot.
Kinesthetic learning has three steps to be taken. The first step is demonstration
phase, the next is learning phase and last is the reproduction phase.

1. Demonstration phase - at this phase the motion of robot arm will demonstrate by
human. Human will teach the robot arm on what will be the motion. The motion will
transmit two kinds of data: encoder data and force data. This data will be manipulated by
balance controller.
2. Learning phase at this stage, the encoder data and force data that were received will
be imitated. The program will process all the data received and done on imitation
learning.
3. Reproduction phase - after learning was already done, the robot arm for upper body,
ankle, and hip for the lower body will apply the duty to clean the whiteboard. (Upper-
body Kinesthetic Teaching of a Free-standing Humanoid Robot. Kormushev, P.,
Nenchev, D.N., Calinon, S., and Caldwell, D.G., IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and
Automation (ICRA 2011), pp. 3970-3975, 2011.)

Whiteboard cleaning mobile robot fabricated by Stefan Diewald, VMI, TU
Munchen has the same concept with Whiteboard Erasing Robot in cleaning task. It
erases the whiteboard without human interface. The only difference is the mechanism.
Mobile robot used the suction concept to make the robot attached to the
whiteboard, different with whiteboard erasing robot that used two parts of motion X-axis
and Y-axis. The mechanism of mobile robot is quite simple, but the suction concept that
make we difficult to build. Suction concept is also noisier when mobile robot doing its
task.
For a vision part, the concept is the same with whiteboard erasing robot but the
software that they used is different. This project used the Robot Operating System as the
software to process the visual. ([Link]












CHAPTER III
METHODS AND PROCEDURES
This chapter will discuss the methodology to be employed, considerations to be taken
including the hardware and software that will be used and the methods and procedures that
will be applied to develop Automatic Whiteboard Eraser.

Problem Identification