Design And Construction Of An Automatic Water Dispenser

1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Water pumps are very useful in the water supply, the first wooden pumps are came into existence in 1700s the other pumps which came into the existence in mid 1800s and these pumps are known as metal piston type pumps which are driven by steam. The first submersible pumps are came into existence in 1920s
Automatic Water Dispenser is containing a series of many functions like controlling the water level, showing the value of TDS, showing the value of temperature, and automatic ejection of water.
In today’s life there must be some elements which is needed to be controlled, therefore the Automatic water dispenser is providing the good quality of water for the human beings. In day to day life intelligent systems are used in a wide range and these are embedded in design.
There are some physical elements which are needed to be controlled in day to day life in order for them to perform their expected task.
This paper is based on an automated water dispenser using arduino microcontroller. A water dispenser is a system or a machine which is designed and capable of responding to the instruction or request made by the user in other to dispense a particular liquid [1]. At the present era, organization like in offices, banks, and homes have been using dispenser through the manual control in which the user operate the system by pushing, holding or turning a button until the desired amount is dispensed at regular interval. The process consumes more time and sometimes the water might overflow due to loss of concentration by the user. There is a need in the residential/commercial organization for a self-dispense liquid dispenser that responds to cup presence using an ultrasonic sensor in the system. Also, restaurants and bar businesses are always looking for a way to increase efficiency and reduce cost. This water dispenser provides these function that will precisely dispense a specific amount of liquid while reducing human labor and effort.
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1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
This research work seeks to showcase how a self-dispense detecting water dispenser based on microcontroller technology will be used to solve the issues that surrounding the existing systems like;
i. The manual operation of the liquid pumps by users.
ii. Overflow of liquid due to loss of concentration by users.
iii. Expensive liquid dispensers.
iv. Importation of already made liquid dispenser in local content driven nation like Nigeria.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
The main aim of this research work in trying to solve the bottle necks of the existing system will facilitate the design and construction of the arduino microcontroller based liquid dispenser system. The objectives are:
i. Elimination the manual operation of the dispensers’ pumps by the use of ultrasonic sensor in the control unit that will automatically detect the presence of cups or other container(depending on the user choice) thereby improving quick and effective response time of the products need for the user.
ii. Solving the issues of overflow of fluid due loss of concentration by users. This will be addressed by the introduction of electronic keypad which enables the users to input their desired amount of liquid and also see on the display board the amount of liquid before putting the cup under the pump.
iii. Minimizing cost by using our local available materials and resources for the dispenser.
iv. Eradicating the importation of already made liquid dispenser into the local market when properly enforced.

1.4 SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH
This research covers the construction of an automatic liquid dispensing system. The physical prototype will be constructed with local available materials which will be able to bring out the specific amount of liquid input by user, dispense the amount of liquid in the presence of a human hand holding cup or any container.

1.5 LIMITATION OF STUDY
As we all know that no human effort to achieve a set of goals goes without difficulties, certain constraints were encountered in the course of carrying out this project and they are as follows:-
i. Difficulty in information collection: I found it too difficult in laying hands of useful information regarding this work and this course me to visit different libraries and internet for solution.
ii. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
iii. Time Constraint: The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In the course of carrying this study, numerous sources were used which most of them are by visiting libraries, consulting journal and news papers and online research which Google was the major source that was used.

1.7 PROJECT ORGANISATION
The work is organized as follows: chapter one discuses the introductory part of the work, chapter two presents the literature review of the study, chapter three describes the methods applied, chapter four discusses the results of the work, chapter five summarizes the research outcomes and the recommendations.