2015 International Conference on Man and Machine Interfacing (MAMI)
Development of an Automatic Monitoring and
Control System for the Objects on the Conveyor Belt
D. S. V. Siva Vardhan
Department of Mechanical Engineering
VNR Vignana Jyothi Inst. of Engineering and Technology
Hyderabad, India
sivavardhan.dasari@gmail.com
Abstract—Belt conveyors are durable and reliable
components used in the industries for transporting material.
Conveyors producing single type of component at a time
generally monitor and control a single type of object. However, if
there are more objects, then another system needs to be
developed. This paper presents the design, fabrication and
validation of a prototype of an automatic monitoring and control
system designed for probing various types of objects on a belt
conveyor. This system uses Allen Bradley MicroLogix PLC for
controlling and feedback sensors for monitoring the objects. The
production capacity of the system can be set in the program
which can be easily altered satisfying the seasonal demand. The
system stops automatically after reaching the desired production.
In order to validate the designed system, experiments are
performed using Taguchi’s methodology wherein parameters like
position, orientation, filling time, material type and types of
objects i.e. trays and bottles are studied elaborately.
Keywords—Belt conveyors; PLC; optical sensor.
I. INTRODUCTION
This project deals with the simultaneous automatic
monitoring and control of two different objects i.e. bottles and
trays on a single belt conveyor efficiently using Programmable
Logic Controller [1], [2]. Allen Bradley MicroLogix 1200
PLC is used to control the automatic monitoring and control
system. PLC has 14 digital input and 10 digital output ports of
24 volts. The inputs to the PLC are feedback signals of the
sensors and outputs of the PLC are connected to dc motor,
buzzer and lamps. All input and output connections are
connected to the PLC through the local control panel of the
system. The complete system works on 24 volts dc power
supply. The 24 volts dc supply to the system is supplied by
Switch Mode Power Supply. A 24 volts dc geared motor of
10rpm is used to drive the conveyor belt [3], [4], [5].
The induction type proximity sensors of 24 volts dc are
used to sense the bottles and trays made of galvanized iron
sheet [3], [6]. Induction type proximity sensors are capable of
sensing only metals. At bottle filling station one sensor is
placed to sense the presence of bottle whereas at the solid
filling station two sensors are placed to sense the presence of
the tray. When the bottle is present at the liquid filling station,
it is sensed by the sensor and becomes active stopping the
bottle for a preset time. When a tray is present at solid filling
978-1-5090-0225-2/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
Y. Shivraj Narayan
Department of Mechanical Engineering
VNR Vignana Jyothi Inst. of Engineering and Technology
Hyderabad, India
shivrajyeole@vnrvjiet.in
station both the sensors will become active stopping the tray
for a preset time. The induction type proximity sensor at the
beginning of the conveyor is used to start the belt when an
object is kept on the belt.
An optical sensor of 24 volts is placed parallel to the
conveyor belt to monitor and control the obstacles. When
someone tries to touch the objects on the conveyor belt at
running condition the feedback signal of an optical switch
becomes active and it makes the conveyor to stop immediately
and blows the buzzer. After clearing the obstacle the system
will get started again.
A ladder logic diagram is developed for the system using
RSLogix 500 software. The time to stop the bottles and trays
to fill at respective filling stations is preset in the ladder logic
using timers and their counting is done by using counters
which can be observed on the monitor [1]. The number of
trays and bottles to be filled can be set in the ladder logic
diagram after reaching the set value the system will be stopped
blowing the buzzer with green lamp indicating the desired
production is completed.
In Minitab software Taguchi’s methodology is used to
design the experiments by varying many variable factors of
the system. An orthogonal array of L36 mixed type is used to
design experiments in two stages. Stage-I experiments are
designed to evaluate the performance of the system for the
successful runs and stage-II experiments are designed to
evaluate the performance of the system for unsuccessful runs.
Some of the applications of the system are in the industries
like food processing, beverage, pharmaceuticals and
packaging [4], [7].
II. DESIGN AND FABRICATION
Fig. 1. Model of automatic monitoring and control system in CATIA.
A. Design of the system C. Prototype
The complete system works on 24 volts dc power supply.
The 24 volts dc motor of 10 rpm is used to run the conveyor
belt [3]. A proximity sensor “PS 1” which is placed at the
starting of the conveyor belt is used to start the conveyor when
an object is placed on the conveyor belt. Two proximity
sensors “PS 3” and “PS 4” are used to sense the presence of
tray at solid filling station. “PS 3” and “PS 4” are placed at a
distance more than the diameter of the bottles so that bottles
does not stop at solid filling stations because of not activating
both sensors at a time but trays can activate both the sensors at
a time and get stopped at solid filling station. Proximity sensor
“PS 2” is used to sense the presence of the bottle at liquid Fig. 3. Prototype of the system.
filling station. “PS 2” is placed at a height more than the
height of trays so that the trays does not stop at liquid filling III. LADDER LOGIC
station because of not activating the sensor placed at a height
more than its height but bottles can activate the sensor and get Ladder logic diagram is developed using RSLogix 500
stopped at liquid filling station. Thus, bottles will stop only at software. The different function blocks used are:
liquid filling station and trays will stop only at solid filling Count up “CTU” for counting the objects, timer on delay
station. An optical sensor is placed at a height above and “TON” to preset the time for filling trays and bottles, jump to
parallel to the conveyor belt. When someone tries to disturb subroutine “JSR”, addition “ADD” to display the total
the object on conveyor the optical sensor becomes active and production on the monitor, return “RET” to return to the
makes the conveyor to stop and blows the buzzer. The program, input and output coils, end “END” for ending the
interaction between the system and PLC is done only through program [9]. AND logic is used for tray sensing sensors at
the local control panel of the system. The minimum distance solid filling station because the trays are wide enough to
between the objects on the conveyor should be more than the activate the two sensors at a time. Timer is set for the preset
distance between the tray detecting sensors otherwise two time as per the designed experiments. The time for stopping
bottles may be treated as a tray. trays and bottles at respective filling stations can be adjusted
easily in the ladder logic diagram. The number of bottles and
B. Circuit diagram trays to be filled is given in the respective counters used in
Proximity sensor “PS 1” is used to start the conveyor belt ladder logic.
when the object is placed on the conveyor belt. Proximity
sensor “PS 2” is placed at the liquid filling station to detect the
presence of the bottle. Proximity sensor “PS 3” and Proximity
sensor “PS 4” is placed at the solid filling station to detect the
presence of the tray. Optical sensor “OS” is used to sense the
obstacles and is placed parallel to the conveyor belt. [8]. All
the sensors are connected to the 24 volts dc power supply and
each feedback wires are connected to local control panel
separately. Local control panel is connected to PLC according
to the ladder logic diagram. The output signals from PLC are
connected to the positive poles of motor, buzzer and lamps
through the relay switches [9]. The negative poles are
connected to -24 volts. A Switch Mode Power Supply
“SMPS” is used to supply 24 volts dc power to the system.
SMPS is connected through the fuse for safety of the system.
A switch is used to power on the system.

Fig. 2. Circuit diagram of the system.

Fig. 4. Ladder logic for bottles

Fig. 5. Ladder logic for trays.

IV. TESTING
Allen Bradley MicroLogix 1200 PLC is used to test the
system with the ladder logic developed [10]. The position and
orientation of sensors are tested. The working of the sensors is
tested. If the sensors are not working correctly then replace the
sensors. The conveyor belt is tested for slipping and tension. If
any slip occurs it can be adjusted at the driven roller side. Test
is done to observe whether bottles and trays are stopping at
their respective stations for a preset time or not. Test is done to
note down the distance of trays and bottles stopped at filling
station to the respective filling nozzle point and it can be made
zero by shifting the filling stations.

V. EXPERIMENTATION
The experiments were designed using the Taguchi’s
methodology in Minitab software. An orthogonal array of L36
mixed type is used to obtain 36 experiments of stage-I and
stage-II experiments. Stage-I experiments are designed to
evaluate the performance of the system for successful runs and
conditions for the objects. Stage-II experiments are designed
to evaluate the performance of the system for unsuccessful
runs. The total production time is observed in stage-I
experiments only. In stage-II experiments, the production is
desired to be incomplete and the production time infinite
owing to improper material type, wrong orientation and wrong
dimensions of the objects.

A. Fixed parameters of the system

These parameters are fixed for the system designed.
1. Speed of the conveyor belt.
2. Length of the conveyor belt.
3. Height of solid and liquid filling stations.
4. Orientation and Position of the sensors.
 TABLE I. TABLE V.
CONDITIONS OF THE BOTTLES FOR SUCCESSFUL RUNS TABLE FOR VARIABLE PARAMETERS

Bottle material Bottle dimensions (mm) Bottle orientation Number of

Variable parameters Settings
settings
Galvanized Iron (GI) Diameter=55, Height=135 90º
Number of trays to be
3 2, 3, 5
filled
TABLE II.
Number of bottles to be
3 2, 3, 5
CONDITIONS OF THE TRAYS FOR SUCCESSFUL RUNS filled
Type-1: diameter=55 mm,
Tray material Tray dimensions (mm) Tray orientation height=135 mm
Dimensions of the bottles 2
Length=200, Width=50, Type-2: diameter=55 mm,
Galvanized Iron (GI) 0º
Height=100 height = 80mm

Type-1: length=200 mm,

TABLE III. width=50 mm,
height=100 mm
CONDITIONS OF THE BOTTLES FOR UNSUCCESSFUL RUNS Dimensions of the trays 2
Type-2: length=100 mm,
Bottle material Bottle dimensions (mm) Bottle orientation width=50 mm,
height=60 mm
Card board (CB),
Diameter=55, Height=80 0º
Paper (P)
Orientation of the trays 2 0º, 30º

TABLE IV. Orientation of the bottles 2 0º,90º

CONDITIONS OF THE TRAYS FOR UNSUCCESSFUL RUNS
Galvanized iron sheet,
Material of the bottles 3
Tray material Tray dimensions (mm) Tray orientation Cardboard, Paper

Card board (CB), Galvanized iron sheet,

Length=100, Width=50, Material of the trays 3
30º Cardboard, Paper
Paper (P) Height=60
Distance between the
B. Observations of the system objects on the conveyor 2 150 mm, 240 mm
belt
1. Center to center “C-C” distance between the bottle
and liquid filling nozzle. Distance between the
2. Center to center “C-C” distance between the tray and 2 1 mm, 5 mm
bottle and sensor
solid filling nozzle.
3. Actual bottle stopping time at the liquid filling
Distance between the tray
station. 2 1 mm, 5 mm
and sensor
4. Actual tray stopping time at the solid filling station.
5. Total time taken for the desired output.
Tray filling time 2 8 s, 6 s
Actual stopping time of bottles and trays at respective
filling stations are noted using stop watch and measuring scale Bottle filling time 2 8 s, 6 s
is used to measure the center to center distances of bottles and
trays from the respective filling station nozzles. The graphs Time intervals of the
objects placed on the 2 8 s, 10 s
were plotted considering the observations of the system for conveyor belt
each experiment designed by varying the variable parameters
of the system. Number of interruptions 2 0, 2
C. Variable parameters of the system Bottle-Bottle-Tray, Bottle-
The variable parameters of the system are considered for Input sequence 3 Tray-Bottle, Tray-Tray-
Bottle
designing the experiments to evaluate the performance of the
system developed.
 VI. RESULTS

A. Stage-I experiments

Fig. 8. Deviation of actual stopping time with desired stopping time of bottle.

Fig. 6. Deviation of center-center distance of bottle to liquid filling station

nozzle from the desired value.

In Fig. 6, it is observed that 27.78% (10) of the experiments

met the desired value with no deviation from the target.
Allowable limits for the deviation of center-center distance of
bottle to the liquid filling station nozzle are ±25 mm.
Observed values for the remaining experiments are between -3
mm and +2 mm which are well within the allowable limits.

Fig. 9. Deviation of actual stopping time with desired stopping time of bottle.

It is observed from Fig. 9 that 33.33% (6) of the bottles

stopped for the desired stopping time of 8 s. For the remaining
experiments, the actual stopping times of bottles are in
between 7.36 s and 8.19 s which are small deviations from the
desired value.

Fig. 7. Deviation of center-center distance of tray to solid filling station nozzle

from the desired value.

Fig. 7 shows that 33.33% (12) of the experiments met the

desired value with no deviation from the target. Allowable
limits for the deviation of center-center distance of tray to
solid filling station nozzle are ±100 mm. Observed values for
the remaining experiments are between ± 3 mm which are
well within the allowable limits.

As shown in Fig. 8, about 38.89% (7) bottles stopped for
the desired stopping time of 6 s. For the remaining
experiments, the actual stopping times of bottles are in
between 5.47 s and 6.23 s which are small deviations from the
desired value.
Fig. 10. Deviation of actual stopping time with desired stopping time of tray.
As shown in Fig. 10, it is noted that 38.89% (7) of trays
met the desired stopping time of 6 s. For the remaining
experiments, the actual stopping times of trays are in between
5.5 s and 6.14 s which are small deviations from the desired
value.

Fig. 11. Deviation of actual stopping time with desired stopping time of tray.
Fig. 11 shows that 33.33% (6) of the trays met the desired
stopping time of 8 s. For the remaining experiments, the actual
stopping times of trays are in between 7.53 s and 8.23 s which
are small deviations from the desired value.
Fig. 12. Deviation of total time taken for each experiment with the average
total time.
Fig. 12 shows the variation of the total time taken for each
experiment with the average. The average total time for
conducting the experiment is found to be 115.88 s.
B. Stage-II experiments
Fig. 13. Status of the bottles and trays at each experiment.
Fig. 13 depicts that the bottles and trays stop at liquid filling
station in experiment numbers 3, 9, 12 and solid filling station
in experiment number 6, 20, 23 since they will follow the
conditions for successful runs as mentioned in table I and table
II respectively. This is as expected. In the remaining 30
experiments, bottles and trays do not stop at the respective
filling stations due to wrong orientation, material type and
small dimensions as mentioned in table III and table IV.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
The automatic monitoring and control system is designed,
fabricated and validated successfully for monitoring and
controlling of two different objects simultaneously on a single
conveyor belt using Programmable Logic Controller. The
system was validated successfully by conducting experiments
using Taguchi’s methodology under different test conditions.
Experimental trials confirm the accuracy and validity of the
prototype. Behaviour and performance of the automatic
monitoring and controlling system was found to be as per
expectations with minimal deviations. The prototype
developed for controlling and monitoring of objects on belt
conveyor can be further developed into a full working model.
In future, the system can be monitored and controlled using
SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) [7], [10].
More than two types of objects can be monitored and
controlled simultaneously. Loading and un-loading of objects
on the conveyor can be automated. Sorting of bottles and trays
can be implemented [11].
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