NSF-Funded Student Design Projects:
Automated Page Mover

Designers: Nasr Abdul-Mujeeb, Michael Antaran, Mik Kovac, Saad Rauf, and Gregory Slack
Modification Designers: Chris Bujak and David Sant
Client Coordinator: Lynne Hagmann
Western Wayne Skill Center
Supervisor: Robert Erlandson, Ph.D.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202

INTRODUCTION

The Western Wayne Skill Center in Westland, Michigan provides pre-vocational and vocational training services for students aged 15-26 years with disabilities ranging from learning impaired to severely mentally and physically impaired. Students at the skill center are taught clerical tasks, such as data entry, as well as counting tasks, such as counting papers for mailing. Before the accommodation, students doing data entry required a great deal of staff assistance to (1) focus on one line on the paper at a time and (2) switch pages after inputting all of the data from one page. Students counting papers had to have a great deal of finger dexterity and be able to count reliably to do the task or else rely on staff to manipulate the paper. The page mover accommodation automates both of these processes so that students can manipulate the paper handling by using a single switch.

SUMMARY OF IMPACT

The ETL Page mover provides an effective means of viewing or counting single sheets of 8.5” by 11” sheets of paper. The device can be used in two different modes: a line-by-line mode and a continuous mode. For data entry tasks, the line-by-line mode is used so that, when a template or shield is placed over the paper, the student can see only one line at a time. To move from one line to the next, the student simply has to hit a single switch. This accommodation prevents students who have tracking or attention difficulties from losing their place on the page. For paper counting tasks, which uses the continuous mode, the device can be interfaced to programmable counting devices, thus reducing the cognitive demand of the task. The accommodations provided by the automated page mover have allowed more students to participate in paper handling tasks without having to rely on a great deal of staff intervention.

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

There are two basic components to the page mover (Figure 1). These components consist of the mechanical paper handling system and the electronic control system. The mechanical paper handling system consists of a DC gear motor with a 80:1 reduction ratio that is connected to a set of opposing feed rollers by a timing belt. The opposing rollers work by allowing the topmost paper in a stack to be drawn into the unit while an opposing roller is used to push down any other papers that have been drawn up along with the first page. The electronic control system consists of many parts, including a sensor to detect when the paper is properly stacked on the paper tray, a paper eject sensor that is used to determine when a page has left the rollers, and the electronic control unit, which has the mode selection switch and the connection for the user switch.

When a student presses the user switch, several events occur. The controller checks the status of the mode switch and determines if it is in continuous mode or line-by-line mode. If the entire page is to be ejected,  then the motor is energized, forcing the top page up until the paper activates the topmost sensor. Once this happens, the motor is reversed until the bottommost sensor is cleared. This will return any partially drawn-up pages and clear any paper jams. If the mode switch is set to the line-by-line mode, the paper is advanced one line per switch hit until the top sensor is activated, at which point the page is ejected using the same method as the continuous mode.

The automated page mover is a modular unit and can be interfaced to other ETL devices, such as the ETL Counter Controller. The hardware and software for this design and the design modifications cost $480.