Design of a command and control system for an automatic pill dispenser

The main purpose of this paper is to present a system designed to facilitate the distribution of pills to people in need and the work of medical staff with the help of technology. The project consists of several parts, it includes the design of a system which will use a programming interface with a keyboard and an LCD and design of a mechanical unit which will store the pill boxes and will deliver pills at a specific time and day. Our system is developed using an ATmega328PB microcontroller, interfaced with two solenoids, a stepper motor, two microswitches, one buzzer, a real time clock module and an LCD with 16 lines by 2 columns display. We have developed an algorithm that consists in setting the number of pills specified in a prescription and setting the interval to deliver those pills. The system alerts the user when it is time to take the pills, the alert will intensify if the pills are not removed from the tray. In order to keep the microcontroller peripheral use to minimum, the system benefits from a 5-button keyboard based on the principle of a voltage divider which will only use one ADC pin. The keyboard is used to program the number of pills and the specified intervals.