Hardware based design and implementation of a bottle recycling machine using FPGA

Conventional reverse vending machines use complex image processing technology to detect the bottles which make it more expensive. In this paper the design of a Smart Bottle Recycle Machine (SBRM) is presented. It is designed on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) using an ultrasonic range sensor which is readily available at a low cost. The sensor was used to calculate the number of bottles and distinguish between them. The main objective of this project is to build a SBRM at a cheaper production cost. This project was implemented on Altera DE2-115 board using Verilog HDL. This prototype enables the user to recycle plastic bottles and receive reward points. FPGA was chosen because hardware based implementation on a FPGA is usually much faster than the software based implementation on a microcontroller. The former is also capable of executing concurrent parallel processes at a high speed where the latter can only do a limited amount of parallel execution. So, overall FPGAs are more efficient than the microcontrollers for development of reliable and real time applications. The developed project is environment friendly and cost effective.