• Automatic dispenser which is developed in an IoT (Internet of Things) platform based gadget
• Sampreeth Natarajan is a 7th standard student of The Samhitha Academy, Bangalore
• It can be used easily by everyone, starting from a kid to an elderly person
• An inspiring example of productivity and greater innovation at such a young age 

The sudden closure of every educational institution with the outbreak of COVID-19 turned into an in-house vacation for maximum youngsters. While most children are caught up with playing games and relaxing at home, Sampreeth Nataraj, a 12 years old kid, utilized this spare time to research and have successfully developed an Automatic Hand Sanitizer Dispenser, becoming a young inspiration in assisting India to combat COVID-19.

Though, nowadays it is essential to sanitize hands, touching the same bottle surface already used by someone may increase the risk of contamination. Therefore, to take a shot at this issue, Sampreeth came up with the automatic dispenser which is an IoT (Internet of Things) platform based gadget using Arduino and effectively ensures zero contact, parallelly keeping the hands clean.

12-years old Sampreeth is currently studying in The Samhitha Academy, Bangalore, and is about to go to 7th standard. Machine Maker had an exclusive interview of him, where he explains, “if a person comes home from outside, he has to press the sanitizer which already someone else might have touched. Thus it leads to indirect contact over there. So, this issue motivated me to take certain initiative and as a result, I began researching in this direction with the help of my father. My main intention was to make a project where we can sanitize our hands without touching anything”.

Sensors to Sanitizing

The automatic hand sanitizer dispenser is an IoT enabled platform, based on an ultrasonic sensor, two servo motors, a hand sanitizer bottle, and few electrical and physical connections. Discussing this he mentioned the various sensors used in the project, which includes:

HC-SR04 – It offers excellent non-contact range detection with high accuracy and stable readings from 2cm to 400cm. The modules include ultrasonic transmitters, receiver, and control circuits.

MICRO SERVO MOTOR SG90 – This is a type of gear motor that can only rotate 180 degrees. It is controlled by sending electrical pulses from the board and further, these pulses determine the position of the motor.

Arduino Uno Board – The Arduino kit helps to create small projects, where one has to program, test, and run. The kit also provides sensor cables, an Arduino board, and Motors.

How It Works

The functioning of the automatic dispenser seems to be very simple and effective as one simply needs to wave their hands near the ultrasonic sensor and instantly the sanitizer gets ejected from the bottle into the awaiting palms. It can be used easily by everyone, starting from a kid to an elderly person. Elaborating in detail Sampreeth said, “When you move your hands in front of the ultrasonic sensor, the sensor senses the movement and the distance is calculated. If the distance is less than a certain limit, it triggers the Servo Motor to spin 180 degrees. As a result, the string attached to the Motor along with the nozzle of the hand sanitizer is pulled which gives the press effect and leads to disposal of sanitizer”.

My parents always encouraged me to use Arduino programming to make small projects hence, I utilised this Technology for developing automatic dispenser. I even took reference for a few things from YouTube. While working my father helped me with little programming bugs whereas my mother helped with physical connections

Sampreeth Nataraj
Student, The Samhitha Academy
 

It almost took him 5 to 6 days to complete the whole procedure and he mentioned that he received immense support from his parents throughout. Despite failing many times, Sampreeth didn’t give up and accomplished success through his strong determination. Discussing the difficulties he confronted while working, he added, “Firstly, I didn’t know how to fix the motor to hand sanitizer dispenser, secondly even if we managed to fix the motor, one motor didn’t spin in the right direction. Later, the wires attached to the nozzle and motor got loose and during the first attempt the sanitizer didn’t dispose of even though everything was in the right position”. But conquering each hindrance with the support of his folks he justified that optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.

He lastly included that he even tried to upgrade the Automatic Hand sanitizer dispenser to a ‘Sound sensor-based dispenser' and as of now is attempting to check if Google Cloud AUTO ML can be utilized for the same or any different project. The story of Sampreeth is a breath-taking example of productivity at such a young age and we can foresee that our nation's future exists in great hands which can make the world a better place to live in.

For more details, contact Nataraj P, father of Sampreeth, pnatraj@gmail.com