Designing an Automatic Card Shuffler :: Robotics

Background Most automatic card shufflers on the market today have a card output slot, a card input slot, a card separation area, and an arm between the card input slot and the separation area. The card input slot is where used cards are put to be shuffled. The arm makes sure that not too many cards enter the separation area at a time. The separation area is where the actual shuffling occurs. The most common method of separation uses a system of rotating belts to pull cards out of the main pile and put them back at random (Card Shuffler). Another method uses a series of elevators. The elevators move up and down, while cards are inserted randomly into each one. Then, the piles in the elevators are shuffled together (Uncomfortable Shoe). This design adds another level of randomness to the shuffling. The last essential part of the shuffler is the card output slot, which is simply where the shuffled cards come out of the machine. Our robot will be different. It has a card input and output slot, but the rest of the machine is different. It shuffles by randomly choosing from several trays full of cards. This method is faster and is more flexible regarding the number of cards being shuffled than other shufflers. Also, this machine will deal a number of different card games automatically. Casinos will want this robot because it is a faster way to shuffle more cards. It makes it so that players can not "count" cards to gain an advantage over the casinos, and with its automatic dealing capabilities, it will increase their efficiency, allowing them to earn more money. Preliminary Design Our product will do more than current automatic card shufflers. In addition to just shuffling the cards, it will also deal them out. The final product will have many shuffling trays, to increase the capacity and effectiveness of the shuffler. It will have an LCD display with inputs that allow card players to select a game on the screen, and the robot will shuffle and deal the cards according to the rules of the game. The final product will be mostly enclosed in a plastic case, to make it look streamlined and prevent tampering or damage to the parts inside. The internals, however, will not be plastic. The gears will be welloiled metal, and the gates will also be smooth plastic to allow the cards to exit them rapidly. To allow the 2 robot to be low-cost, the metal parts would have to be aluminum. There would be little to no specialized