March 3, 2023

Final Project

Project Theme

Intelligent bag tea brewing machine based on active interaction

By studying the target user groups of tea bags, our group found that our user groups are mainly young people, white-collar workers and business people, thus the tea brewer must be fast and simple in terms of function, and must meet the office and business social occasions in the scene. Therefore, we designed this active interaction-based tea brewing bag intelligent tea brewer. In terms of function, the tea brewer enables people to use tea bags more correctly and cultivate healthy tea bag use habits through its automatic lifting function and speed adjustment function. At the same time, the simple and uncomplicated design can make this tea brewer easy to get started, and users can easily master its usage functions. In terms of scenarios, the quickness and convenience of this tea brewer can meet the needs of office, study work and business social occasions. The intelligent tea brewer can adjust the speed for different types of tea, which can enhance the taste and nutrient extraction of the tea bags, making it easy and time-saving for people to enjoy the delicious taste of tea more pleasantly.


Design Background

Project Background

Tea, since ancient times, has originated in China. Tea culture has been prevalent in China for thousands of years and has never failed.

Nowadays, the fast-paced life makes people do not have enough time to enjoy the pleasure brought by brewing tea. The simplicity of the tea bag has replaced the complex process of traditional tea drinking. At the same time, the invention of the tea bag allows people to enjoy the fragrance of tea drinking and experience the charm of tea culture more quickly. Although the tea bag is easy to use, the correct brewing method can make people enjoy the delicious taste of tea more pleasantly and is beneficial to their health. Based on the above background, we have designed an intelligent tea brewer.

Analysis of the current situation and development trend

China’s bagged tea market has huge potential

Bagged tea has become an important part of global tea consumption. Data show that in Europe and the United States and other countries, the annual consumption of bagged tea accounts for more than 80% of the total consumption of tea, a large share of sales. While the annual consumption of bagged tea in China accounts for only about 5% of the total consumption of tea. Combined with the willingness of bagged tea consumption, the future of China's bagged tea market will maintain steady growth, and it is expected that the size of China's bagged tea online market will exceed 12.87 billion yuan in 2020.

China’s intelligent tea brewing machine market space is vast

Traditional Chinese tea is a semi-finished, slow-consuming product. Lipton bagged tea packaging (convenient, tea-water separation, standardization) brought about an industry revolution, and tea brewing machines will build on this foundation to bring about industry innovation and market growth again. Comparing to the world coffee market (¥2 trillion) and tea market (¥500 billion), the tea industry is catching up and the brewing machine market has huge potential. The emergence of intelligent tea brewing machines is in line with the market demand. With the improvement of people's living standard and the strengthening of health consciousness, more and more people are becoming concerned about tea culture and tea quality. However, the traditional way of making tea needs to master certain skills and experience, and for ordinary consumers, making tea is a relatively troublesome task. The emergence of intelligent tea brewing machine allows consumers to easily brew high quality tea, meeting the demand for quality and convenience, so the market demand is very strong.


Market and user research

Intelligent tea brewers have become increasingly popular among consumers in recent years, and this intelligent and convenient tea set has become a new favorite in tea culture. The intelligent tea brewing machine can match the simplicity of bagged tea and automatically adjust the brewing time and temperature with the user's preferences and habits, thus ensuring the quality and taste of the tea.

Market demand survey and analysis

According to the survey, 26.8% of Chinese consumers said they prefer bagged tea products in the first quarter of 2021, and among these consumers, 43.6% said they drink bagged tea very frequently (once a day or more), and only 2.0% of consumers have not yet drunk bagged tea. Bagged tea brewing and drinking is less restricted by time, space and other restrictions, so compared to tea is more suitable for high frequency drinking, with the increasing social awareness and recognition of bagged tea, bagged tea user groups are expected to further expand.

User Analysis

User Needs Analysis

According to the survey, in the first quarter of 2021, in the field of herbal bagged tea consumers like most is a variety of herbs mixed bagged tea products, single box of bagged tea price acceptance is mainly distributed between 20-60 yuan. As herbal tea is more functional in addition to taste, so a variety of herbal blends can not only enrich the taste experience, but also bring more different effects, more popular with consumers.

Analysis of usage scenarios

Data shows that consumers in the work study and daily drinking scenarios most like to drink bagged tea, while social gatherings and after-dinner scenarios in the status of bagged tea second only to tea. Bagged tea has gradually penetrated into various consumer scenarios, and the bagged tea intelligent tea brewing machine has become extremely important in these scenarios.


Summary of requirements

  • From the perspective of user groups: mainly young people, white-collar workers and business people.

  • From the perspective of functional needs: functionally meet the different brewing methods and needs for different bags of tea.

  • From the perspective of scene demand: social, business pickup, work study and other occasions.


Design process

Design Objectives

Design an intelligent tea brewing machine that can meet the needs of social, business and study scenarios of drinking tea bags, with the goal of achieving different brewing methods for different types of tea to meet the needs of young people, white-collar workers and business people. The requirements are simple, durable, cost-effective and easy to operate.


Function

Automatic lifting and pulling

The smart tea brewer can cultivate the habit of using tea bags correctly and enhance the taste of tea bags through the automatic lifting function.

When steeping the tea bag, you should gently lift and pull the tea bag to make it float up and down in the hot water, which can make the tea soup even. Tea bags should not be steeped all the time. Many people will steep the tea bags in hot water and drink them while steeping until they are finished, which is wrong. For example, if green tea is unfermented tea, take out the tea bag after putting it in for 30-60 seconds; while fermented tea, such as black tea, should be taken out after steeping for about 2 to 3 minutes. If you leave it all the time, the taste will deteriorate due to oxidation.

Speed Adjustment

The smart tea brewer can use the speed adjustment function to enhance the precipitation of nutrients in tea.

Tea bags can be brewed 2-3 times. Generally, when tea bags are brewed with boiling water, about 55% of the total soluble matter can be dissolved on the first brew; about 30% on the second brew; about 10% on the third brew; and only 1%-3% on the fourth brew. From the situation that the vitamins and amino acids contained in tea are leached out, 80% are leached out in the first brewing; the leaching rate reaches more than 95% in the 2nd brewing; the other active ingredients contained in tea such as tea polyphenols, caffeine, etc. are mostly the same.


Business Model Positioning

The business model of our designed intelligent tea brewing machine mainly includes two aspects of product sales and after-sales service. Product sales are mainly conducted through online and offline channels, online channels include e-commerce platforms and brand websites, offline channels include specialty stores, shopping malls, etc. After-sales service includes product warranty, maintenance and upgrade, etc. For consumers, the quality and efficiency of after-sales service are equally important. Therefore, we need to establish a perfect after-sales service system and provide quality after-sales service to enhance consumer satisfaction and loyalty.


Core Competencies: Product Advantages & Product Comparison

The intelligent tea brewer designed by our group is convenient, healthy and fashionable, bringing a new brewing experience to young people who like to drink tea. Through the technological and simple intelligent design, it replaces the tedious steps of boiling, filling and steeping of traditional manual tea brewing. Its promotion to make more people, especially young people, fall in love with tea can enhance their health awareness, enhance the pursuit of good flavor, enhance the habitual cultivation of tea drinking, as well as meet the demand for a more convenient lifestyle.


Prototyping and Production

Materials

Serial number System hardware list Quantity
1 Arduino nano main control board 1
2 Potentiometer Module 1
3 1637 digital tube module 1
4 Battery 1
5 Servo 1
6 Battery box 1
7 PMMA 1m*1m 1

Tinkcad Diagram


Arduino Code

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#include <Servo.h>
#include <SevenSegmentTM1637.h>

Servo servo_A0;
volatile int i;
SevenSegmentTM1637  display(8,9);

void setup(){
  servo_A0.attach(A0);
  i = 0;
   display.begin();
  display.setBacklight(100);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop(){
  if (i == 0) {
    servo_A0.write(0);
    delay(0);

  }
  if (i == 1) {
    servo_A0.write(0);
    delay(5000);
    servo_A0.write(90);
    delay(5000);

  }
  if (i == 2) {
    servo_A0.write(0);
    delay(4000);
    servo_A0.write(90);
    delay(4000);

  }
  if (i == 3) {
    servo_A0.write(0);
    delay(3000);
    servo_A0.write(90);
    delay(3000);

  }
  if (i == 4) {
    servo_A0.write(0);
    delay(2000);
    servo_A0.write(90);
    delay(2000);

  }
  if (i == 5) {
    servo_A0.write(0);
    delay(1000);
    servo_A0.write(90);
    delay(1000);

  }

  Serial.println((map(analogRead(A1), 1, 1023, 0, 5)));
  i = (map(analogRead(A1), 1, 1023, 0, 5));
  display.print(i);

}

The Procedure of Fabrication

1.Write the image in rhino preparing for laser cutting.

2.Cut the PMMA with laser.

3.Assemble the PMMA to several parts and fix with hot melt glue.

4.Fix the arduino with the PMMA with the glue.

5.Assemble every parts to a product.


Product Photo


Demonstration Animation


Significance and Outlook

SDGs analysis

Goal 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

Smart tea brewers aim to make more people, especially young people, fall in love with tea, which can enhance their health awareness, enhance the pursuit of good flavor, enhance good tea drinking culture, maintain a healthy lifestyle, as well as meet the demand for a more convenient lifestyle.

Goal 9: INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

This intelligent tea brewing machine supports the embodiment of our efforts as a part of developing countries, focusing on technology development, research and innovation in the domestic market, innovating the way to drink tea, thus diversifying industrial products and increasing the added value of goods.

Goal 12: RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

This intelligent tea brewing machine adopts a more sustainable production and consumption model, making the tea industry not only stop at some groups of people, but making the tea industry sustainable and moving into all groups.


Intelligent tea brewing machine + intelligent tea tray

Intelligent tea brewing machine after brewing tea before flowing into the tea tray storage pot, storage pot to maintain the temperature, the tea cup automatically placed on the tea tray, detect the weight of the tea cup, tea cup if empty, storage pot through the tea tray pipeline automatically add the right amount of tea to the tea cup.

Water leakage alarm + intelligent power off

Place the flooding alarm, the user sets the linkage scene, if the flooding alarm is induced, the linkage socket for power failure.

About this Post

This post is written by Guo Herui, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.