Engineering Commons^™

Utilization Of Automated Gcc Optimization For Dual-Width Instruction Sets On The Arm Architecture, Shane Watson

Computer Engineering

One of the most important considerations in embedded systems is code size. This consideration is obviously imposed by external factors such as cost and physical space, but what it boils down to is that we want our devices to be as powerful as they can within a (typically limited) specific form factor. This limits the amount of space we have for memory and as such we should always be considering the code size of our application and making sure it’s as efficient as possible. We also then need to consider other factors such as performance and power consumption. This is …

Development Of A Cubesat Payload To Model Particle Dampening In Space: Design And Implementation Of Software For Cp7, Daniel Walker

Computer Engineering

The California Polytechnic State University CubeSat student research & development group, PolySat, is currently in a mature development stage of a single unit CubeSat designated CP7. The CP7 mission implements a scientific payload designed to characterize particle dampers in microgravity conditions. When subjected to vibration, the momentum exchanges and frictional forces of the particles create a damping effect that can be optimized to suit a number of applications over a broad frequency and amplitude range. In space based applications, particle dampers would serve as a robust and simple device to eliminate jitter in optical assemblies and other sensitive instrumentation. This …

Intelligent Planning And Assimilation Of Auv-Obtained Measurements Within A Roms-Based Ocean Modeling System, Benjamin J. Davini

Master's Theses

Efforts to learn more about the oceans that surround us have increased dramatically as the technological ability to do so grows. Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are one such technological advance. They allow for rapid deployment and can gather data quickly in places and ways that traditional measurement systems (bouys, profilers, etc.) cannot. A ROMS-based data assimilation method was developed that intelligently plans for and integrates AUV measurements with the goal of minimizing model standard deviation. An algorithm developed for this system is first described that optimizes paths for AUVs that seeks to improve the model by gathering data in high-interest …

Sports-Tool, Bryant Ung

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Creating events and finding people to play sports is a hard thing to do. The solution to this problem is to provide a web based interactive site that allows people to create and join different type of events and interact with each other by creating teams.

Design And Implementation Of User Level Socket Application Programming Interface With Socket Splitting And Mediation, Scott Walter Holzer

Master's Theses

Over the past few decades, the size and scope of the Internet has grown exponentially. In order to maintain support for legacy clients, new applications and services have been limited by dependence on traditional sockets and TCP, which provide no support for modifying endpoints after connection setup. This forces applications to implement their own logic to reroute communications to take advantage of composable services or handle failover. Some solutions have added socket operations that allow for endpoints to be redirected on the fly, but these have been limited in scope to handling failover and load balancing.

We present two new …

Asynchronous Mips Processors: Educational Simulations, Robert L. Webb

Master's Theses

The system clock has been omnipresent in most mainstream chip designs. While simplifying many design problems the clock has caused the problems of clock skew, high power consumption, electromagnetic interference, and worst-case performance. In recent years, as the timing constraints of synchronous designs have been squeezed ever tighter, the efficiencies of asynchronous designs have become more attractive. By removing the clock, these issues can be mitigated. How- ever, asynchronous designs are generally more complex and difficult to debug. In this paper I discuss the advantages of asynchronous processors and the specifics of some asynchronous designs, outline the roadblocks to asynchronous …

Snmp Integration Into The Cygnet Scada System, Paul Fake

Computer Engineering

The SNMP Remote Device is a CygNet-integrated software device that can communicate (read-only) with any managed network hardware. It has the ability to retrieve any managed object, requiring only a host name or IP, a community name (password), and the object identifier (OID). This Remote Device is fully-integrated into the CygNet SCADA system. Users can create the device in the DDS service, create a Point for each managed object, map the Points to UDCs, store data into the Points, and schedule the retrieval of data.

Ultrasonic Shark-Tag Locator System For Iver2 Auv, Nathaniel Garcia

Computer Engineering

The purpose of this project is to develop a system for tracking an ultrasonic underwater transmitter that can be integrated into an IVER2 AUV to allow it to follow and monitor tagged sharks in the ocean for scientific research.

The system consists of a four main components including a shark-tag, two hydrophones, a filter/amplifier & threshold detector circuit, and a microcontroller.

This project, while not completing field testing and integration with the IVER2, is a proof of concept of a system that utilizes passive sonar to determine a bearing from the system to a shark-tag transmitter. Additionally, it devised several …

Memento: Personal Scrapbook Android Application, Ryan Joseph Rosete

Computer Engineering

The Memento project focuses on providing Android phone users with a new alternative to capture memories. Its main purpose is to create an application that stores pictures and data on an Android phone. Users can view these saved entries for later use to recall what they have done in the past or show to others. The initial idea for this project stemmed from a personal interest in both scrapbooks and popular microblog services. The application aims to provide a new service that is currently not offered in the Android Market.

In order to create this application, there are two main …

Irrigation Leak Detection: Using Flow Rate Sensors To Detect Breaks In An Irrigation System, Adam Openshaw, Kalvin Vu

Computer Engineering

This report details the exploration and invention of a mechanism that can detect breaks in an irrigation system. With the ultimate goal of conserving water, we have designed an inexpensive, self sustaining flow rate monitor that can be used to identify anomalies in an irrigation system and wirelessly communicate the status of the system to a base station. Our implementation can also determine the direction of the anomaly based on the nature of the anomaly itself. This means that multiple monitors can be used to pinpoint the location of a break within the system in addition to merely detecting its …

Characterization Of The Rfx400 For Use In Software Defined Radio, Edward Adams

Computer Engineering

While software defined radio is an extremely flexible technology that is fairly rarely used, as a single purpose radio is much cheaper, it provides an excellent means of learning RF and communications skills through the lens of digital electronics, and it would behoove a Cal Poly student interested in these areas to take on a project in software defined radio. This project aims to lower the barrier to entry for future students to undertake such a project. The use of an up-converter/down-converter is documented for future students to interface with.

Rfid Asset Tracking And Digital Check-Out System, Jeffrey (Jeff) Migliore

Computer Engineering

An asset tracking and digital check-out system was developed using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and a Single Board Computer (SBC). A RFID reader was used as a check point to process transactions. The RFID reader was attached to the SBC via USB. The SBC is integrated into a network via Ethernet and hosts a web graphical user interface (GUI) frontend for users to view transactions and query availability of assets. A MYSQL database was used for the backend storage of data.

Specifically, this system was designed to track tool assets. Many modern companies have employees sharing limited resources. The common …

Nexys 2 Slot Machine, Mark Luna

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

A Low Power Touch Screen Document Viewer, Chris Perfetto

Computer Engineering

This document will cover the requirements, design, implementation and testing of a low power touch screen document viewer to serve as a replacement bulletin board. It was Implemented using a BeagleBoard development board, a 4.3” touchscreen LCD and a SD card with a Ubuntu Linux OS installed. The testing of this device is primarily testing the power consumption. The device is not yet complete and will require further development for it to completely satisfy the requirements.

Wii-Mote Head Tracking: A Three Dimensional Virtual Reality Display, David Fairman

Computer Engineering

The goal of this project is to create a customizable three dimensional virtual reality display on a system available to any non-technical user. This System will use the infrared camera component of a standard Nintendo Wii-mote to track a user's head motions in all six major directions. The virtual reality will be a customizable image projected onto a screen or simply shown on a computer or TV monitor. In order to appear 3-dimensional, the image will continually change according to the position of the user's head. As the user moves their head to the left and right, portions of the …

Bluetooth "Clicker": Response Pads For Large Classes, Using Bluetooth Devices, Dana Goyette

Computer Engineering

When teaching classes with many students, many teachers opt to use “Clicker” devices to electronically poll students. This project aims to replace these “Clicker” devices with standard Bluetooth devices. The overall goal of this project is to create a framework for two-way communications between a base station and multiple remote devices.

Max Flow Spill Code Placement Algorithm Implemented In Gcc 4.4.3, Stephen Robert Beard

Computer Engineering

The placement of spill code plays an important role in the register allocator of an optimizing compiler. Many computer architectures possess a register linkage convention that dictates which registers are preserved across function calls and which are not. This project addresses the problem of optimizing spill code that is associated with register linkage conventions.

This algorithm was created by Dr. Chris Lupo and is described in the paper Beyond Register Allocation: a Novel Algorithm for Spill-Code Placement. The algorithm was implemented for GCC 2.5.7 for a PA-RISC architecture [4]. The work in this project will involve porting the existing code …

Household Outlet Monitoring And Control System, Michael Young

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Design And Usability Of Social Networking Web Sites, Robert Pessagno

Graphic Communication

This study began by designing the layout of a new social networking Web site and putting it to practical use. A team of computer science students at Cal Poly developed this social networking site for their senior project, and called it Friend Riot. The new and innovative features that Friend Riot consists of set it apart from other popular social networking Web sites, but its interface was lacking a good design. When the new design was implemented, it was tested against the competition: Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects that Web design …

Ofdm Simulation In Matlab, Paul Guanming Lin

Electrical Engineering

The objective of this project is to demonstrate the concept and feasibility of an OFDM system, and investigate how its performance is changed by varying some of its major parameters. This objective is met by developing a MATLAB program to simulate a basic OFDM system. From the process of this development, the mechanism of an OFDM system can be studied; and with a completed MATLAB program, the characteristics of an OFDM system can be explored.

Uav Pirates And Silentrack Integration, Travis Dean, Hushnak Singh, Ashley Wager, Matthew (Matt) Woolridge

Electrical Engineering

The integration of the UAV pirating system with the SilenTrack video tracking system will allow the combined system to automatically identify and track a suspicious air vehicle visually as well as identify and decode the RF control signal. Once a threat has been identified, the system will execute an algorithm to associate each control channel with the corresponding flight control surface. Once the control channels have been decoded the user can use a hand held radio controller to maneuver the drone which is now under their command.

Touch Screen Sound Controller, James Fenley, Jonathan Law

Electrical Engineering

The Touch Screen Sound Controller sets out to explore the use of a touch screen as a sound control interface for the disk jockey profession. In addition, the project aims to provide an alternate means of transferring audio data by way of TCP/IP communications as opposed to MIDI. By applying our method, a user may stream pulse-code modulated data from a server onto a client’s RAM via an Ethernet connection. A 32bit, 200MHz ARM9 microprocessor addresses data from the RAM and proceeds with executing DSP instructions from the user. The connection between the touch screen and the central microprocessor is …

Aircraft Data Collection System, Amy Kronsteiner, Danny Marx, Collin Heller, Nathaniel Garcia, Nicholas Riccobono, Scott Parks, Albert Liu

Biomedical Engineering

This report outlines the design and building process for an interchangeable testing device that collects aircraft performance data. Included is the project objectives, system requirements, management plan, design concept development, design details, manufacturing procedures, and project verification test plans. The device is a wing-mounted Pitot-static system integrated with an Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS).

Digital Signaling Processor Resource Management For Small Office Phone Systems, John T. Gilkeson

Master's Theses

Contemporary small office phone systems are specialized computers that connect a variety of phones within the office and to the local phone company. These systems use digital signaling processors (DSPs) to convert signals from analog to digital and vice-versa. Many different types of applications run on the DSPs and different businesses have varying application needs. Given the systems have limited amounts of DSP resources and growing numbers of applications for a phone system, an administrator needs a way to configure the uses of resources based on their individual business needs.

This thesis provides an overview of a system for configuring …

Http 1.2: Distributed Http For Load Balancing Server Systems, Graham M. O'Daniel

Master's Theses

Content hosted on the Internet must appear robust and reliable to clients relying on such content. As more clients come to rely on content from a source, that source can be subjected to high levels of load. There are a number of solutions, collectively called load balancers, which try to solve the load problem through various means. All of these solutions are workarounds for dealing with problems inherent in the medium by which content is served thereby limiting their effectiveness. HTTP, or Hypertext Transport Protocol, is the dominant mechanism behind hosting content on the Internet through websites. The entirety of …

Multiple Robot Boundary Tracking With Phase And Workload Balancing, Michael Jay Boardman

Master's Theses

This thesis discusses the use of a cooperative multiple robot system as applied to distributed tracking and sampling of a boundary edge. Within this system the boundary edge is partitioned into subsegments, each allocated to a particular robot such that workload is balanced across the robots. Also, to minimize the time between sampling local areas of the boundary edge, it is desirable to minimize the difference between each robot’s progression (i.e. phase) along its allocated sub segment of the edge. The paper introduces a new distributed controller that handles both workload and phase balancing. Simulation results are used to illustrate …

Monocular Vision And Image Correlation To Accomplish Autonomous Localization, Matthew Paul Schlachtman

Master's Theses

For autonomous navigation, robots and vehicles must have accurate estimates of their current state (i.e. location and orientation) within an inertial coordinate frame. If a map is given a priori, the process of determining this state is known as localization. When operating in the outdoors, localization is often assumed to be a solved problem when GPS measurements are available. However, in urban canyons and other areas where GPS accuracy is decreased, additional techniques with other sensors and filtering are required.

This thesis aims to provide one such technique based on monocular vision. First, the system requires a map be generated, …

Textured Hierarchical Precomputed Radiance Transfer, Harrison Lee Mckenzie Chapter

Master's Theses

Computing complex lighting simulations such as global illumination is a computationally intensive task. Various real time solutions exist to approximate aspects of global illumination such as shadows, however, few of these methods offer single pass rendering solutions for soft shadows (self and other) and inter-reflections. In contrast, Precomputed Radiance Transfer (PRT) is a real-time computer graphics technique which pre-calculates an object's response to potential incident light. At run time, the actual incident light can be used to quickly illuminate the surface, rendering effects such as soft self-shadows and inter-reflections. In this thesis, we show that by calculating PRT lighting coefficients …

Hidra: Hierarchical Inter-Domain Routing Architecture, Bryan Clevenger

Master's Theses

As the Internet continues to expand, the global default-free zone (DFZ) forwarding table has begun to grow faster than hardware can economically keep pace with. Various policies are in place to mitigate this growth rate, but current projections indicate policy alone is inadequate. As such, a number of technical solutions have been proposed. This work builds on many of these proposed solutions, and furthers the debate surrounding the resolution to this problem. It discusses several design decisions necessary to any proposed solution, and based on these tradeoffs it proposes a Hierarchical Inter-Domain Routing Architecture - HIDRA, a comprehensive architecture with …

Pretty Lights, Nicholas (Nick) Delmas, Matthew (Matt) Maniaci

Computer Engineering

Digital media players often include a visualization component that allows a user to watch a visualization synchronized to their music or videos. This project uses the visualization plugin API of an existing media playback program (WinAmp) but it displays its visuals using physical LED lights. Instead of outputting visuals to the computer screen, data is sent over USB to a micro controller that runs the LED lights. This project aims to give users a more visceral visual experience than traditional visualizations on the computer screen.