Engineering Commons^™

Characterization Of An E2v Charge-Coupled Device For The Michelson Interferometer For Global High-Resolution Thermospheric Imaging Instrument, James Beukers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis presents the characterization process of an imaging device for a satellite. The camera system was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) and will be used in the Michelson Interferometer for Global High-resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) instrument for National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Ionospheric Con- nection Explorer (ICON) satellite. This mission will further scientists' understanding of the connection between the Earth's weather and ionospheric conditions. The ionosphere, a part of the atmosphere, interferes with satellite communications, causing disturbances and disruptions. By learning more about the ionosphere through the data collected by this instrument, scientists will better understand …

Attacker-Induced Traffic Flow Instability In A Stream Of Automated Vehicles, Daniel D. Dunn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Highway systems world wide continue to see an ever increased number of vehicles and subsequently a rise in congested traffic. This results in longer commute times, wasted energy as vehicles idle in stop and go traffic, and increases the risk of accidents. In short, increased congestion costs time and money. These issues have prompted much research into Automated Highway Systems (AHS). In AHS vehicles using computer algorithms can safely travel at much smaller inter-vehicle distances than human drivers are capable of. This increases the capacity of existing highway systems. Sensors aboard each vehicle make this possible by monitoring their surroundings. …

Remote Heart Rate Estimation Using Consumer-Grade Cameras, Nathan E. Ruben

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

There are many ways in which the remote non-contact detection of the human heart rate might be useful. This is especially true if it can be done using inexpensive equipment such as consumer-grade cameras. Many studies and experiments have been performed in recent years to help reliably determine the heart rate from video footage of a person. The methods have taken an analysis approach which involves temporal Itering and frequency spectrum examination. This study attempts to answer questions about the noise sources which inhibit these methods from estimating the heart rate. Other statistical processes are examined for their use in …

Two Types Of Conformal Antennas For Small Spacecrafts, Salahuddin Tariq

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spacecraft and vehicular bodies often require antennas that are conformal to their surface. The advantage of this choice is that they do not suffer from air drag or breakage and can be formed into any desirable shape. We can make them to operate at those frequencies at which simple wire antennas will require considerably longer length. Our thesis is about conformal antenna design for two space projects. The first project involves an array of patch antennas placed on multi-layer cylindrical substrate. Four of these antennas are S-band and four of them are GPS-band antennas. The second project deals with the …

Smart Carabiner, Craig Manning

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Users of common climbing safety equipment rarely understand exactly the loads and forces they are exerting on the equipment at a given time. All climbing equipment comes with a certified safety rating for the amount of force, in kilonewtons, that particular piece of equipment can take. Unfortunately, calculating dynamic load strain on-the-fly is nearly impossible. There needs to be a reliable, easy way of knowing exactly what load is being placed on a piece of equipment at any given point of time.

Mimicking Robotic Backhoe, Taylor Chad Bybee

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The proposed project is to design and create a small robotic arm that mimics movements of a similar physical model. The manual model can be manipulated by a human. Sensors inside the manual model will detect the position in each part of the arm. The information from the sensors will then be relayed, processed, and forwarded to the mimicking model. The mimicking robotic model will appropriately respond to match the smaller model, thus mimicking its position and movements.

Lateral Control Of A Vehicle Platoon, Samuel A. Mitchell

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Multiple lateral control systems are analyzed for use in a vehicle platoon system. In order to ensure the safety of the vehicle platoon, the system must operate under three constraints: (1) accurate path following, (2) string stability, and (3) functionality in the presence of noise. Computer simulations are employed to analyze candidates according to the safety requirements. Actual vehicle kinematics and nonlinearities - limits on turn radius, velocity, and acceleration - are included in this analysis.

Successful control system candidates are implemented in a platoon of five differential-steer vehicles. The sensing and communication requirements of the control system are discussed. …

Microscopic Modeling Of Crowds Involving Individuals With Physical Disability: Exploring Social Force Interaction, Daniel S. Stuart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Nearly one quarter of a population is affected by a disability which influences crowd evacuation. Emergencies such as stampede or crowd crush can occur during evacuations. While research has investigated crowd evacuation, little has been researched involving individuals with disabilities. There is a need to understand and model individuals with disabilities in their interaction and how it impacts crowd movement. This dissertation creates a video tracking system to study heterogeneous crowds with individuals with disabilities towards conducting crowd experiments. A large-scale crowd experiment is conducted and the results are analyzed through a developed analysis graphical user interface. Preliminary results of …

Optimization And Control Of Lumped Transmitting Coil-Based In-Motion Wireless Power Transfer Systems, Nazmul Hasan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis explores optimization and control aspects of in-motion electric vehicle charging. The vision is of an electrified roadway, where the vehicles can move and charge at the same time. The present systems have long tracks embedded in the roadway which transfer energy. This thesis explores smaller coils in the road, which has the promise of higher efficiency and lower volt ampere ratings. The promise can only be realized through optimized design and synchronized control of charging with respect to vehicle position. The existing design procedures lack comprehensiveness, require designer experience and use computationally costly 3D FEM algorithms. The proposed …

Design Of Reliable And Secure Network-On-Chip Architectures, Dean Michael B Ancajas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The trend towards massive parallel computing has necessitated the need for an On-Chip communication framework that can scale well with the increasing number of cores. At the same time, technology scaling has made transistors susceptible to a multitude of reliability issues. This dissertation demonstrates design techniques that address both reliability and security issues facing modern NoC architectures. The reliability and security problem is tackled at different abstraction levels using a series of schemes that combine information from the architecture-level as well as hardware-level in order to combat aging effects and meet secure design stipulations while maintaining modest power-performance overheads.

Smart Laboratory Instrument Control Framework, Kevin Scott Kennedy

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The collection of experimental results in power electronic research requires the coordination of a wide variety of laboratory instrument. Depending on the type of results required, each data point can take a few minutes to collect. This process becomes time consuming when a large number of data points is needed and detracts from long-term research objectives. While there are industry standards that specify communication with these devices, many equipment vendors elect not to follow the standards and use their own protocols for communication. This project provides a framework for developing a smart and connected lab. This includes hardware and software …