Engineering Commons^™

Tree Canopy Analysis: Improving Forest And Tree Health Through Aerial Spectral Measurement, Yaw Amoatin, Adam Hrycyk, Alex Yoon

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Richmond has a large quantity of trees which currently cannot be efficiently monitored for individual tree health. This lack of monitoring results in high mortality rates. It is to the benefit of the city financially that these trees are saved instead of having to be replaced. The solution includes the delivery of an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) with modified camera technology for image processing and log identification utilizing Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values as numerical indicators of health. A low-cost, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) compliant system was required for solution implementation and budget appropriations. It was decided aerial imagery …

People Counting In Open Spaces, Nick Reuter, Taylor Roberts, Chris Thomas

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The need addressed in this project is to accurately keep track of individuals in Richmond parks, and provide real-time actionable data for analysis and response. To do this, Satellite systems take pictures, perform object detection and send data to the Central Controller. Central Controller performs accuracy analysis and records end result. It also sends client commands to the satellite systems. Remote client gathers data from the central controller, and allows the user to change satellite system’s operation modes.

There were several constraints associated with the project 1) Supplied Power 2) Privacy protection 3) Number of satellite units (cost) 4) People …

Human Occupancy: A Non-Invasive Solution, Hamid Golgiri, Patrick Van Hoecke, Derrick Williams

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Currently, it is difficult to find an available location within a crowded setting. To solve this spatial issue, the team wants to be able to inform people of the density in commonly-occupied areas. To do this, they will need to develop Area Occupancy Device Modules (AODMs) to gather thermal readings. After which, the data will be sent to a central coordinator via mesh network communication. This coordinator will then interpret the data and display its analysis in a graphical user interface (GUI). The system is constrained in that it cannot gather defining characteristics of the people it’s observing. Additionally, the …

Uav Wireless Relay, Paul Kirchoff, Lawrence Ng, David Vieth

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Often a scenario arises in which it is necessary to collection information from a hostile environment and the safest way to do this is the deployment of a small unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). In this situation the UGV will move around the environment while sending a live data stream back to the ground base. However, there can be limits on the maneuverability and range of the UGV making it difficult to complete this mission. To solve this problem unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are used to assist in both the deployment of the UGV as well as handling the connection between …

Kinectvision360: A Real-Time Human Tracking System, Robert Ha, Ravideep Marwaha, Joseph Crouch

Capstone Design Expo Posters

KinectVision360 project integrates multiple Microsoft Kinect sensors to investigate the capabilities of the low cost human interactive device to apply them to modern problems in comparison to high cost devices. The project includes human face/skeletal tracking and a larger field of vision. We incorporate three Kinects (1st generation) and a custom computer with components necessary to process large amounts of data in real-time. Figure 1 represents an overview of the processes the program follows in order to execute and visualize the data for tracking. The “FaceTracking” class contains algorithms and logic to retrieve skeletal information from infrared depth sensors in …

Enhancing Fire Fighter Situational Awareness With Remote Uav Thermal Imaging, Jarett Chaine, Nathan Ellingson, Herve Iradukunda

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Fighting highly dynamic and unpredictable structure fires can be very challenging and dangerous for firefighters. They need full situational awareness of the fire as it evolves. In these situations, it is difficult for firefighters to gain insight on whether they are winning or losing the battle against the fire. By gathering thermal images of a burning structure, our Thermal Imaging System will be able to provide real time data to help first responders mitigate risks associated with unpredictable fire dynamics.

The FAA is currently modifying and creating more regulations to address integrating UAVs with the existing aviation network. This makes …

Dynamic Cg Display For Recovery Cranes, Tariq Haddad, Steven Lemasters

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The objective of this project is to give recovery crane operators the ability to visualize the crane's center of gravity, while picking up a load. With this ability, the operators will know when the crane is close to tipping over. Currently, no system dynamically calculates the center of gravity. This is especially important for recovery cranes, which typically work on un-level ground. This system can save a recovery crane company millions in damage to the crane, and prevent injuries to the operator or support personnel on site. Also by storing the data it can help in determining fault if a …

Electric Power Quality Monitoring And Control Of The Soe Clean Room, Bart Thompson, Gabriel Knight, Aubrey Buckner

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The senior design team was presented with a challenge of addressing power quality issues in the School of Engineering’s clean room. Discussion with the faculty involved in the operation of the room indicated that some power quality issues such as periodic outages and brownouts posed serious potential damage to computer equipment, and solving these issues would save the university money and lost time. The senior design team used Eagle Power Quality Meters to monitor and record voltage waveforms on multiple 120V AC phases for three months and also collected real-time data of current and consumed power from the room. Based …

Gnu Radio Companion (Grc) On Software Defined Radio Platforms, Jacob Ramey, James Begemann, Richard Hite

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Software defined radio (SDR) is a method to design radio frequency (RF) signal systems using software to implement radio components that are normally implemented in hardware. Several examples of components that can be designed in SDR include RF signal filters, signal amplifiers, and signal resamplers. SDR applications include amateur radio transmission, aircraft and ship tracking, RF communications, and radio astronomy, to name a few. A great advantage of implementing a RF system in software is that the system developed in software is more flexible and upgradeable than a system designed with hardware alone.

QRC Technologies offers a wide range of …

Automatic Sorting Machine Using A Programmable Logic Controller, Tim Parker, Justin Webber, Josh Kirkham

Capstone Design Expo Posters

This project is designed to demonstrate the uses of programmable logic controllers (PLC’s). The end result of this project will be used to generate interest in VCU’s Industrial Controls classes with prospective students as well as employers. The project involves building a working demonstration showing how PLC’s are used to control manufacturing systems. This system will be mobile and able to be used in different locations including the PLC lab, where students in the Industrial Controls class can also use it to test their knowledge of PLC programming. The system consists of a conveyor belt and sensors that sorts different …

Fluid Routing System: Industrial Automation And Simulation, Sean De Arras, Andy Fabian, Shellie Lundquist

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) builds the biggest ships in the world. These ships store and deliver millions of gallons of fluids via computer-controlled networks of pipes, valves, pumps, and tanks. A working, small scale demonstrator of these systems is needed for NNS to use in training and educational demonstrations. The demonstrator needs to allow for functional control of physical parameters by implementing a working instrumentation and control (I&C) system. Core components of this system are a programmable logic controller (PLC), a software development platform, a simulator, and a graphical user interface (GUI) on a human machine interface (HMI).

Project deliverables …

Multi-Channel Unbounded Optical Communication Through Modulation Of Led Lighting, Nicolás Andrade, Aaron Jones

Capstone Design Expo Posters

With the ever-increasing demand for more mobile bandwidth and higher data transfer rates, expansion into the Terahertz spectral range is inevitable. Modern Wi-Fi technologies (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) theoretically support data rates up to only a few Gbps. A newly emerging technology, Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) provides communication with potentially Tbps rates through LED lighting. One unique benefit of Li-Fi is that it can be used simultaneously for illumination and high-speed, secure (line-of-sight) communication. Li-Fi would be best utilized in conjunction with Wi-Fi and mobile LTE networks as it is more suitable for one-way short range communication due to relatively …

Home Automation Via Smart Technology, Christian Griggs, Audrey Morrisette, James Pepper

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement The idea of an ‘Internet of Everything’ has been floating around for a while, but beyond mere buzzword this concept carries with it immense, and unfortunately as of yet untapped potential. The idea of complete interconnectivity most typically conjures images of home automation; smart appliances capable of self-regulation, self-setting thermostats, etc., but with this connectivity comes with it not only the capacity to remotely monitor an existing system but to control it as well (be it with a smart phone, online application, what have you). There exists ‘smart technologies’ which incorporate user’s smart phones in the operation and …

Head-Tracking Wireless Streaming Device, Christopher Foster, Kyle Arpe, Zachary Somers

Capstone Design Expo Posters

In various businesses and services, there is a need for tight integration between visual media, human response to that media, and coordination of that response. For example, emergency responders may need information from a separate perspective using robotically controlled cameras in order to improve coordination efforts. The aim of this project is to design a low cost, high performance video streaming device. The essential feature of our design is to wirelessly send a video stream from a webcam to a micro-display and remotely control the orientation of the webcam using head movements. There are many future applications for this project …

Small Scale Wide Band Radio Frequency Spectrum Analyzer, Ali Aldajaei, Ryan Littleton, Matthew Thomas

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The project being proposed has to deal the processing and identification of radio frequencies. As more and more frequencies are being used on the radio spectrum, noise and interference have become a problem. Currently spectrum analyzers can be used to identify this noise and interference but they require manpower and specialized equipment. Our project will focus on automating the process of analyzing multiple frequencies and identifying signals from interference. This will be done by first taking an input from a radio antenna to acquire radio signals at various frequencies and storing the values. These values will then be analyzed to …

Human-Machine Interfacing Via Epidermal Electronic Systems, Michael Flynn, Matthew Nelson, Stefan Sharpley, Drew Simmons

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Surface electromyography (EMG) is rapidly becoming a viable control source for interfacing with machines. By measuring the electric potential generated by the contractions of skeletal muscles, systems can be controlled with a mere flick of the wrist, allowing intuitive and versatile control to the wielder. As sensors and classification algorithms become more sophisticated, EMG control has increasing potential to revolutionize the way we interact with and utilize technology. Prosthetics in particular have benefited the most from these recent advances, with one research team successfully returning ambulation to a leg amputee last year. However, this technology is not yet suitable for …

Wind Energy Harvesters For Urban Small Scale Power Generation, James Mcnamee, Zachary Gartrell, Andrew Krupacs

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The energy demands of society are increasing, and the ability to produce this energy from renewable sources such as wind must also increase to meet these demands. Large wind turbines are a great way to harvest renewable wind power, but they are often too large to use in an urban environment.

This project focuses on designing wind energy harvesters, based on existing iterations that produce output power per area comparable to that of an efficient wind turbine, approximately 3 watts per harvester that is 1 meter long. In order to reach this target power level, two innovative designs are under …

Automated Magnetic Field Scanning System, George Bakirtzis, Tim Owen, Tara Powell

Capstone Design Expo Posters

One of Jefferson Laboratory’s research areas is in Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) science and technology. SRF cavities are tested in the Vertical Testing Area (VTA) at Jefferson Laboratory, within a series of large cylindrical dewars. The measured quality factor (Q factor) of the SRF cavity is directly influenced by any existing magnetic field. Because the VTA previously housed a cyclotron, all the rebars within the building have residual magnetic fields emanating from them. This magnetic field effect of the building renders the measurements of Q factor on the devices inaccurate and the testing data unreliable. A magnetic field scanning system …

Automotive Object Detection Training System, Lucas Cerully, Salima Fenaoui, Derek Mccubbin

Capstone Design Expo Posters

With a constant rise in the automobile industry, there is a demand for more advanced integratable technology along with it. With the consumer’s safety always in mind, automobile companies are adding more to their systems to help detect and prevent collisions. Among these technologies is the object detection system. In summary, this component warns or reacts to oncoming objects that could put the driver in danger. As with any piece of technology, there are problems and bugs that the object detection system can come across that would cause it to act irregularly. In turn, this requires the availability of technicians …

Temperature Measurement Of Server Room, Eric Cobbinah, Faida Matabaro, Michael Tu, James Mcadams

Capstone Design Expo Posters

In this project we will be developing a system to help monitor temperature in data centers. This system will include software and a circuit to route resistive temperature devices (RTDs) (Figure 1) to a microchip which will output their readings as data. The system should be able to connect with 64 RTDs, read the temperatures from them, and make the data accessible over a network. This system could also be used in other situations besides data centers. The user would decide where to place the devices and how to use the temperature data. This system will allow more RTDs to …

Non-Causal Autonomous Parking System For Driverless Vehicles, Ngoc Hue Vo, Swarna Chowdhuri, Ivo Yotov

Capstone Design Expo Posters

According to an Audi Urban Future Initiative study, the average person spends 106 days over their life-time searching for parking spaces. Whether it is on the side of a busy city street or a shopping center car park, the issue of parking private vehicles poses a substantial logistical challenge that scales in complexity along with population density. As modern populations trend towards urbanization it becomes imperative to develop more efficient parking structures. With the inevitable shift towards driverless vehicles, there exists a need to establish a control system to mitigate these complications. One embodiment of such a solution is a …

Automated Disc Kiosks, Kal Stankov, Allen Woods, Yaw Amoatin

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Our improved automated disc kiosks are designed with two purposes in mind: to improve the inventory management and agility of current automated media rental services and to simplify and consolidate the storage and distribution of installation media in an IT environment. The kiosks combine the ability to store and dispense optical discs (CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray Discs, etc.) with the ability to burn newer content pushed out via a network connection from a company’s servers. Designed and built with commonly available components to minimize costs, the prototype consists of a Digilent Zybo FPGA board powered by a Xilinx processor. A tablet …