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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Skyport: Payload: Medical Cooler For The Skyport Uav, Madison Gee, Hector Lopez, Victor Magaña Jun 2015

Skyport: Payload: Medical Cooler For The Skyport Uav, Madison Gee, Hector Lopez, Victor Magaña

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Access to basic healthcare is a major persisting problem around the globe, especially in rural parts of the world. One of the many facets of this problem is access to vaccine treatment. The transportation and storage of vaccines at the proper temperature is an issue that is still being solved and improved upon today. One of the common solutions to this problem is the use of passive coolers such as ice packs and other refrigerants. The potential issue with passive cooling is that the temperature cannot be actively controlled. This is evident, as many vaccines are wasted due to incorrect …


Skyport Airframe: Design And Manufacturing, Thomas Clark, Michael Dewane, Siosiua Faleta, Robert Llanos-Hinson Jun 2015

Skyport Airframe: Design And Manufacturing, Thomas Clark, Michael Dewane, Siosiua Faleta, Robert Llanos-Hinson

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Many rural areas of developing countries lack the necessary transportation infrastructure to have reliable access to basic needs. This is particularly true for medical supplies. To combat the issue of insufficient access to vaccines in developing areas, the SkyPort project has developed the SkyPort UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). The SkyPort UAV has the vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities of a quadcopter, as well as the efficient, sustained flight of a fixed-wing aircraft. It provides a cheaper, quicker, and safer delivery method than existing alternatives for vaccines in areas that lack a reliable transportation infrastructure. The role of the SkyPort …


Automated In-Row Weed Trimmer, Joshua Baculi, Tyler Castrucci, Joshua Ding, Marit Knapp, Gaston Young Jun 2015

Automated In-Row Weed Trimmer, Joshua Baculi, Tyler Castrucci, Joshua Ding, Marit Knapp, Gaston Young

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The Automated In-Row Weed Trimmer, or AIRWT, is a weed removal system designed to be used in vineyards in order to enable safe and e cient removal of weeds while preventing damage to the vines. The goal of the system is to reduce the need for the use of manual labor and herbicides while improving production rates of grapes by automating the weed removal process at vineyards. By implementing an automated system for weed removal, the team aims to resolve ethical issues in food production, primarily those surrounding human labor, environmental friendliness, and social sustainability. The focus of this report …


Rsl Autonomous Rover, Cris Madrigal, Jiachi Zhang, Nicholas Peacock, Brogan O'Hara Jun 2015

Rsl Autonomous Rover, Cris Madrigal, Jiachi Zhang, Nicholas Peacock, Brogan O'Hara

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Autonomous vehicles are useful for a variety of applications such as military, urban, and agricultural environments. This paper discusses adding an autonomous navigation system to an all-terrain vehicle by implementing controllers that interface with its current system, installing sensors on the vehicle for obstacle detection, and developing effective safety mechanisms to prevent injury to others. The result is a vehicle capable of waypoint navigation and obstacle avoidance. Testing the vehicle showed that the LIDAR and the autonomous navigation system were integrated seamlessly, and that the sensor output signals were successfully translated into vehicle commands the existing system uses. This system …


Sunplanter, Matthew Diaz, Joseph Gaither, Stephen Hight, J. Brandon Suehiro Jun 2015

Sunplanter, Matthew Diaz, Joseph Gaither, Stephen Hight, J. Brandon Suehiro

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Although the cost of solar technology has been reduced by nearly seventy percent in the last ten years, the cost of implementing solar panels for residential and commercial use has remained stagnant. Due to the lack of affordable, easily installable solar panel systems on residential properties, the goal of our Senior Design Project is to design a stand-alone solar tracking structure. Since the system is stand-alone, it can be easily implemented on a wide range of properties in most areas of California. Our design for the support of the solar tracking system is a two-pole structure, with a wide base …


Legacy Borehole Project, Piper Connelly, Rhys Marks, Ronald Saavedra Jun 2015

Legacy Borehole Project, Piper Connelly, Rhys Marks, Ronald Saavedra

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

To assist scientists in their pursuit of important research of the subseafloor, the Legacy Borehole Project designed a unique structure that will be lowered to the ocean floor for data collection beneath the ocean floor. This derrick structure will provide support for a sensor package to access pre-existing boreholes, deep and narrow holes drilled into the Earth's crust beneath the sea floor. Our team has completed the second year effort of the three-year plan. In this paper we detail our work on the structure, which will be assembled on a ship's deck and lowered onto the borehole reentry cone with …


Might-E Wheel, Abigail Grills, Daniel Doke, Jared O'Rourke, Zach Jesberger Jun 2015

Might-E Wheel, Abigail Grills, Daniel Doke, Jared O'Rourke, Zach Jesberger

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Electric bikes are proving to be an increasingly reliable source of transportation, but with large price tags and existing conversion kits proving too complicated and unapproachable for the average user, commuters are failing to consider electric bicycles as an option. A prototype of a wireless, rear-wheel replacement to convert a bicycle from manual to full-power electric was built. This motorized wheel is called Might-E Wheel. Might-E Wheel was designed as the most approachable and user-friendly way to convert a bicycle from manual to full-power electric. Might-E Wheel was able to achieve a top speed of 27.5 km/h, a range of …


Akabot 2.0: Pet 3d Printing Filament From Waste Plastic, Jay Dubashi, Brian Grau, Alex Mckernan Jun 2015

Akabot 2.0: Pet 3d Printing Filament From Waste Plastic, Jay Dubashi, Brian Grau, Alex Mckernan

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Extrusion is how 3D printing filament is created. Melted plastic is pushed through an extrusion die and is shaped into a long thin strand of plastic. Extrusion machines are usually sized for industrial use, capable of creating hundreds of feet of filament a day. This filament is expensive to purchase, and many end-users would prefer to extrude their own filament, from a virgin plastic input or plastic waste input. There are no homescale filament extruders on the market for Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic waste. AkaBot was designed to allow end users to produce their own filament from a PET plastic …


Mobile Music: A Musical Therapy Assistance Device, Alex Hildebrand, Tanner Malkoff Jun 2015

Mobile Music: A Musical Therapy Assistance Device, Alex Hildebrand, Tanner Malkoff

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Children suffering from Cerebral Palsy often undergo gait therapy in order to strengthen and coordinate their trunks and legs. The patients often feel unmotivated to perform their gait training because the physical movements associated with it are difficult and there is no immediate reward. Physical therapists (PT) will often play music as an incentive to get the children focused on their physical therapy, but this is inefficient and impedes the PT from analyzing and tuning the patients' gait. Mobile Music is a small device designed for automating musical therapy during gait training. In this paper, we go through several design …


One-Ride Human Powered Vehicle, Alex Fisher, Alex Sahyoun, Geoffrey Schmelzer, Brendan Taylor, C.J. Toy Jun 2015

One-Ride Human Powered Vehicle, Alex Fisher, Alex Sahyoun, Geoffrey Schmelzer, Brendan Taylor, C.J. Toy

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

This document discusses the design, analysis, manufacturing and testing of the One-Ride human powered vehicle which was entered into the 2015 ASME West Coast HPVC Competition. The goal of the vehicle is to entice people to switch from gas powered vehicles to the One-Ride for trips of up to 20 miles round trip. The One-Ride design features fully adjustable seating and steering positions and was designed to fit anyone between the heights of 5'2" and 6'4" comfortably. The seat is adjusted using metal sliders, manufactured in the SCU machine shop, which fit into brackets attached to the frame. The bike …


Uavino, Matthew Belesiu, Aaron Chung, Kirby Linvill, Nathan Carlson, Phillip Coyle, Megan Peekema Jun 2015

Uavino, Matthew Belesiu, Aaron Chung, Kirby Linvill, Nathan Carlson, Phillip Coyle, Megan Peekema

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

UAVino is a drone solution that uses aerial imagery to determine the overall plant health and water content of vineyards. In general, the system focuses on automating crop inspection by taking aerial imagery of a vineyard, conducting post-processing, and outputting an easily interpreted map of the vineyard's overall health. The project's key innovation is an auto-docking system that allows the drone to automatically return to its launch point and recharge in order to extend mission duration. Long term, UAVino is envisioned as a multi-year, interdisciplinary project involving both the Santa Clara University Robotics Systems Laboratory and local wineries in order …