Engineering Commons^™

Development Of Long Endurance Small Unmanned Aerial System, Andreas Quainoo

Honors Theses

The purpose of this Senior Design Project is to design, build, and test an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). This will be used as a test platform for airborne electronics. The intended capabilities of this project include a 12-hour flight time, the ability to carry 5 lbs of payload, and the ability to recharge the batteries of electronics while in the air. With these parameters in mind, the focus of the design was on endurance, and, by extension, efficiency and durability. Upon completion, the aircraft and its onboard systems was constructed and evaluated. Secondary products of this project include an instrumented …

Aviation Internship Toolkit: Helping Employers Reach The Next Generation Of Aviation Professionals (Ngap), James Fox

Honors Theses

It has been recognized by the international aviation community that there will be an anticipated shortage of skilled aviation professionals in the near future. In order to address this important issue, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) launched the Next Generation of Aviation Professionals (NGAP) initiative to ensure that enough qualified and competent aviation professionals are available to operate, manage, and maintain the future international air transport system (ICAO, 2014). This highly complex industry is growing at a significant rate around the globe, and this shortage needs to be addressed before it becomes a threat to this increasing vital and intricate …

Dynamically Reconfigurable Miniature Golf Course, James Lind

Honors Theses

The purpose of this report is to inform the reader of the Senior Design Project lead by 3 students in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Western Michigan University. The project is in needed for use within the ECE department as a tool for showcasing to prospective students the attributes of electrical and computer engineering.

At the heart of the project lies an Arduino microcontroller acting as the commanding brain of the system. Its task is to manipulate various types of obstacles throughout the playing field with a goal of delivering a dynamic experience to the player(s). Additionally, a …

Lntegration Of Conventional Lithography And Printing Processes As A Key Enabling Technology For Printed And Flexible Sensing Systems, Binu Baby Narakathu

Dissertations

Sensors, which are used ubiquitously in a wide variety of applications, are revolutionizing the already ever-changing world we live in by providing real-time information about our surroundings. This dissertation focuses on the integration of conventional photolithography and printing processes as a key enabling technology for printed and flexible sensing systems.

Initially, an efficient opto-electrochemical sensing system, for the dual detection of heavy metal compounds was successfully developed. A novel microfluidic flow cell, with a reservoir volume of 25 μl, was designed and fabricated using acrylic. An electrochemical sensor with gold (Au) interdigitated electrodes (IDE) on a glass substrate was photolithographically …

Printing Functional Electronic Circuits And Components, Ahmed Tausif Aijazi

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges in printing reliable multilayer flexible circuits, devices and components. Gravure was used as the primary printing process for this work, but due to some limitations of gravure, other printing methods were also investigated. At first a systematic study was done to determine the optimum parameters for the gravure printing of sub 50 micron lines. Commercially available silver nanoparticle inks were printed on a lab scale gravure printer, Accupress®. The highest resolution line that was electrically conductive was 36μm wide. The 9μm, 18μm and 27μm lines were printed but were not …

Fabrication, Testing And Analysis Of A Fatigue Sensor For Structural Health Monitoring, Subash Gokanakonda

Dissertations

A novel fatigue monitoring sensor (FMS) is designed, fabricated and tested for detecting and monitoring the fatigue damage and estimating the remaining life of structures and components subjected to cyclic loads. The concept is based on the characteristics of stress / strain life cycle relationship of engineering materials. Sensor consists of alternate slots and strips having different strain magnification factor with respect to the nominal strain. The sensor is designed in such a way that the strips will experience the strain which closely resemble the actual strain distribution in the notch or critical area of the component. The sensor can …

Direct Torque Control Of An Lnduction Machine Using Multi-Layer Perceptron Network, Adithya Chandrashekharan

Masters Theses

In conventional direct torque control (DTC) scheme of induction motor (lM), Proportional Integral Controller (PI) is used as the speed controller. PI controller is more suitable in steady state condition and for linear system but both DTC and IM are mostly nonlinear. Multi-Layer perceptron neural network. (MLPNN) controller is more suitable and performs better than PI controller. The switching table of the conventional DTC is replaced by the MLPNN controller. The MLPNN inputs are, the magnitude of the stator flux, torque and the Voltage sectors. Levenberg-Marquardt back propagation technique has been used to train the MLPNN. The output of the …

Economic Analysis Of Michigan Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Strategies, Randy José Jorge Díaz

Masters Theses

Transportation infrastructure is an essential component of a nation’s success as it allows efficient transportation of goods to all economic markets, providing economic stability and ensuring trade competiveness. Nearly 70 percent of all of Michigan’s freight is shipped by truck and Michigan is ranked eighth in the USA in terms of the value of its exports with $50 billion per year. Unfortunately, commercial vehicles also contribute to the deterioration of pavement, reducing air quality and potentially influencing road safety. To enforce commercial vehicle laws and regulations, most states utilize fixed weigh stations supplemented with other enforcement strategies. Although fixed weigh …

Comparative Analysis Of Clavicular Tunnel Confìguration For Coracoclavicular Ligament Reconstruction, Mark Omwansa

Masters Theses

A number of coracoclavicular ligament reconstructions are carried out each year and post surgical fractures of the clavicle have been reported. The primary objective of this research is to develop a comparative metrics that compares clavicular tunnel configurations used in coracoclavicular reconstruction techniques. The goal of this comparison is to reduce post surgical failures due to clavicle fractures. The present analysis compared two techniques { a single 3 mm clavicular tunnel and the other double 6 mm tunnels { experimentally, using Four-point bending testing and Finite Element Analysis (FEA). A unique method, slicing, was used to create an FE clavicle …

Virtual Analysis And Evaluation Of Roundabout Safety And Operational Features, Elisha Jackson Wankogere

Masters Theses

Roundabouts can be a solution to safety concerns present at other types of intersections. Recently in the United States, there has been an increase in conversion of problematic intersections to roundabouts to improve their safety. However, it is difficult to make these roundabouts, especially multi-lane roundabouts, safe to all ranges of users. Roundabout features such as advance warning and signage play an important role in determining driver performance as they navigate the roundabout.

This research is an effort to evaluate new and existing roundabout safety and operational features such as signs and pavement markings and how they influence performance of …

Integrating 3d Layered Manufacturing With Photonic Sintering, Precision Machining And Smart Coating Techniques For Rapid Casting Applications, Hemant Bohra

Dissertations

Developments in rapid casting technologies have led to a new era of inclusion of 3D printing. Three-Dimensional (3D) printing provides the flexibility and ease of reproducing a sand mold directly from CAD models, eliminating patterning steps, thus reducing the process time for creating prototypes. In addition to minimizing processing steps, 3D printing provides the advantages of higher precision and the ability to produce complex shaped sand molds, but it simultaneously possesses some limitations and concerns related to throughput, safety and logistics.

This study proposes an alternative method for creating sand molds by introducing a hybrid rapid prototyping approach to overcome …

Trajectory Optimization For A Misson To The Trojan Asteroids, Shivaji Senapati Gadsing

Masters Theses

The problem of finding a minimum-fuel trajectory for a mission to the Jovian Trojan asteroids is considered. The problem is formulated as a modified traveling salesman problem. Two different types of algorithms such as an exhaustive search algorithm and a serial rendezvous search algorithm are developed. The General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) is employed for finding optimum trajectories with minimal fuel consumption. The selection of a minimum-fuel mission trajectory, and the associated target asteroids, will be a key factor in determining feasibility and scientific value of a Trojan tour and rendezvous mission.

The transfer trajectory followed by a spacecraft between …

Self-Supported Printed Multi-Layer Capacitors, Michael James Joyce

Masters Theses

The increasing demand for miniaturized electronic devices has increased the need for rechargeable micro-power sources. Although lithium and lithium ion batteries have been utilized in these applications since the late 1990s, other energy harvesting technologies, such as thermal, mechanical, and solar, are now being used to augment batteries to enable systems to be self-powered. However, the lifetime of any battery is finite, which may be a major problem when the application is in a permanent structure or medical implant device. For power or significant energy storage applications, printed multilayer capacitors or supercapacitors are being explored as an enhancement, or replacement …

Improved Accuracy In Real-Time Rfid Localization Systems Using Kalman Filtering, Benjamin J. Sanda

Masters Theses

The use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has become widespread in industry as a means to quickly and wirelessly identify and track packages and equipment. Now there is a commercial interest in using RFID to provide real-time localization. Efforts to use RFID technology for this purpose experience localization errors due to noise and multipath effects inherent to these environments. This paper presents the use of both linear Kalman filters and non-linear Unscented Kalman filters to reduce error effects inherent to real-time RFID localization systems and provide more accurate localization results in indoor environments. A commercial RFID localization system designed for …

Opportunistic Service Differentiation And Cloud Resource Management In Support Of Enhanced Vehicular Applications, Mohammad Ali Salahuddin

Dissertations

An integral part of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs), which consist of vehicles with on-board units (OBUs) and fixed road-side units (RSUs). Wireless Access in Vehicular Environment (WAVE) offers QoS via service differentiation by using application defined priorities. However, WAVE has unbounded delay and is oblivious to network load and severity of vehicles with respect to their environment. Our context severity metric innovatively enhances WAVE to be sensitive to vehicle and environment interactions. Our novel Opportunistic Service Differentiation (OSD) technique, dynamically readjusts the WAVE packet priorities to improve utilization of lower latency queues, prioritizing packets …

An Enhanced Self-Healing Protection System In Smart Grid: Using Advanced And Intelligent Devices And Applying Hierarchical Routing In Sensor Network Technique, Mohamed Eid Aljahani

Masters Theses

This paper presents a self-healing protection systems were designed using PSCAD software to test and investigate the efficiency of this method. The system was applied on a typical distribution system with loads, buses, and power sources. The availability of advanced and intelligent devices, such as IEDs and PMUs was the trigger to design proficient and accurate self-healing protection systems which are associated with future smart grids. Deploying optimal sensors distributed within the grid could be a suitable method to monitor and control the distribution network. By using a hierarchical clustering communication technique, optimal sensors can work wirelessly and efficiently without …

An Integral Framework For Sustainable Building Design, Bushra Asfari

Masters Theses

Selection of materials for building design is a delicate process hinged of a number of factors which can be cost or environmental related, depending on the objectives of the design. This process becomes more difficult when designers are faced with several material options for each building component. This thesis presents the design and development of a framework that enables designers understand the trade-off between cost and environmental related factors when selecting materials for building design. The framework is based on the integration of Autodesk Revit, Microsoft access, and modeling modified Harmony search multi-objective optimization tool adapted to account for material …

Localization And System Identification Of A Quadcopter Uav, Kenneth Befus

Masters Theses

The research conducted explores the comparison of several trilateration algorithms as they apply to the localization of a quadcopter micro air vehicle (MAV). A localization system is developed employing a network of combined ultrasonic/radio frequency sensors used to wirelessly provide range (distance) measurements defining the location of the quadcopter in 3-dimensional space. A Monte Carlo simulation is conducted using the extrinsic parameters of the localization system to evaluate the adequacy of each trilateration method as it applies to this specific quadcopter application. The optimal position calculation method is determined.

Furthermore, flight testing is performed in which real range measurement data …

Development Of Safety Performance Functions For Non-Motorized Traffic Safety, Hamidreza Ahady Dolatsara

Masters Theses

This study investigates the factors which affect the safety of non-motorized transportation within the influence area of intersections to enhance development of safety performance functions (SPFs). The scope of this study is limited to the four Michigan cities of Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Flint and Grand Rapids. Due to the current lack of research regarding the appropriate size of the influence area, this study investigates the distance of crashes relative to the center of 148 intersections to identify the most probable area of influence for different crash types. For motorized and non-motorized crashes, 240 ft. and 137 ft. are proposed, …

Overtime Traffic Enforcement Evaluation: A Methodology For Selecting Agencies And Enforcement Periods, Dario Enrique Romero Santana

Masters Theses

Multiple studies have stated the advantages of police traffic enforcement on crash reduction (Zaidel, February 2002). It is very important to identify locations and time periods where police enforcement produces the greatest crash reductions. The objectives of this study were to: (1) determine the impact of overtime traffic enforcement on crash occurrence; (2) develop procedures to identify police agencies with potential to reduce targeted crashes; and (3) develop procedures to identify additional time periods in which enforcement activities should be conducted. In order to accomplish these objectives, many methodologies were explored. The study used crash and enforcement data collected by …

Electroplating Of Nanoengineered Polymer Substrate, Brandon Voelker

Masters Theses

The development of a polyethylene based polymer with metallic inclusions, a nanoengineered polymer, has recently opened up great potential for many new commercial and industrial applications. The major advantage of developing these nanoengineered polymers is to be able to tailor the resistance and other properties by varying the composition of the polymer. The industrial usage of this polymer benefits from the addition of an electrically conductive, metallic coating. This research develops methods of electroplating nickel and copper layers on to the polymer substrates using DC and pulsed techniques.

Electroplating is conducted in a 1000 mL beaker using a specialized plating …

Real-Time Hybrid Simulation With Online Model Updating, Adam Mueller

Masters Theses

Hybrid simulations have shown great potential for economic and reliable assessment of structural seismic performance through a combination of physically tested components, called the experimental substructure, and numerically simulated components, called the numerical substructure. Current hybrid simulation practices often use a fixed numerical model without considering the possible availability of a more accurate model obtained during hybrid simulation through an online model updating technique. To address this limitation and improve the reliability of numerical models in hybrid simulations, this study describes the implementation of an online model updating method in real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS). The Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) was …

A Novel Silica-Based Nano Pigment As A Titanium Dioxide Replacement, Ryan Stoneburner

Masters Theses

This research focused on the evaluation of a new Silica-based pigment for the replacement of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) in paperboard coatings. The silica-based pigment has shown the ability to be a replacement in terms of functionality and runnability. TiO₂ is currently the highest opacifying pigment used in paper coatings, but it is also the most costly. Finding a less expensive pigment that doesn't reduce effectiveness is critical to reducing the cost of TiO₂ formulations. To evaluate the new pigment, coatings will be applied using a Cylindrical Laboratory Coater (CLC) with varying amounts of TiO₂ and …

Subtalar Fusion Fixture Design And Test, Andrew Campbell

Honors Theses

An experiment was designed to quantify the relative displacement between the calcaneus and talus ankle bones during various types of loading. The ankles were embedded in an epoxy resin and three loads were applied: compressive forces, flexion moments, and inversion moments. A stereo camera system took photographs during the loading process, and the images were correlated via digital image correlation (DIC). The DIe was carried out via a suite of homemade programs written using the open-sourced computational program Octave.

Design And Analysis Of A Cold Gas Propulsion System For Stabilization And Maneuverability Of A High Altitude Research Balloon, Mitchell Brownell

Honors Theses

The need for a cold gas propulsion system is crucial to the scientific industry which allows for maneuvering and stabilizing a high altitude research balloon and propose an inexpensive, light weight design that researchers can reproduce. The methodology to the design of this system was based on factors that are all dependent upon one another. The parameters that directed the decisions made throughout this design project was the thrust needed to rotate the unit, and the allowable weight permitted by federal regulations. The frame was designed with a gas storage system, gas transmission system, and nozzle assembly which was integrated …

Position Tracking Using Wifi, Nathan Conrad

Honors Theses

Position tracking using WiFi is needed as a more accurate method of intra-building tracking due to Global Positioning System’s (GPS) lack of accuracy in buildings. The main application of this project is to provide a safety system, which may be either tracking employees within a building and allowing them to send an emergency message through a device, or to track objects throughout a building. The devices can send simple messages to a central location. These messages will include position information and which emergency has been selected. The devices consist of two buttons and two LEDs, and with a button press, …

Position Tracking Using Wifi, Tyler Bayne

Honors Theses

Position tracking using WiFi is needed as a more accurate method of intra-building tracking due to Global Positioning System's (GPS) lack of accuracy in buildings. The main application of this project is to provide a safety system, which may be either tracking employees within a building and allowing them to send an emergency message through a device, or to track objects throughout a building. The devices can send simple messages to a central location. These messages will include position information and which emergency has been selected. The devices consist of two buttons and two LEDs, and with a button press, …

Subtalar Fusion Fixture Design And Test, Nathan Ortiz

Honors Theses

Subtalar arthrodesis is performed when cartilage in the talo-calcaneal (the ankle) joint is degraded in a patient and there are multiple approaches to this surgery. Using synthetic bone material, fixtures were cast from aluminum, using the process of evaporation pattern casting, and epoxy. This casting was used to grip the calcaneus bone of the foot in order to load it mechanically, simulating different scenarios that would be encountered during walking. The relative displacement of the ankle joint was measured using a digital image correlation (DIC) program that was modified to work in both two- and three-dimensional space. This program can …

Effectiveness Of Tsa Regulations In General Aviation, Samantha Somers

Honors Theses

General aviation (GA) security is one the industry’s most prominent topics. With a direct and indirect economic impact of over a billion dollars annually and many lives at stake, concerns of this matter cannot be ignored or taken lightly. It is difficult to reconcile the opinions of all parties involved to create a safe, affordable way to conveniently fly. The resolution process must begin by examining the sector as a whole, identifying its weaknesses, and determining its current security state. What improvements need to be made by the pilots, corporate flight departments, and general aviation businesses, if any? Are current …

Active Control Of Aerial Refueling Drogue, Taeseung Kuk

Dissertations

An active stabilization method for an aerial refueling drogue used in probe-drogue refueling system is presented in this study. The present refueling drogue exhibits an unstable motion due to various turbulent natures, which results in high failure rates and sometimes catastrophic accidents. Although it is considered a routine procedure for human pilot, the workload for mid-air refueling is highly demanding and autonomous operation is by no means a simple task. With rapidly growing use of unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous aerial refueling is identified as one of essential technologies in future aviation. The present research is a pioneering work in active …