Engineering Commons^™

Mechanical Prosthetic Hand For Navy Seal, Ryan Burke, Michael Friedman, Jose Lemus, Heather Martin

Mechanical Engineering

Quality of Life Plus has been improving the lives of many wounded servicemen and first responders around the country. Its mission is to foster and generate innovations to aid and improve the quality of life for those injured in the line of duty. This project is the fifth iteration of designing a prosthetic hand for an active duty Navy SEAL. The first iterations have been myoelectric systems where sensors are attached to the user’s muscles to actuate the prosthetic. However, the most recent has been a purely mechanical system, and was shoulder actuated. The design was more robust, it was …

Rebekah's Ride, Alex Rowson, Cameron Weinberg, Jacob Hentzler, Kelly Perkins

Mechanical Engineering

It was our mission to design and build a bicycle attachment that provides a safe, comfortable, and entertaining ride that can attach to any common bicycle for Rebekah, a 12 year old girl living with cerebral palsy. The aluminum frame bicycle trailer we built motivates Rebekah to exercise with a speaker that plays music when she pedals and ceases the music when she stops pedaling. The speaker and sensor system is controlled by an Adafruit Trinket microcontroller using the Arduino IDE. The trailer does not have a chain drive so Rebekah's pedaling will not actually contribute to the movement of …

Mini-Hand Extension, Aulivia Bounchaleun, Haden Cory, Scott Onsum, Zack Phillips

Mechanical Engineering

Lam Research supplies equipment for manufacturing silicon wafers used in semiconductor manufacturing. Their equipment is highly sophisticated and therefore costly, both in time and money, to repair. Much of the time and money spent to service those machines when they require maintenance or repair is spent on disassembly, so Lam seeks a faster way to service their equipment. Al Schoepp, a Senior Technical Director at Lam Research, came to Cal Poly seeking a team of students to design and build a device that could emulate the human hand well enough to handle hardware and thread nuts and bolts but also …

Pier2pier: Final Report, Kevin Nelson, Anthony Miller, Paul Maalouf, Chahan Shah

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Solar Decathlon Instrumentation And Controls, Timothy Ambrose, Mateo Begue, Andrew Elliott

Mechanical Engineering

The Instrumentation and Controls team has designed a control and instrumentation system for the 2015 Cal Poly Solar Decathlon house that will monitor temperature, humidity, and energy usage throughout the house and control the phase change material duct. It will relay information to the user through a tablet application developed by the Computer Science team. The team has also designed a lighting control scheme for use with Lutron’s HomeWorks QS lighting control system.

Cable Drag Test, Alex Powers, Brandon Sadiarin, George Rodriguez Iv, Torey Kruisheer

Mechanical Engineering

The Smooth Shifters is a team composed of Alex Powers, Brandon Roy Sadiarin, George Rodriguez, and Torey Kruisheer. We are four senior mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, California that are working on a senior design project for Specialized Bicycle Components, Inc. located in Morgan Hill, California. We will be under the advisement of Professor Sarah T. Harding of the mechanical engineering department at Cal Poly.

Specialized, one of today’s leading bicycle companies, is in need of a test setup that measures brake and shifter cable drag. High performance cyclists using time …

Solar Decathlon 2015, Solar Cal Poly; Solar Cal Poly Project Engineers, Cristina Paquin, Julien Blarel, Sanchit Joshi

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Cal Poly Heliodon, Gregory Bucher, Lucas Carter, Jake Hamilton, Robin Hubilla

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of the Heliodon project is to provide professors with a means to educate students about the movement of the sun and how that movement varies with location on earth and throughout the year.

Jonathan’S Natural Juices Mechanical Juice Dispenser, Andrew Meyer, Jesus Gutierrez, Danielle Lauinger

Mechanical Engineering

Team AJD was tasked with trying to create a juice dispenser that did not utilize pumps, but rather explore the venturi effect to see if it could be a suitable substitute. The venturi effect is when a fluid in a pipe goes through a gradual reduction in diameter in a pipe to increase the velocity and lower the pressure of a fluid. Utilizing this principle the team constructed a testing device to be able to run tests and verify the theory. The team was able to verify that the venturi effect was able to make juice at the correct mix …

Team Solar Sip, Patrick Fillingham, Wesley Goodson, Kenneth Li

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Active Fog Catcher, Michael Giglio, Carson Hand, William Beechinor, Kai Zhang

Mechanical Engineering

The active fog catching senior project team has been asked to develop a device that will harvest water from the atmosphere, namely fog, using active means. The project will be centered on maximizing water collection rate, with efficiency as a secondary concern. The final design utilizes a refrigeration system in which fans pull air across the cold evaporators inside of a duct. Water condenses on the evaporators and drain into a collection container. It was decided to focus on maximizing water collection at the cost of efficiency because the feasibility of actively harvesting fog must be proved before trying to …

Solar Cal Poly Water Systems, Jake L. Morris, Zachary F. Yasuda, Lauren P. Jones

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Veloelectric: Creating A Device That Harvests Energy From Bicycles, Austin Hall, Daniel Stohr, Tj Fox

Mechanical Engineering

Long distance mountain bikers, bike-packers, and many bikers in developing countries rely on electrical devices for safety and communication. These specific groups of people operate in areas with little to no electricity, and often times have no power to sustain their devices. The purpose of this Cal Poly senior project, VeloElectric, was to design, build, and test a kinetic energy harvester for bicycles that can be used to charge common mobile devices via USB. This senior project team created a device that attaches directly to a bicycle and uses vibrations to generate energy, which in turn powers a variety of …

Renal Artery Stent Fatigue Test, Braden Cooper, Munir Eltal, Jennifer Hawthorne, Ashley Schaefer

Mechanical Engineering

In today’s world of medical innovation, regulations and requirements set by organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and ASTM International (American Society for Testing and Materials) can inhibit rapid innovation by demanding rigorous testing of new designs. For arterial stents, the standard is that each design must be tested to simulate 10 years of life in an environment congruent to an in vivo environment. Endologix in Irvine, California develops and manufactures minimally invasive treatments for aortic diseases, with a focus on stent grafts for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). …

Transcatheter Heart Valve Subassembly Device, Adam Aslam, Matthew Bezkrovny, Daniel Degree

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Forest Sign Maker, Victor Espinosa Iii, Kevin Ly, Lisa Yip

Mechanical Engineering

Executive Summary:

The Inyo National Forest is arguably one of the most beautiful locations in California, containing natural masterpieces such as Mount Whitney and the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Despite its magnificence, the Inyo National Forest can be a treacherous region. The Friends of the Inyo take pride in being able to facilitate the viewing experience for all outdoorsmen by maintaining the mountain trails, which includes providing adequate trail signage.

Unfortunately, there is a fundamental issue with the recent state of trail signage in the Inyo National Forest: the rate at which signs are being vandalized or naturally destroyed is …

Tadpole Tandem Electrically Assisted Tricycle, Austin Frederickson, Anthony Jacques, Kris Lawrence, Preston Mcelroy

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this senior project was to investigate the possibility of making bikes (as a regular mode of transportation) look much more appealing to the general public. To that end, an electric motor assist system was added to make it easier for the operators of the vehicle. A fairing was added to protect the rider from wind and rain, and an electrical subsystem consisting of a microcontroller and many other components was also added. The electrical subsystem was meant to store the information of different riders, calculate calories burned using a heart beat sensor, and increase visibility using strategically-placed …

Sports For Nathan, Delaney Bales, Joseph Garrett, Chris Harter

Mechanical Engineering

Nathan Cooper is a local boy with spinal muscular atrophy. He enjoys playing games and being active. One assistive device that Nathan uses is his Standing Dani, a motorized mobile stander. Nathan enjoys playing golf and kickball, and prior to this project he had no way of playing golf and no safe way of playing kickball. The purpose of this project was to design and build a golf attachment for Nathan’s Standing Dani that allows him to putt, and a kickball attachment that allows him to play kickball safely. First, the design team researched and defined the problem in terms …

Compact Tire Tester, Jess Mccafferty, Daniel Rodman, Michael Schuster, Connor West

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Electric Commuter Multicopter, Marley Hunter Miller, Blake Sperry, Ike Sheppard, Olliver Fredrick Kunz, Sam Juday, Alex O'Hearn, Kyle Seth Kruse, Arthur Norwood, Jarrell Washington

Mechanical Engineering

This document describes the design, analysis, and overall goals of the Electric Commuter Multicopter (ECM) Senior Project. It was presented by Bob Addis and Bill Burner to the senior mechanical engineering class of 2015 at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. The progress and development of the project are described in detail and to an extent that an individual or group with similar aspirations can construct their own multicopter or expand upon this one. The goal of this project is to create an Ultralight, as defined by FAA Part 103, commuter multicopter vehicle capable of transporting an individual to and from …

Human Powered Vehicle Frame Design, Matthew S. Allen, Peter B. Aumann, Trent J. Hellmann

Mechanical Engineering

This report discusses the Human Powered Vehicle Frame Design senior project’s contributions to the design, manufacture, testing, and competition of the Cal Poly Human Powered Vehicle Club’s 2015 vehicle, Sweet Phoenix. The project’s guiding rules and timeline were dictated by the ASME Human Powered Vehicle Challenge (HPVC), held in April 2015. The Club sought to improve upon its previous vehicle, Aria, which suffered from a range of faults including a catastrophic structural failure at the 2014 HPVC. Largely in response to this failure, the Frame Design project’s major focus was Sweet Phoenix’s frame, from concept to manufacturing. During the design …

Cal Poly Sae Formula Electric Chassis, Brandon Stitt, Rachel Brooks, Christopher L. Pell

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Formula Electric team has been in need of a chassis redesign, making that a logical choice for a senior project. The original goal of the project was to build the lightest possible frame while still maintaining adequate strength and stiffness. The existing frame made a good starting point. The steel tube spaceframe weighed a colossal 105 lb. There was ample room for improvement, even with a similar spaceframe design. The greatest potential to reduce weight lay in submitting designs under the Alternative Frame (AF) rule set. This could avoid the added weight of many required tubes. The …

Smart Water Meter, Jeff Hufford, Eric Adler, Garrett Hall

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Sapien3 Comb Stitch Improvement For Edwards Lifesciences, William Harley, Thomas Pluschkell, John Mctigue, Garrett Reed

Mechanical Engineering

The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsor. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time.

Tesseract, Edgar Uribe, Vanessa Faune

Mechanical Engineering

PolySat is a student-run, Cal Poly research program in which students develop small satellites, known as CubeSats, to be sent into space. Since the start of the program in 2000, PolySat has developed eight 10cm x 10cm x10cm CubeSats. Recently, the team has developed two satellites of double, and triple, that size for NASA-KSC & AI-Solutions and the National Science Foundation. The recent volumetric expansion has been driven by high demand for further satellite functionality, which necessitates large power generation capabilities. To remain competitive in the growing CubeSat industry, PolySat must develop a platform that can provide enough power to …

Vibration Table For Environmental Chamber, Michael Czabaranek, Dylan De Caussin

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Deltronic Solutions Delta 3d Printer, Ramon Santos, Justin James, Taylor Chris, Stephen Marshall, Paul Maalouf

Mechanical Engineering

The Delta 3D Printer project is a 2014-2015 Cal Poly ME senior project sponsored by Dr. Jose Macedo, Professor and Department Chair of the Cal Poly IME Department; Yaskawa America, Inc., industry-leading producer of high-quality electronic drives and motors; and Bell-Everman, Inc., producer of high-precision embedded motion systems. The Delta 3D Printer project was conceived by Dr. Macedo as a collaboration between Cal Poly engineering and Yaskawa America. The majority of delta 3d printers on the market utilize stepper motors to control the print head motion. The 3D printer for this project was designed to use servo motors instead of …

Freedom Ski, Toby A. Goldsteinholm, Ashley Scharff, Justin Satnick, Markus Rutner

Mechanical Engineering

The current availability of water skis for people who are paraplegic or quadriplegic is very limited. The aim of our project is to design a system that improves upon the current models of specialized water skis. Our intent is to create a waterski system that is structurally stable and handles responsively, in order to ensure that anyone is capable of effectively using our system to waterski.

The main client of our project is Quality of Life Plus, an organization that aims to aid veterans of the armed forces who have physical disabilities to still enjoy a good quality of life. …

Carbon Fiber Monocoque Development For A Formula Sae Racecar, Andrew Cunningham, Andrew Ferrell, Matthew Lee, Tony Loogman

Mechanical Engineering

Monocoque development of the 2015 Cal Poly Formula SAE racecar from design to competition.

Ir Barcode Reader, Isaac Lambing, Justin Gronet, Tony Ly, Mark Berry

Mechanical Engineering

BrandWatch Technologies is a company based in Portland, Oregon that seek to detect counterfeit products in the supply chain. BrandWatch has created a taggant material, a physical marker, that can be printed over barcodes or added to the ink used to print the barcodes themselves. This material, while invisible to the naked eye, is detectable using technology that they have developed.

BrandWatch enlisted the help of a four man team of Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering students to combine this technology with that of a barcode scanner. The device, capable of scanning barcodes, detecting the presence of the taggant material, and …