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Full-Text Articles in Computer Engineering
Nautilus Rov Robot Manipulator, Dana Stefanides, Jenny Huynh, Andrew Stewart, Steven Reimer, Andrew Nguyen, Rebecca Walters, Matt Hayes
Nautilus Rov Robot Manipulator, Dana Stefanides, Jenny Huynh, Andrew Stewart, Steven Reimer, Andrew Nguyen, Rebecca Walters, Matt Hayes
Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses
Global warming and climate change are prevalent issues in today’s society. As a result, research in the ocean, our world’s biggest ecosystem, is imperative in efforts to protect the environment. Santa Clara University’s Robotic Systems Lab contributes to this field through work and developments on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). An existing ROV system called Nautilus consists of a robot arm, end effector, and storage system in order to collect various types of sediments at a depth of 300 feet. However, the previous system does not meet that requirement. In direct collaboration with researchers within the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, …
Adaptive Robotic Chassis (Arc): Robocrop A Smart Agricultural Robot Toolset, Steven Bucher, Krissy Ikeda, Brooke Broszus, Alejandro Gutierrez, Ariana Low
Adaptive Robotic Chassis (Arc): Robocrop A Smart Agricultural Robot Toolset, Steven Bucher, Krissy Ikeda, Brooke Broszus, Alejandro Gutierrez, Ariana Low
Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses
RoboCrop is a payload system that attaches to an existing modular drivetrain to support the agriculture industry with their primary challenge of labor shortages. ARC: RoboCrop features three degrees of freedom as an XYZ Cartesian robot and is intended specifically for pruning strawberry flowers. The image bay camera attached to RoboCrop’s frame identifies the strawberry flowers, communicates their XYZ coordinates, and then the Cartesian robot moves to the desired locations. The snipping toolhead is interfaced at the bottom of the Z-stroke and performs the snipping process. RoboCrop has a proven success rate of at least 70% of flowers pruned in …
Marine Robot Deployment And Control System, Nicky Castillo, Nick Ellis, Trent Kelsall, Matt Kiyama
Marine Robot Deployment And Control System, Nicky Castillo, Nick Ellis, Trent Kelsall, Matt Kiyama
Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses
A full operations package for underwater research, including the mid-sized ROV Nautilus with a distributed control system, a topside graphical user interface (GUI), and a dedicated launch and recovery system (LARS), was developed to increase the operational efficiency of scientific exploration and experimentation missions through Santa Clara University’s (SCU’s) Robotics Systems Laboratory (RSL). Design of the mechanical subsystems on Nautilus added flexibility of usage and protection of components. The new GUI improved pilot control of Nautilus with an added heads-up display and easy access to sensor readouts. The simulated Nautilus altitude control system has an error of ±1% and a …
Project Shearwater Ground Effect Uav, Duncan Clark, Justin Cole, Zachary Karat, Aidan Nickels, Cole Wolfe
Project Shearwater Ground Effect Uav, Duncan Clark, Justin Cole, Zachary Karat, Aidan Nickels, Cole Wolfe
Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses
The Shearwater unmanned aerial vehicle is a maritime fixed-wing drone that is designed to use ground effect force generated between the aircraft and a body of water to efficiently propel itself near the surface of a body of water. Shearwater features a virtual reality pilot interface and will act as a hybrid underwater vehicle that will eventually be able to operate both above and beneath the ocean’s surface. The Shearwater team developed existing design work to produce major subsystems that culminated in a flyable functioning prototype. An existing airframe was updated with working control surfaces tested in simulation and in …
The Modular Oceanic Autonomous Underwater Vehicle For Novel Actuation, Bryan Gilbertson, John Elstad, Matthew Holmes, Sean Even, Robert Percell, Andrew Kambe, Gregor Limstrom
The Modular Oceanic Autonomous Underwater Vehicle For Novel Actuation, Bryan Gilbertson, John Elstad, Matthew Holmes, Sean Even, Robert Percell, Andrew Kambe, Gregor Limstrom
Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses
A low-drag, high endurance, and high efficiency Long Range Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is a desired asset to Santa Clara University to aid future underwater vehicle development efforts. Such an vehicle will demonstrate novel actuation methods and provide the on-campus Robotics Systems Laboratory with a modular prototype to aid research and academic efforts. In this paper, we document the construction of a low cost, modular, demonstration vehicle that satisfies the requirements for high-efficiency operation and modular interfaces. The completed vehicle features standard actuation abilities utilizing low-drag methods that qualify it for shallow water operation. Furthermore, the vehicle demonstrates the feasibility of …
Basil Leaf Automation, Andrew Soong, Chris Nelson, John Goldsberry, Kalle Suzuki, Nikolas Abenoja, Sherene Victor, Simon Liu
Basil Leaf Automation, Andrew Soong, Chris Nelson, John Goldsberry, Kalle Suzuki, Nikolas Abenoja, Sherene Victor, Simon Liu
Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses
Recent population and wage increases have forced farmers to grow more food without a proportionate increase in work force. Automation is a key factor in reducing cost and increasing efficiency. In this paper, we explore our automation solution that utilizes position manipulation and vision processing to identify, pick up, and drop a leaf into a can. Two stepper motors and a linear actuator drove the three-dimensional actuation. Leaf and can recognition were accomplished through edge detection and machine learning algorithms. Testing proved subsystem-level functionality and proof of concept of a delicate autonomous pick-and-place robot.
Rsl Autonomous Rover, Cris Madrigal, Jiachi Zhang, Nicholas Peacock, Brogan O'Hara
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 …
Uavino, Matthew Belesiu, Aaron Chung, Kirby Linvill, Nathan Carlson, Phillip Coyle, Megan Peekema
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 …
Legacy Borehole Project, Maza Brady, Luke Cashman, Erin Hicks, Meghan Richey
Legacy Borehole Project, Maza Brady, Luke Cashman, Erin Hicks, Meghan Richey
Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses
The Legacy Borehole Project is a three-year effort to design and build a sensor package that will be used to explore the geological and chemical conditions of the ocean floor. Over the course of three years, a mechanical structure and a robotic system will be constructed to lower sensors into previously drilled boreholes. As the team responsible for the development of the first year of this project, we have constructed a prototype sensor package and mock mechanical structure to test a communication interface between the sensors and a graphical user interface. The sensors were tested by lowering the sensor package …