Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Respiratory Compensated Robot For Liver Cancer Treatment: Design, Fabrication, And Benchtop Characterization, Mishek Jair Musa

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in the world. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is an effective method for treating tumors less than 5 cm. However, manually placing the RFA needle at the site of the tumor is challenging due to the complicated respiratory induced motion of the liver. This paper presents the design, fabrication, and benchtop characterization of a patient mounted, respiratory compensated robotic needle insertion platform to perform percutaneous needle interventions. The robotic platform consists of a 4-DoF dual-stage cartesian platform used to control the pose of a 1-DoF needle insertion module. The active …

Design And Simulation Of A Supervisory Control System For Hybrid Manufacturing, Michael Buckley

Masters Theses

The research teams of Dr. Bill Hamel, Dr. Bradley Jared and Dr. Tony Schmitz were tasked by the Office of Naval Research to create a hybrid manufacturing process for a reduced scale model of a naval ship propeller. The base structure of the propeller is created using Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), which is then scanned to compare created geometry to desired geometry. The propeller is then machined down to match the desired geometry. This process is iterated upon until the final product meets design tolerances. Due to the complex nature and numerous industrial machines used in the process, it …

Airborne Counter-Uncrewed Systems With Runtime Assurance Control, Isaac J. Seslar

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

This thesis develops a response to the increase in the availability of the commercially available uncrewed aerial systems and is dedicated to the detection, classification, and tracking required to successfully neutralize when determined malicious. A requirement of actively avoiding obstacles using runtime assurance is addressed and designed to keep the hardware safe in potentially dangerous situations. This work will elaborate on the several components the test bed is comprised of, specifically the hardware and software portions that successfully solve the problem. The software encompasses the simulation, the multiple algorithms required for the tracking, and the machine learning required for detection …

Computational Frameworks For Multi-Robot Cooperative 3d Printing And Planning, Laxmi Prasad Poudel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation proposes a novel cooperative 3D printing (C3DP) approach for multi-robot additive manufacturing (AM) and presents scheduling and planning strategies that enable multi-robot cooperation in the manufacturing environment. C3DP is the first step towards achieving the overarching goal of swarm manufacturing (SM). SM is a paradigm for distributed manufacturing that envisions networks of micro-factories, each of which employs thousands of mobile robots that can manufacture different products on demand. SM breaks down the complicated supply chain used to deliver a product from a large production facility from one part of the world to another. Instead, it establishes a network …

Interrelation Of Thermal Stimulation With Haptic Perception, Emotion, And Memory, Mehdi Hojatmadani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Haptics is an interdisciplinary field of science that deals with how humans perceive and respond to different sensory cues perceived through touch. Thermal haptics as a branch deals with how humans perceive the temperature sensation and respond to that. The process in which thermal perception occurs is well known to researchers. What seems missing in the literature is how temperature interacts or sometimes intervenes in other physiological and psychological aspects of our lives. In this research, a series of studies are presented where the main focus was how temperature and brain interact with each other to impede or enhance our …

Inventory Locating With Quuppa: The Design And Development Of A Real-Time Process Monitoring Web Application Solution, Dylan C. Moreland, Trevor J. Howell, John W. Takiff, Patrick S. Dillon, Theo E. Fritz, William K. Mcintyre

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Viasat, Inc. requires precise inventory tracking at their production facility in San Diego, CA. Viasat has installed the Quuppa indoor real-time locating system (RTLS), which it uses to track the real-time position of high-value work-in-process items. In its current state, the system only displays in-the-moment location information, with no available functionality for storing historical data for review, analysis, or visualization. In addition, the data displayed is noisy and prone to significant random error. This paper provides an overview of RTLS methods and technologies, assesses alternative solutions to Viasat’s issue, demonstrates our RTLS integrated web app solution, analyzes its impact, and …

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 …

Development Of A Wearable Haptic Feedback Device For Upper Limb Prosthetics Through Sensory Substitution, Marco B.S. Gallone

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Haptics can enable a direct communication pipeline between the artificial limb and the brain; adding haptic sensory feedback for prosthesis wearers is believed to improve operation without drawing too much of the user's attention. Through neuroplasticity, the brain can become more cognizant of the information delivered through the skin and may eventually interpret it as inherently as other natural senses. In this thesis, a wearable haptic feedback device (WHFD) is developed to communicate prosthesis sensory information. A 14-week, 6-stage, between subjects study was created to investigate the learning trajectory as participants were stimulated with haptic patterns conveying joint proprioception. 37 …

Fatigue Monitoring Through Wearable Sensors For Construction Workers, Srikanth Sagar Bangaru

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

About 40% of the US construction workforce experiences high-level fatigue, which leads to poor judgment, increased risk of injuries, a decrease in productivity, and a lower quality of work. Excessive fatigue from working in unpleasant working conditions, long working hours, or heavy workloads can aggravate fatigue's adverse effects, leading to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) and productivity loss. Therefore, it is essential to monitor fatigue to reduce the adverse effects and preventing long-term health problems. However, since fatigue demonstrates itself in several complex processes, there is no single standard measurement method for fatigue detection. This research aims to develop a system …

Utility Scale Building Energy Modeling And Climate Impacts, Brett C. Bass

Doctoral Dissertations

Energy consumption is steadily increasing year over year in the United States (US). Climate change and anthropogenically forced shifts in weather have a significant impact on energy use as well as the resilience of the built environment and the electric grid. With buildings accounting for about 40% of total energy use in the US, building energy modeling (BEM) at a large scale is critical. This work advances that effort in a number of ways. First, current BEM approaches, their ability to scale to large geographical areas, and global climate models are reviewed. Next, a methodology for large-scale BEM is illustrated, …

A Hyperelastic Porous Media Framework For Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites And Characterization Of Transduction Phenomena Via Dimensional Analysis And Nonlinear Regression, Zakai J. Olsen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMC) are smart materials that exhibit large deformation in response to small applied voltages, and conversely generate detectable electrical signals in response to mechanical deformations. The study of IPMC materials is a rich field of research, and an interesting intersection of material science, electrochemistry, continuum mechanics, and thermodynamics. Due to their electromechanical and mechanoelectrical transduction capabilities, IPMCs find many applications in robotics, soft robotics, artificial muscles, and biomimetics. This study aims to investigate the dominating physical phenomena that underly the actuation and sensing behavior of IPMC materials. This analysis is made possible by developing a new, hyperelastic …

Automated Bottling Station - Packaging System, Lauren Nicole Zinzilieta

Honors College Theses

This report focuses on the packaging system used at the end of the FESTO bottling station that is located in EP 2355. The system will be made up of an x-y 300 mm x 300 mm gantry system, an Arduino, two micro-stepping stepper drivers, and two 152.4 mm (6 in) single acting cylinders with a 3D printed bracket attached to both. The gantry system will be located at the end of the conveyor belt and will be programmed to pick up three bottles at a time and then will move a specified number of steps in both the x and …

Project Blipper, Peter Jacobs, Preston Delaware, Ryan Foster

Senior Design Project For Engineers

This project was sponsored by Clorox to design and create an automatic bottle-unscrambling system for possible implementation at their bottling plant in Chile. The objective was to use a robotic arm to unscramble bottles from an incoming conveyor belt and place them upright on an outbound conveyor belt. Throughout the research, design, and testing of solutions for this project, several design alternatives were found for each discipline, and will be presented to Clorox so that they can make an informed decision for how and if they want to move forward with implementation of this project.

The project was split into …

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

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

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 …

Human-Robot Collaboration Enabled By Real-Time Vision Tracking, Travis Deegan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The number of robotic systems in the world is growing rapidly. However, most industrial robots are isolated in caged environments for the safety of users. There is an urgent need for human-in-the-loop collaborative robotic systems since robots are very good at performing precise and repetitive tasks but lack the cognitive ability and soft skills of humans. To fill this need, a key challenge is how to enable a robot to interpret its human co-worker’s motion and intention. This research addresses this challenge by developing a collaborative human-robot interface via innovations in computer vision, robotics, and system integration techniques. Specifically, this …

Design Of Lower Legs Of Mithra, A High-Performance Backdrivable Humanoid Robot, Drake Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the design of the knee and ankle of Mithra, a new humanoid robot that aims to be an energy-efficient and highly agile machine. Mithra makes use of new optimization metrics for legged robots to develop a system capable of mimicking human movement. A series of low-impedance, high-torque actuator systems were developed with the goal of creating lightweight, powerful, and robust motion. The structure of Mithra's legs mimics the human structure in leg segment length and weight proportions. Detailed design and analysis were conducted in order to allow Mithra to be a robust and maintainable system. Mithra will …

Designs And Practical Control Methods For Soft Parallel Robots, Benjamin T. Buzzo

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The use of soft robotics is becoming an increasingly researched topic, since they can provide more flexibility in movements and increase safety when working with humans. However, they are more susceptible to modeling and manufacturing errors in the design.

The objective of this thesis is two-fold, the first objective is to determine the benefits and limitations of using calibration tables that rely on the PWM signals instead of modeling as a control method. If calibration tables are not adequate to achieve a high level of precision. The second objective is to determine if using a tethered mobile robot in unison …

Toward Intelligent Welding By Building Its Digital Twin, Qiyue Wang

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

To meet the increasing requirements for production on individualization, efficiency and quality, traditional manufacturing processes are evolving to smart manufacturing with the support from the information technology advancements including cyber-physical systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT), big industrial data, and artificial intelligence (AI). The pre-requirement for integrating with these advanced information technologies is to digitalize manufacturing processes such that they can be analyzed, controlled, and interacted with other digitalized components. Digital twin is developed as a general framework to do that by building the digital replicas for the physical entities. This work takes welding manufacturing as the case study to …