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Mechanical Engineering Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Design, Testing And Evaluation Of Robotic Mechanisms And Systems For Environmental Monitoring And Interaction, James K. Higgins Aug 2016

Design, Testing And Evaluation Of Robotic Mechanisms And Systems For Environmental Monitoring And Interaction, James K. Higgins

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have significantly lowered the cost of remote aerial data collection. The next generation of UAVs, however, will transform the way that scientists and practitioners interact with the environment. In this thesis, we address the challenges of flying low over water to collect water samples and temperature data. We also develop a system that allows UAVs to ignite prescribed fires. Specifically, this thesis contributes a new peristaltic pump designed for use on a UAV for collecting water samples from up to 3m depth and capable of pumping over 6m above the water. Next, temperature sensors and their …


Analytical Solution For Speed To Achieve A Desired Operating Point For A Given Fan Or Pump, Michael F. Kocher, Jeyamkondan Subbiah Jan 2016

Analytical Solution For Speed To Achieve A Desired Operating Point For A Given Fan Or Pump, Michael F. Kocher, Jeyamkondan Subbiah

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

The Affinity Laws for fans (and pumps) provide a way of determining new fan or pump speed given fan or pump performance curve data and a desired operating point (combination of flow rate and pressure) that does not fall on the curve. However, the affinity law calculations require using a point on the curve (hereafter referred to as the “basic point”) to determine the new speed. Most references regarding the Affinity Laws do not give a clear description of the method for determining the “basic point”, and improper selection of this point can affect the results considerably. This article describes …


Inter-Row Robot Navigation Using 1d Ranging Sensors, Tyler A. Troyer, Santosh Pitla, Ethan Nutter Jan 2016

Inter-Row Robot Navigation Using 1d Ranging Sensors, Tyler A. Troyer, Santosh Pitla, Ethan Nutter

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

In this paper a fuzzy logic navigation controller for an inter-row agricultural robot is developed and evaluated in laboratory settings. The controller receives input from one-dimensional (1D) ranging sensors on the robotic platform, and operated on ten fuzzy rules for basic row-following behavior. The control system was implemented on basic hardware for proof of concept and operated on a commonly available microcontroller development platform and open source software libraries. The robot platform used for experimentation was a small tracked vehicle with differential steering control. Fuzzy inferencing and defuzzification, step response and cross track error were obtained from the test conducted …


Comparing Various Hardware/Software Solutions And Conversion Methods For Controller Area Network (Can) Bus Data Collection, Samuel E. Marx, Joe D. Luck, Santosh Pitla, Roger M. Hoy Jan 2016

Comparing Various Hardware/Software Solutions And Conversion Methods For Controller Area Network (Can) Bus Data Collection, Samuel E. Marx, Joe D. Luck, Santosh Pitla, Roger M. Hoy

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Various hardware and software solutions exist for collecting Controller Area Network (CAN) bus data. Digital data accuracy could vary based upon different data logging methods (e.g., hardware/software timing, processor timing, etc.). CAN bus data were collected from agricultural tractors using multiple data acquisition solutions to quantify differences among collection methods and demonstrate potential data accumulation rates. Two types of data were observed for this study. The first, CAN bus frame data, represents data collected for each line of hex data sent from an ECU. One issue with frame data is the resulting large file sizes, therefore a second logging format …