Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Mechanical Energy Harvester For Powering Rfid Systems Components: Modeling, Analysis, Optimization And Design, Alireza Babaei

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

Finding alternative power sources has been an important topic of study worldwide. It is vital to find substitutes for finite fossil fuels. Such substitutes may be termed renewable energy sources and infinite supplies. Such limitless sources are derived from ambient energy like wind energy, solar energy, sea waves energy; on the other hand, smart cities megaprojects have been receiving enormous amounts of funding to transition our lives into smart lives. Smart cities heavily rely on smart devices and electronics, which utilize small amounts of energy to run. Using batteries as the power source for such smart devices imposes environmental and …

Small-Satellite Attitude Control Using Sinusoidal Actuator Motion: Experiments On The International Space Station, K. Ryan Lush

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

In this work, we design, build, and test two 1.25U CubeSats. These small satellites were deployed on the International Space Station to perform attitude control experiments in microgravity. These CubeSats use an oscillating-mass actuation system for attitude control as opposed to traditional flywheels. Each CubeSat uses 3 pairs of servomotors to oscillate masses about 3 orthogonal axes. The servomotors have strict rotational stroke limits. Thus, they cannot spin continually. To oscillate each pair of masses, the angle of each servomotor is commanded using signals that are continuous and piecewise sinusoidal with amplitudes that do not violate the servomotor stroke constraints. …

Numerical And Scaling Study On Application Of Inkjet Technology To Automotive Coating, Masoud Arabghahestani Dr.

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

A thorough literature review identified lack of precision control over quality of droplets generated by the currently available industrial sprayers and a growing need for higher quality droplets in the coating industry. Particularly, lack of knowledge and understanding in continuous inkjets (CIJ) and drop-on-demand (DOD) technologies is identified as significant. Motivated by these needs, this dissertation is dedicated to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and scaling studies to improve existing inkjet technologies and develop new designs of efficient coating with single and/or multiple piezoelectric sensors to produce on-demand droplets. This dissertation study aims at developing a new DOD type coating technology, …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Nickel Plated Micro-Resonators For Noncommutative Orientation Control In Microrobots, Marc Manheim

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

This thesis describes a procedure for fabricating arrays of microstructures out of SU-8 photoresist and nickel, which was developed with the goal of yielding microrobots capable of 1D rotation byway of magnetically-induced beam vibration that could be used for non-commutative orientation control. Several multi-layer geometries were designed, fabricated, tested and refined. In this process, micro-adhesion of multiple SU-8 layers was also studied. A method for depositing nickel via electroless plating was also developed, tested and characterized. While no microrobots were shown to produce rotation, the final results included beams that were capable of magnetically-induced vibration when subjected to an AC …

Indoor-Wireless Location Techniques And Algorithms Utilizing Uhf Rfid And Ble Technologies, Ann M. Whitney

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

The work presented herein explores the ability of Ultra High Frequency Radio Frequency (UHF RF) devices, specifically (Radio Frequency Identification) RFID passive tags and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to be used as tools to locate items of interest inside a building. Localization Systems based on these technologies are commercially available, but have failed to be widely adopted due to significant drawbacks in the accuracy and reliability of state of the art systems. It is the goal of this work to address that issue by identifying and potentially improving upon localization algorithms.

The work presented here breaks the process of localization …

Pressure-Driven Stabilization Of Capacitive Deionization, Landon S. Caudill

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

The effects of system pressure on the performance stability of flow-through capacitive deionization (CDI) cells was investigated. Initial data showed that the highly porous carbon electrodes possessed air/oxygen in the micropores, and the increased system pressure boosts the gases solubility in saline solution and carries them out of the cell in the effluent. Upon applying a potential difference to the electrodes, capacitive-based ion adsorption occurs in competition with faradaic reactions that consume oxygen. Through the addition of backpressure, the rate of degradation decreases, allowing the cell to maintain its salt adsorption capacity (SAC) longer. The removal of oxygen from the …

Attitude Control On So(3) With Piecewise Sinusoids, Shaoqian Wang

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

This dissertation addresses rigid body attitude control with piecewise sinusoidal signals. We consider rigid-body attitude kinematics on SO(3) with a class of sinusoidal inputs. We present a new closed-form solution of the rotation matrix kinematics. The solution is analyzed and used to prove controllability. We then present kinematic-level orientation-feedback controllers for setpoint tracking and command following.

Next, we extend the sinusoidal kinematic-level control to the dynamic level. As a representative dynamic system, we consider a CubeSat with vibrating momentum actuators that are driven by small $\epsilon$-amplitude piecewise sinusoidal internal torques. The CubeSat kinetics are derived using Newton-Euler's equations of motion. …

Assessing The Spatial Accuracy And Precision Of Lidar For Remote Sensing In Agriculture, Surya Saket Dasika

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

The objective of this whole study was to evaluate a LiDAR sensor for high-resolution remote sensing in agriculture. A linear motion system was developed to precisely control the dynamics of LiDAR sensor in effort to remove uncertainty in the LiDAR position/velocity while under motion. A user control interface was developed to operate the system under different velocity profiles and log LiDAR data synchronous to the motion of the system. The LiDAR was then validated using multiple test targets with five different velocity profiles to determine the effect of sensor velocity and height above a target on measurement error. The results …

Fourth-Generation Fan Assessment Numeration System (Fans) Design And Performance Specifications, Michael P. Sama, George B. Day, Laura M. Pepple, Richard S. Gates

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The Fan Assessment Numeration System (FANS) is a measurement device for generating ventilation fan performance curves. Three different-sized FANS currently exist for assessing ventilation fans commonly used in poultry and livestock housing systems. All FANS consist of an array of anemometers inside an aluminum shroud that traverse the inlet or outlet of a ventilation fan. The FANS design has been updated several times since its inception and is currently in its fourth-generation (G4). The current design iteration (FANS-G4) is reported in this article with an emphasis on the hardware and software control, data acquisition systems, and operational reliability. Six FANS-G4 …

Target Read Operation Of Passive Ultra High Frequency Rfid Tag In A Multiple Tags Environment, Zi Qin Phua

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

Passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency Identification (RFID) has emerged as a promising solution for many industrial applications. Passive UHF systems are relatively inexpensive to implement and monitor, as no line of sight is required for the communication. There are several advantages to using a passive RFID system. For example, no internal power source is required to activate the tags, and lower labor costs and efficient multitasking operations are expected in a long term scenario. However, due to factors such as tag-to-tag interference and inaccurate localization, RFID tags that are closely spaced together are difficult to detect and program accurately …

Simulation Of Horse-Fence Contact And Interaction Affecting Rotational Falls In The Sport Of Eventing, Gregorio Robles Vega

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

Rotational falls, or somersault falls, have led to serious and fatal injuries during the cross-country phase of Eventing competitions. Research to improve the safety of the sport began in 2000 after five fatal injuries occurred in the 1999 Eventing season. These efforts led to safety devices such as air jackets, improved helmets, and frangible/deformable fences. The focus of this thesis is to develop a more complete understanding of the horse-fence interaction as the approach motion transitions to a rotational fall. To achieve this, a large distribution of inertial properties was compiled through the development of a cylinder-based inertia approximation and …

Torque Response Of Thin-Film Ferromagnetic Prisms In Uniform Magnetic Fields At Macro And Micro Scales, Soroosh Torabi

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

The non-contact nature of magnetic actuation makes it useful in a variety of microscale applications, from microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip devices to classical MEMS or even microrobotics. Ferromagnetic materials like nickel are particularly attractive, because they can be easily deposited and patterned using traditional lithography-based microscale fabrication methods. However, the response of ferromagnetic materials in a magnetic field can be difficult to predict. When placed in a magnetic field, high magnetization is induced in these ferromagnetic materials, which in turn generates force and/or torque on the ferromagnetic bodies. The magnitude and direction of these forces are highly dependent on the type …

Autonomous Quadrotor Collision Avoidance And Destination Seeking In A Gps-Denied Environment, Thomas C. Kirven

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

This thesis presents a real-time autonomous guidance and control method for a quadrotor in a GPS-denied environment. The quadrotor autonomously seeks a destination while it avoids obstacles whose shape and position are initially unknown. We implement the obstacle avoidance and destination seeking methods using off-the-shelf sensors, including a vision-sensing camera. The vision-sensing camera detects the positions of points on the surface of obstacles. We use this obstacle position data and a potential-field method to generate velocity commands. We present a backstepping controller that uses the velocity commands to generate the quadrotor's control inputs. In indoor experiments, we demonstrate that the …

Hybrid Diesel-Electric Drivetrain For Small Agricultural Field Machines, Joseph Jackson, Joseph S. Dvorak

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

In this project, a series electric drivetrain sized for small agricultural machinery was developed and tested. Electric drives have noted benefits in simplicity, controllability, integration with other electronics such as those that provide autonomous action, and in efficiency over a wide operating range. Their biggest drawback for agricultural use is the limited capacity of electrical energy storage. A series hybrid drivetrain provides a method to overcome these capacity constraints through the use of chemical energy storage. The series hybrid drivetrain in this research was designed using well-established components. It consisted of a diesel-electric generator, a lead acid battery pack, a …

Effect Of Heating And Ionization Of Four Atomizing Gases On The Spray Characteristics Of A High Volume Low Pressure Spray Atomizer, Anthony V. Adornato

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

The disintegration of a liquid jet emerging from a nozzle by a high speed gas stream has been under investigation of several decades. A result of the liquid jet disintegration is droplet formation. This process is referred to as atomization. Industrial applications use atomization as a method for applying coatings to substrates. It has been reported that the use of other atomizing gases instead of compressed plant air will positively affect paint droplet size distributions, spray patterns and finish qualities; furthermore, the ionization and heating of the atomizing gas was reported to positively affect finish qualities. Although ionization techniques have …

Fabrication Of Magnetic Two-Dimensional And Three-Dimensional Microstructures For Microfluidics And Microrobotics Applications, Hui Li

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology has had an increasing impact on industry and our society. A wide range of MEMS devices are used in every aspects of our life, from microaccelerators and microgyroscopes to microscale drug-delivery systems. The increasing complexity of microsystems demands diverse microfabrication methods and actuation strategies to realize. Currently, it is challenging for existing microfabrication methods—particularly 3D microfabrication methods—to integrate multiple materials into the same component. This is a particular challenge for some applications, such as microrobotics and microfluidics, where integration of magnetically-responsive materials would be beneficial, because it enables contact-free actuation. In addition, most existing microfabrication methods …

Experimental Investigation To Inform Optimal Configurations For Dynamic Near-Field Passive Uhf Rfid Systems, Donnie E. Proffitt Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

RFID has been characterized as a “disruptive technology” that has the potential to revolutionize numerous key sectors. A key advantage of passive RFID applications is the ability to wirelessly transmit automatic identification and related information using very little power. This paper presents an experimental investigation to inform the optimal configuration for programming passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID media in dynamic applications. Dynamic programming solutions must be designed around the tag’s functionality, the physical programming configuration and environment. In this investigation, we present a methodology to determine an optimal configuration to maximize the systems programming efficiency for dynamic applications.