Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Urban Farming: Empowerment To Increase Economic, Education, And Nutritional Benefit For The Sub-Urban Community, Nasruddin Nasruddin, Yusuf Donner Dwiyantama, Banu Muhammad, Anom Bowalaksono, Dian Ayubi, Sarah Islamiati Pertiwi

ASEAN Journal of Community Engagement

This article discusses the urban farming program at Sekolah Master in Beji, Depok, Indonesia, which aims to provide the community with broader benefits, such as economy, education, and increased nutritional value. The project involves planting method that was introduced to this school community. The program itself consists of several stages, starting from the preparation—dissemination of the program and designing a plan for the greenhouse, the implementation—constructing the greenhouse and installing the automatic water system, planting the vegetation, and monitoring and evaluation of the program. Eventually, an evaluation of the successful program is required to determine whether the program can be …

Novel Locomotion Methods In Magnetic Actuation And Pipe Inspection, Adam Cox

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

There is much room for improvement in tube network inspections of jet aircraft. Often, these inspections are incomplete and inconsistent. In this paper, we develop a Modular Robotic Inspection System (MoRIS) for jet aircraft tube networks and a corresponding kinematic model. MoRIS consists of a Base Station for user control and communication, and robotic Vertebrae for accessing and inspecting the network. The presented and tested design of MoRIS can travel up to 9 feet in a tube network. The Vertebrae can navigate in all orientations, including smooth vertical tubes. The design is optimized for nominal 1.5" outside diameter tubes. We …

Interfacial Engineering Of Nickel-Rich Layered Oxide Cathodes Via Atomic Layer Deposition (Ald), Xin Wang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Layered nickel-rich cathodes LiNixMnyCozO2 (NMCs, x + y + z =1, x ≥ 0.6) are regarded as one of the most promising cathode materials for next-generation lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), given their remarkably reduced cost and increased capacity compared to the conventional LiCoO2 cathode. However, the deployment of these Ni-rich cathodes has been hindered by the continuous loss of practical capacity and reduction in average working voltage, inherently due to their interfacial, structural, and thermodynamic instability. To address these issues, interfacial engineering via surface modification has been well-recognized as an effective strategy and a large number of coating materials have been …

Novelty Ice Cream Assembly Prototype, Mason Sylvester, Logan Williamson, Alvaro Martinez, Adin Gilman-Cohen

Mechanical Engineering

Cool Beans USA is a novelty ice cream startup company founded by Keith Zachow. In the winter of 2022, our team began working with Mr. Zachow to develop a machine to automate parts of the production process for his product. This product consists of two hemispherical ice-cream cone shell halves filled with soft serve ice cream and pressed together. The assembled pods are around the size and shape of a small walnut and are intended to be sold in stores as a frozen finger food. At the time of project inception, this product was in its early stages and was …

Rotating Backing Brush, Caleb Savard, David Dalal, Max Allred, Mathis Weyrich

Mechanical Engineering

In the final steps of GAF’s shingle production process, small asphalt particles called fines are applied. Some fines adhere well to the shingle sheet, while others temporarily stick only to fall off the sheet further down the manufacturing line. As a result, the shingle plant floor is covered in fines that have fallen due to vibrations and gravity. The technicians and engineers at GAF want a cleaner working environment and to potentially reuse the loose fines. We are a senior project team that solved this problem by designing a system to remove and collect loose fines. In this document, the …

Tree Climbing Limb Saw, Andrew E. Bray, Parker Tenney, Drew M. Robles, Aimee T. Chiem

Mechanical Engineering

This document is the comprehensive report for the Tree Climbing Limb Saw Senior Project. The purpose of the Tree Climbing Limb Saw project, completed by mechanical engineers Andrew Bray, Aimee Chiem, Drew Robles, and Parker Tenney, is to remove low-hanging branches (<15 >ft) to prevent forest fires from travelling up into the canopy, where wind can carry embers for miles. An RC car was heavily modified to create a solution for this problem. A chainsaw was also mounted to deal with the cutting part of the problem. Creating a project which aims to solve this problem is a great step …

Assembly Of Ceramic Particles In Aqueous Suspensions Induced By High-Frequency Ac Electric Field, James E. John Iv

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Ceramic materials processed using colloidal methods have been the focus of a great deal of research aimed at tailoring the final structure and microstructure of the finished ceramic sample. To this end, various external field effects have been investigated to modify the suspension microstructure without manipulating the ceramic particles directly. In a previous work in the field of ice templating it has been shown that AC electric fields are able to produce microstructural changes in ice templated ceramics that have significantly improved the final mechanical properties. However, the mechanisms for this process are still not well understood in ceramics.

To …

An Application Of Optimized Bistable Laminates As A Low Velocity, Low Impact Mechanical Deterrent, Graham Lancaster

All Theses

This research considers the problem of using bistable laminates as a mechanical deterrent to the impending impact of a particle. The structure will be controlled through an algorithm that will utilize piezoelectric devices to activate them in unison with the bistable laminate to successfully deter. A novel experimental setup will be constructed to ensure that the bistable laminate stays fixed when acting as a mechanical deterrent. Piezoelectricity is the main driving force of the bistable laminate to morph and this study will use a Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) actuator that contains piezoelectric ceramic rods in a patch to transfer electrical …

The Design And Manufacturing Of An Environmental Chamber To Test Microelectronic Devices, William Graber, Aniket Roy Chowdhury

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Sculpting Charge In Graphene Through Patterned Strain, Dylan J. Balter, Jenna Smith

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Development Of Method To Characterize Adhesion Of Electrically Conductive Adhesive For Flexible Electronics, Joshua Corbin

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

Soft Robotic Arms For Fall Mitigation: Design, Control And Evaluation, Param Malhotra

All Theses

Most fall mitigation devices present a heavy system that avoid injuries to the user by preventing the impact of a fall. They are dependent on the user capability or on the probability that the user falls in the assumed manner the system was designed for. Often that is not the case, hence this project initiates a novel concept of using soft robotic arms to prevent falls from happening in the first place itself and save the user from any injuries. This thesis describes the prototype and development of a soft continuum robotic backpack system. The system can validate its use …

Eagle Medical Tray Denesting & Debris Removal Process, Nicholas Allen Ungefug, Noah Chavez, Susana Shu-Lin Okhuysen, Michael Augustine Pennington

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Eagle Medical Incorporated is a contract medical device packaging and sterilization company. The company purchases thermoformed medical packaging trays, which maintain the sterility of medical devices, from various manufacturers. To ensure packaging quality and to prevent cleanroom contamination, Eagle Medical inspects and sterilizes each blister tray that they order. This process is an essential non-value-added activity that creates a bottleneck. Cleanroom employees must stop packaging medical devices and attend to the processing of blister trays and packaging solutions. The blister trays arrive at Eagle’s facility in nested stacks. Vibration and movement during shipping further compresses the stacks, which makes separation …

Interactive Lego Girl Scout Arm, Christopher Suzuki, Emi Okuyama, Bryson Shores, Karina Sandoval

Mechanical Engineering

This Senior Project Report document outlines the senior design project for Girl Scouts of California’s Central Coast (GSCCC) led by a team of four Mechanical Engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The project encompasses the researching, designing, prototyping, and testing of a LEGO robotic arm for the Girl Scouts to learn more about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and provide support to each Girl Scouts cookie sales in their stores. Their goal was to build a LEGO robotic arm that will interact with customers at the Girl Scout stores and promote the girl scouts' interest …

Barker Bird Animatronic Senior Project Report, Marcus Monroe, Nolan Clapp, Ishan Jandaur, Jonathan Ogden

Mechanical Engineering

This document describes how our F71 Senior Design Project team developed a 3D printed, electronic bird that mimics Disneyland’s first animatronic, the Barker Bird. An animatronic is a mechanical puppet that replicates real life movement with robotic parts. Disney’s Barker Bird is a well-known animatronic that replicates a talking macaw with multiple moving systems. The final prototype completed by our team serves as a teaching tool for CAPED (Cal Poly Amusement Park Engineers and Designers) club members that are interested in the field of animated robots.

Mtb Daq - Mountain Bike Data Acquisition System, Theodore J. Philliber, Ronan M. Shaffer, Dylan M. Ruiz, John M. Ringrose

Mechanical Engineering

Mountain bike suspensions systems are set up and tuned based only on qualitative, ‘feeling’-based metrics. The MTB DAQ, sponsored by Dr. Joseph Mello with the Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering Department, is a data acquisition system we developed to improve suspension tuning with a data-driven approach. The system mounts to a bicycle frame and has sensors that measure vibration and travel speed to characterize the bike’s motion. While similar systems exist, they cost in the thousands of dollars range and are very specific to individual bike geometry. Our system was designed to be more affordable to the average rider as well …

Kinetic Energy Harvesting Device For Long Distance Thru-Hikers, Jarod Reece Lyles, Ryan William Mclaughlin, Shaw Hawkeye Hughes, David Hernandez

Mechanical Engineering

The intent of this project was to design and build a device capable of harnessing biomechanical energy from a thru-hiker to charge electronic devices. To begin, we ruled out any potential solutions that could be intrusive to the hiking experience, limiting us to a device that could be placed in a backpack.

After defining the scope of the project, we ideated upon potential designs, and chose to move forward with a rotational generator based design. Detailed analysis included both system dynamics and vibrations based models, and from this analysis we developed a mechanical design in SOLIDWORKS®️ and a custom printed …

Therapeutic Mechanical Horse, Cade M. Liberty, Aleya Dolorfino, Peter Philips, Zuzanna Dominik, Luke Watts

Mechanical Engineering

Jack's Helping Hand and its hippotherapy participants required a device to serve as an alternative to a live horseback riding experience that could also increase the range of riders. This would provide more clients with equine-assisted therapy that has proven to better the lives of people with both physical and mental disabilities. Horses can be unpredictable, tall, and sometimes anxiety-inducing, especially for new riders. Our group’s aim was to develop a mechanical horse that will be able to reduce these issues for equine therapy centers and the riders they help. When a rider gets to practice sitting on the horse …

8 Dof Quadrupedal Hopping Robot, Clayton T. Elwell, John Bennett, Tyler Mccue, Daniel Munic

Mechanical Engineering

The goal of our senior project was to fabricate an eight degree of freedom (DOF) prototypical quadrupedal robot, develop a controller than commands the quadruped to repeatedly jump 10 cm in the air, and fabricate a modular test stand to safely deploy our controller on the quadruped. The creation of a functional quadruped will bring attention to Dr. Siyuan Xing and Charlie Refvem’s research group, Cal Poly Legged Robots, and will give future Cal Poly undergraduate and graduate students a learning tool to explore dynamic control of biomimetic robotic systems.

Over the course of our senior project, we successfully manufactured …

Solar Solution For Mini-Rover, Michaella Ochotorena, Derick Louie, Jonathan Cederquist, Collin Petersen, Cole Korchek

Mechanical Engineering

This project focuses on designing, building, and testing a functional prototype of a collapsible solar array on the mini Mars rover being developed by client and sponsor, Mr. Rich Murray. Although many previous collapsible solar arrays have been deployed for space missions, the previous solar-powered Mars rovers only deployed their arrays once upon landing. This solar array will be able to collapse and deploy multiple times to allow for greater rover mobility and stability when the rover is not charging. This system is critical to the success of the rover project because it provides power without which the rover cannot …

Brush Clearing Trimming Device: Drivetrain, Dallas Russell, Nathan Small, Alex Imbery, Jordan Aguana

Mechanical Engineering

We, the “DT Inc.” team, have been tasked with the redesign of the drivetrain of an electric brush clearing tool created for trail and roadside use. We started the design process by doing research on the currently available products and determining their strengths and shortcomings. We also tested the prototype given to us by our sponsor, and listened to our sponsor about what he liked about his design and what he wanted changed. We resolved from this research that the most important improvements that we needed to make were to improve the traction, reduce the speed and increase the torque, …

Baker/Koob Final Report: Solar Solution For Mini Mars Rover, Jonathan Cederquist, Cole Korchek, Derick Louie, Michaella Ochotorena, Collin Petersen

Mechanical Engineering

This project focused on designing, building, and testing a functional prototype of a collapsible solar array on the mini Mars rover being developed by client and sponsor, Mr. Rich Murray. Although many previous collapsible solar arrays have been deployed for space missions, the previous solar-powered Mars rovers only deployed their arrays once upon landing. This solar array will be able to collapse and deploy multiple times to allow for greater rover mobility and stability when the rover is not charging. This system is critical to the success of the rover project because it provides power without which the rover cannot …

Interactive Lego Girl Scout Arm, Chris Suzuki, Emi Okuyama, Bryson Shores, Karina Sandoval

Mechanical Engineering

This Senior Project Report document outlines the senior design project for Girl Scouts of California’s Central Coast (GSCCC) led by a team of four Mechanical Engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The project encompasses the researching, designing, prototyping, and testing of a LEGO robotic arm for the Girl Scouts to learn more about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and provide support to each Girl Scouts cookie sales in their stores. Their goal was to build a LEGO robotic arm that will interact with customers at the Girl Scout stores and promote the girl scouts' interest …

Multifamily Complex Smart Locks For Property Management And Tenant Security, April Mills, Allen Chen, Dana Kumamoto, Michael Cook

Mechanical Engineering

Maintaining and managing hundreds of locks and physical keys for an apartment complex can be time consuming and costly, especially when the apartments turn over to new tenants. Our goal was to develop a smart door lock that is compatible with Obodo’s management app for apartment complexes to make accessing apartments secure and simpler for tenants and easier to manage for owners.

We designed and manufactured one smart door lock that is powered with four AA batteries and utilizes a dynamic NFC device and Bluetooth technology. The board can enter a sleep mode which reduces power consumption. The dynamic NFC …

Laser-Scribed Conductive, Photoactive Transition Metal Oxide On Soft Elastomers For Janus On-Skin Electronics And Soft Actuators, Ganggang Zhao, Yun Ling, Yajuan Su, Zanyu Chen, Cherian J. Mathai, Ogheneobarome Emeje, Alexander Brown, Dinesh Reddy Alla, Jie Huang, Chansong Kim, Qian Chen, Xiaoqing He, David Stalla, Yadong Xu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Laser-assisted fabrication of conductive materials on flexible substrates has attracted intense interests because of its simplicity, easy customization, and broad applications. However, it remains challenging to achieve laser scribing of conductive materials on tissue-like soft elastomers, which can serve as the basis to construct bioelectronics and soft actuators. Here, we report laser scribing of metallic conductive, photoactive transition metal oxide (molybdenum dioxide) on soft elastomers, coated with molybdenum chloride precursors, under ambient conditions. Laser-scribed molybdenum dioxide (LSM) exhibits high electrical conductivity, biocompatibility, chemical stability, and compatibility with magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, LSM can be made on various substrates (polyimide, …

Model-Based Design Of An Optimal Lqg Regulator For A Piezoelectric Actuated Smart Structure Using A High-Precision Laser Interferometry Measurement System, Grant P. Gallagher

Master's Theses

Smart structure control systems commonly use piezoceramic sensors or accelerometers as vibration measurement devices. These measurement devices often produce noisy and/or low-precision signals, which makes it difficult to measure small-amplitude vibrations. Laser interferometry devices pose as an alternative high-precision position measurement method, capable of nanometer-scale resolution. The aim of this research is to utilize a model-based design approach to develop and implement a real-time Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) regulator for a piezoelectric actuated smart structure using a high-precision laser interferometry measurement system to suppress the excitation of vibratory modes.

The analytical model of the smart structure is derived using the …

Cloudbots: Autonomous Atmospheric Explorers, Akash Binoj

Honors Scholar Theses

The CloudBot is an autonomous weather balloon that operates on the principle of variable buoyancy to ascend and descend in the atmosphere. This project aims to develop a device that will collect atmospheric measurements and communicate them mid-flight. The apparatus consists of a helium-filled balloon, the robotic payload, and an air cell. The fixed-volume helium balloon at the top provides an upwards buoyancy force, while the air cell at the bottom can hold a variable amount of pressure to adjust the weight of the CloudBot. By doing so, it is able to travel in storm conditions and collect valuable atmospheric …

Experimental And Theoretical Investigation Of Vibro-Impact Triboelectric Energy Harvesters, Mostafa Hassan

Mechanical Engineering Theses

Improving the efficiency of energy harvesting, by investigating different techniques to increase the harvester bandwidth, as well as by exploring the influencing factors and adjusting them to optimal setups. Towards this, multiple Vibro-impact energy harvesters were proposed in this study. First, a Two-Degree of Freedom (2DOF) Vibro-impact Triboelectric Energy Harvester with a single and a double impact configuration is proposed. Multi-modality and piecewise linearity were combined to improve the harvesting bandwidth of triboelectric energy harvesters utilizing two resonant frequencies. The harvester structure consists of a primary cantilever beam attached to a secondary cantilever beam through a tip mass in the …

Challenges And Signal Processing Of High Strain Rate Mechanical Testing, Barae Lamdini

Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic testing provides valuable insight into the behavior of materials undergoing fast deformation. During Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar testing, stress waves are measured using strain gauges as voltage variations that are usually very small. Therefore, an amplifier is required to amplify the data and analyze it. One of the few available amplifiers designed for this purpose is provided by Vishay Micro-Measurements which limits the user’s options when it comes to research or industry. Among the challenges of implementing the Hopkinson technology in the industry are the size and cost of the amplifier. In this work, we propose a novel design of …

Electromechanical Fatigue Properties Of Dielectric Elastomer Stretch Sensors Under Orthopaedic Loading Conditions, Andrea Karen Persons

Theses and Dissertations

Fatigue testing of stretch sensors often focuses on high amplitude, low-cycle fatigue (LCF) behavior; however, when used for orthopaedic, athletic, or ergonomic assessments, stretch sensors are subjected to low amplitude, high-cycle fatigue (HCF) conditions. As an added layer of complexity, the fatigue testing of stretch sensors is not only focused on the life of the material comprising the sensor, but also on the reliability of the signal produced during the extension and relaxation of the sensor. Research into the development of a smart sock that can be used to measure the range of motion (ROM) of the ankle joint during …