Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Gazelle: A Human Powered Vehicle, William Fluharty, Brian Rice, Amulya Rao, Werner Nistler

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

This thesis details the year-long Senior Design process in which our goal was to create a human powered vehicle that could be a short-distance replacement for cars. Our team designed our vehicle to be entered in the ASME Human Powered Vehicle Competition in April of 2016. Our vehicle featured a seat that could be adjusted for users of different heights, making it more comfortable to ride. This report will describe the process and design choices that were made throughout the year in order to create a vehicle. Our frame was welded using Chavez Welding, and the welding created some complications …

Safer: Search And Find Emergency Rover, Zachary Agustin, Charles Lewis, Elizabeth Mcmahon, Cameron Pierce, Pranav Pradhan, Michael Tamshen

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

When disaster strikes and causes a structure to collapse, it poses a unique challenge to search and rescue teams as they assess the situation and search for survivors. Currently there are very few tools that can be used by these teams to aid them in gathering important information about the situation that allow members to stay at a safe distance. SAFER, Search and Find Emergency Rover, is an unmanned, remotely operated vehicle that can provide early reconnaissance to search and rescue teams so they may have more information to prepare themselves for the dangers that lay inside the wreckage. Over …

Glows Co Automated Chemical Etching Machine For Fiber Optic Cable, Mishan Golshan, Peter Laird, Thomas Ostrander, Marty Winkler, Peter Savoy

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

This report summarizes the conceptualization and development of an automated machine designed for a fiber optic cable stripping process used by Lumentum LLC. This process is currently manually operated by Lumentum’s technicians and involves unavoidable handling of corrosive chemicals. To increase technician safety, the process will be automated to reduce chemical - operator interactions. Improving safety conditions for technicians is the primary motivation for automating this process. Automation will also decrease process variation and increase product quality. GLOWS CO was tasked with creating this automated solution, leading to the design of the Automatic Chemical Etching Machine (or A-CHEM) for the …

Gravity Charger, Luke Lindsay, Will Gonder, George Montgomery

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

According to a 2014 World Health Organization research initiative based on data collected from 14 global developing countries, “Only 28% of health facilities and 34% of hospitals had what could be called “reliable” access to electricity (without prolonged interruptions in one week)” [1]. Healthcare quality suffers because of this lack of reliable electricity. We propose that a gravity powered generator would stand as a reliable power source for small medical devices under any conditions at any location at any time of day. Our research examines how a gravity powered electric generator could best empower medical facilities in developing countries to …

Torque Auditing Test Fixture For Hansen Medical’S Remote Catheter Manipulator Robot, Matt Mckay, Charles Reins, Scott Schneider

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Current manufacturing test systems for motor control of Hansen's line of surgical robots are labor intensive, have room for operator error and do not supply sufficient information. Based upon an expected increase in production, the objective of this project was to replace their test protocol with a modular test fixture that improves test time, is intuitive to use, and enhances the user experience. We developed a modular design that works for both the Sensei and Magellan robots, and can be reconfigured easily for use on future robots. Using a control system and GUI made in LabVIEW, a magnetic particle as …

Project Space: Solar Panel Automated Cleaning Environment, Matt Burke, Ryan Greenough, Daniel Jensen, Elliot Voss

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The goal of Project SPACE is to create an automated solar panel cleaner that will address the adverse impact of soiling on commercial photovoltaic cells. Specifically, we hoped to create a device that increases the maximum power output of a soiled panel by 10% (recovering the amount of power lost) while still costing under $500 and operating for up to 7.0 years. A successful design should operate without the use of water. This will help solar panel arrays achieve a production output closer to their maximum potential and save companies on costs associated energy generation.

The current apparatus utilizes a …

Smart Control For Home Water Heater Saving, Joe Singer, Michael Simmons, Scott Jansen

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Existing gas or electric water heaters can become inefficient through the overheating of water and through parasitic heat loss. These inefficiencies are able to be solved by monitoring when a home uses hot water. AquAdapt is a smart sensor which is capable of attaching to any existing residential gas or electric water heater. By constantly monitoring the temperature change of a home water heater, the first law of thermodynamics can be used to relate temperature change to the amount of hot water leaving the water heater. Utilizing this information, a schedule can be generated to optimize the heating of home …

Heat Pipe Design For Absorption Chiller Refrigerators Powered By Cookstoves, Paola Flores, Eduardo Melendez

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

We developed an inexpensive refrigeration system that will operate off-grid through the use of reclaimed heat from cookstoves. The refrigerator will serve as a reliable storage unit that will maintain vaccines at a proper temperature range. This report focuses on the various components that make up our Cool Stove project. The overall system and subsystems are laid out and explained. We also address the reason why we believe this project will be beneficial to individuals in developing countries. In addition, we provide detail on the work that we have accomplished and on the results that we have achieved. We created …

Cook Stove Powered Refrigeration: Cool Stove 2, Robert Bernal

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Lack of refrigeration contributes to the death of over 3.7 million children and the loss of 200 tonnes of food every year in developing countries. While 1.21 billion people in developing countries do not have access to electricity to operate traditional refrigerators, 38% of individuals within developing countries use biomass fuel to cook. The scope of my project was to produce a viable solution for refrigeration for these individuals in developing countries through the use of thermosyphons that utilize reclaimed thermal energy from cook stoves to power absorption chillers. Over the span of my project I was able to confirm …