Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

B.A.C.O.N. (Battery-Powered Autonomous Cart Conversion) Autonomous Vehicle Design, Robyn C. Ribet, Damond Li, Tanner Hillman, Christopher Or

Mechanical Engineering

The goal of our project is to convert an electric go cart into an autonomous testing platform. We must enable autonomous braking, steering, and acceleration with electro-mechanical systems. We began the project with ideation to create our initial design and have since received ample feedback from faculty, students, and our sponsor. With this feedback we were able to refine our preliminary ideas and produce a detailed design supported with ample analysis, research, and external advice. We have developed our project in four main subsystems: Steering, braking, acceleration, and emergency braking. Following, we procured, manufactured, and assembled all of our designed …

Unmanned Research Raft, Jacob Davis, Andrew Fleming, Luke Vickerman, Kahye Yu

Mechanical Engineering

This document serves as the Final Design Review report for the design team conducting the research raft design project for Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL). Our team has taken on a project to design a new research raft for LLNL.

The current rafts are suitable, but engineers have modified and altered the rafts to add more features as needed. This has led to a raft that accomplishes mission goals, but still has room for streamlining. The battery technology has also improved. Our goals were to redesign the raft from the ground up, reducing the size and weight. We also wanted …

Adaptive Vehicle Control, Brian L. Finger, Maria Vargas, Jacob T. Larson, Christopher J. Villa

Mechanical Engineering

This report presents the final design for our device made for Mrs. Laura Jagels. Mrs. Jagels, who has an above the knee amputation, needed a device that would allow her to operate a manual car in a safe and reliable way that still gives her the traditional driving experience. This report takes into consideration the shortcomings of current market devices that enable amputees to operate vehicles. From this research and through interviews with Mrs. Jagels, we were able to decide on our device specifications, giving us a basis to objectively evaluate designs. Ideation and concept prototype building was performed for …

2 Degree Of Freedom Robotic Leg, Oded Tzori, Henry Terrell, Adan Martinez

Mechanical Engineering

Professor Xing, an assistant professor at Cal Poly, proposed the 2 DOF Robotic Leg project for this quarter’s senior project class. The project is to build a robotic leg attached at the hip to a stand, which will be used as a teaching tool and eventually help develop Cal Poly’s very own robotic quadruped. Since this project has multiple uses after its completion, there are multiple customers that it must perform well for: the Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department, the ME Lab instructors, and the students. The Scope of Work (Sections 2 & 3) is composed of 2 main …

Cp Check Valve Design, Alec B. Der Matoian, Jessica M. Dent, Skylar M. Tusting

Mechanical Engineering

This report is to serve as a final design review and update to the project sponsors at Zurn Wilkins for the Check Valve Design Senior Project. The senior project team was tasked with improving upon the design of Zurn Wilkins’ backflow prevention assembly for small diameter pipes by reducing the pressure loss created by the check valves within the double check backflow assembly. The information contained in this report builds off the information contained in the Critical Design Report (CDR), as well as feedback and further investigation suggested during an Intermediary Design Review. Based on conclusions from the CDR, our …

Cisco Nexus 9200 Robustness Redesign, Colin Berge, Ethan Gold, Cole Christopherson, Rahul Makhijani

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Certain configurations of Cisco's Nexus 9200 product experienced issues with bending during shipping. Two solutions were developed to eliminate this problem: an external brace that could quickly address the problem yet was expensive and unsustainable, and a redesigned chassis, which was more economical but came with a longer time to implement. Real world packaging and shipping conditions were simulated in SolidWorks and Finite Element Analysis was used to model the stresses experienced when the product is dropped. Both designs were found to significantly reduce stress in critical areas, thus reducing the chance of failure and the cost of the problem. …

Facilities Redesign Of Stockroom At Elcon Precision, David M. Brawner, Tyler O. Mastromattei, Jay Y. Matsumoto

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Elcon Precision is a company based out of San Jose, California specializing in the photochemical processing of materials and brazing of metals and ceramics for a variety of different industries. Three students from the Industrial Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo were contacted by Elcon Precision to help redesign their stockroom and inventory areas in their San Jose location in order to allow for the future growth of the company. Elcon asked the Cal Poly project team to help increase efficiencies throughout the stockroom by creating an alternative layout that best suited the company's needs. This …

The Design Of A Digital Scheduling Solution For Healing Alternatives, Hailey A. Malin, Krista L. Mcallester, Anne E. Shields

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The focus of this senior project is to assist Healing Alternatives, an acupuncture clinic located in San Luis Obispo, in developing a business management software to fit their needs and boost their overall organization. The approach to finding the right fit for this business included assessing their current system while simultaneously investigating other providers. Once alternatives were found that met all of Healing Alternatives’ initial requirements, trial demos were generated in order to perform user experience testing. The presented final solution, a scheduling software called Acuity Scheduling, was implemented in a three-phase move plan that occurred over the period of …

Cal Poly Table Top, Kelsey M. Ishimatsu Jacobson, Andrew J. Whitney

Mechanical Engineering

Since many tables currently used at Cal Poly are not ideal for active design situations, we have designed, built and tested to be used in design classrooms with an emphasis on using the tables to quickly prototype ideas. This table is a standing height table in a trapezoidal shape which can comfortably seat four people. The modular design of the table allows multiple tables to be use to create different shapes so that the tables can be used in multiple ways.

Design And Prototyping Of An Adjustable Putter, Daulton Morgan

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Being able to demo a golf putter is essential for a golfer since the feel of the putter is critical in determining what suits the golfer best. Due to the market being primarily dominated by right-handed players, it is difficult for left-handed players to demo high quality putters since the selection is sparse.

This report is about designing and integrating an interchangeable fastening system that allows a putter to be altered between a right and left-handed orientation, while still maintaining the traditional look of a putter. The report covers the necessary design steps, the prototyping of the putter, the projected …

Design For Manufacturability: Off-Road Toyota Bumper, Drew Donlon

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The purpose of this project is to design a new off-road bumper that is improved from the stock form of a 1996-2002 Toyota 4Runner and a 1996-2004 Toyota Tacoma. The current state of the component is too weak to endure to off-road endeavors, and a kit bumper market is virtually untapped for these vehicles. The objectives of this project were met by redesigning the stock front bumper, conducting a finite element analysis on the model to test for strength, prototyping the bumper with CNC cut cardboard, and conducting a full cost analysis including the costs for waterjet and laser cutting …

Automated Bearing Press, David Baker, David Brock, Engelbert Diec

Mechanical Engineering

Our group was presented with a challenge to design an automated machine to replace Micro-Vu’s current manual pressing operation. We moved, planned, and scheduled our tasks for the three quarters we will be working on this project by using a Gantt chart. In designing the machine, we generated concepts and used analysis and prototyping to select the most promising ones. Our final design uses a pneumatic press to press the parts, and it includes magazines to hold the parts before pressing, pneumatic actuators to move the parts to and from the pressing location, and a lever to separate the defective …

E-Learning Design For Microsoft Access & Asp.Net, Jonathan Choi, Christopher Hom

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The problem definition is that the current video tutorial series is outdated and lacks interactive features that aid with E-Learning. The goal of the project is to create a platform that incorporates features such as structure, interaction, assessments, and competency tests. The project revolved around integrating four softwares together in order to create an effective E-Learning platform. The four softwares were Adobe Captivate, Camtasia, Microsoft Access and Microsoft Visual Studios. Adobe Captive is used to store the tutorial video and assign quizzes. Camtasia is used to record the tutorial videos. Microsoft Access is used to store all the questions given …

Machine Components Test, Brandon Younger, Lauren Romero, Carlos Padilla

Mechanical Engineering

To enhance California Polytechnic State University’s Mechanical Engineering program, Dr. Schuster has sponsored Brandon Younger, Lauren Romero, and Carlos Padilla to design and develop a new lab for students in the Intermediate Design class to test real mechanical components. This report discusses the background and ideation process that lead to the development of the Educational Mechanical Breadboard for Transmission System Components (Machine Components Test). Additionally, detailed drawings, 3D modeling, testing plans, and analysis are included to show how the Machine Components Test design will work and be validated.

Gaf Glass Mat Splice Table Improvements, Grant Haug, Kevin Lansang, Ronald Lam, Michael Mooney

Mechanical Engineering

The GAF asphalt shingle production line in Shafter, CA requires continuous operation in order to maximize production efficiency. The assembly line process begins with feeding a large roll of fiberglass web into an accumulator. However, once the fiberglass roll approaches the end, it must be spliced with a new roll in order to maintain continuous feed into the production line. The splicing process must be fast and reliable to prevent any delay of the production line. Currently, this process is performed by two workers who manually feed the new fiberglass roll, align the two mats, cut the mats, apply glue …

Underwater Rope Fatigue Testing Machine, Napoleon Nino, Andrew Pimentel

Mechanical Engineering

The design and fabrication of an underwater rope fatigue testing machine meant to simulate the effects of an oceanic environment and the effects on rope.

Increasing The Independence Of Children With Spina Bifida Through The Designing And Building Of A Mechanical Aide, Andrew Duffek, Robert Brent, Michael Hamada, Melissa Rodriguez

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

In order to assist Silas Hopper, a child with spina bifida, with getting into his wheelchair independently when being on the ground, the senior project team set out to construct a device that would fulfill that purpose. They did this through coming up with a strict definition of the problem to be solved, designing a number of potential solutions for the problem, prototyping to determine the feasibility of the solutions, making design modifications after testing the prototype, and building the final device.

The end product was a device that was able to operate mechanically, with a design that considered safety …

Database Design For The Collection And Visualization Of Sustainabilty Data, Henry A. Kozlowski, Nikhila Perugupalli

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The goal of the project was to create a database that would be a repository for the high volume of sustainability data Illumina would like to collect. To couple with the database the project team’s goal was to design a system for visualizing the data graphically. Illumina required a database system that would be user-friendly, easy to add, delete, and edit data inputs, as well as a program that would allow the user to easily sort and graph data. The intent of the graphical representation of the data is to publish the graphs in a monthly report that would be …

Small Scale Erp Engine Design, Colyn Muir Dickson, Matthew Wade Haymond

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This project set out to create a 1) low-cost, 2) dynamic, and 3) user-friendly small scale ERP software tool. These three key attributes position this product against complex and expensive systems such as SAP or Oracle. While the product still retains the dynamic and financial capabilities any good ERP system should have, the biggest value proposition is its simple and user-friendly interface. The software has a dual product-market fit: for small businesses as a low-cost planning tool, and for universities as a teaching tool. In the design phase, the team kept a primary focus on ergonomic software development while maintaining …

Modification Of A Draw Bar Type Arena Harrow To Three Point Mounted Type Harrow, Clayton Alan Brown

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This senior project will be the design, and construction of a three point hitch to be attached to a draw bar type spike tooth harrow. Currently used by the Cal Poly Rodeo Team to cultivate their arena before performances, and practices.

The attachment will allow the harrow to be pulled in both directions to create different types of soil affects.

Also the fabrications has a minimal budget so the majority of the materials will be scrap material already in position of the rodeo team or donated to the project.

Adapted Pool Cue, Cole Clark, Daniel Patterson, Michelle Cheung, Dylan Sauer

Mechanical Engineering

Our primary goal was to develop an adaptive device to allow a user with limited upper body mobility to more effectively play a game of pool. Within this goal it was important to design around the concept of a least restrictive environment, in order to provide the user with as close to a standard pool playing experience as possible. The device was designed to specifically meet the needs of John Lee, an Assistive Technology Specialist at Cal Poly's Disability Resource Center. Mr. Lee has muscular dystrophy, which limits his upper and lower body mobility and currently requires his use of …

Formula Sae Hybrid Carbon Fiber Monocoque / Steel Tube Frame Chassis, Matthew Hagan, John Rappolt, John Waldrop

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Formula SAE Team created this project in order to design and fabricate a high-performance chassis which would be competitive at 2013 FSAE Lincoln, and to document the process so that future teams could more easily create a chassis. One of the main goals was to reduce weight from the 143- lb 2012 chassis subsystem. A weight of 95 lb was achieved, with 82 lb in the chassis structure itself and a predicted torsional stiffness of 1700 lb*ft/deg. Composite materials design and manufacturing techniques were developed during the project. Design, testing, and manufacturing processes are detailed, and results …

The Collapsible Trailer: Design And Manufacture, Robert Hobson

Biomedical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Design And Implementation Of Eight-Legged Robotic Transporter, Jeremy David Depangher

Master's Theses

This thesis contains the design, manufacturing, and testing of a functional eight-legged robotic transporter based on the concept design laid out in U.S. Patent 7,246,671. The device is intended to achieve three different sequences of motion: regular driving, obstacle climbing, and stair climbing. The prototype was carried through concept design, analysis, selection of materials and components, manufacturing, software development, and final assembly and testing. The device can be assembled under multiple configurations, which harbor certain advantages and disadvantages. The results of the testing encourage the continuation of a second iteration of this concept.

Mechanical Design Of Pird (Principal Investigator Rack Drawer) For Sofia, Hari Prasad Shetty Mr., Murali Krishna Kandlagunta Mrs., John Miles Mr., Zaheer Ali Mr.

STAR Program Research Presentations

SOFIA, the world’s largest airborne observatory with 2.5-meter diameter infrared telescope is equipped with 7 instruments: EXES, FIFI-LS, FLITECAM, FORCAST, GREAT, HAWC, and HIPO. Flying at altitudes between 39,000 and 45,000 feet, SOFIA avoids 99% of the atmospheric water vapor, records and analyzes the infrared radiation from the cosmos. SOFIA is able to observe the occultation of stars by solar system objects. By determining the size, compositions, and atmospheric structures of these objects, SOFIA can help answer the questions on creation and evolution of the universe, formation of the stars and planets, and nature of black hole at the center …

School Van Access In Nepal, Edgar Corona, Humberto Maldonado, Josh Schiesl

Mechanical Engineering

A need has been identified by a school in Nepal intended for children with Cerebral Palsy, called Sathi Sansar, to develop a more effective solution to loading and unloading students onto the school’s Toyota HiAce van. Currently, a combination of the driver, parents and teachers manually help the students on and off the van. However, this task has proven to be both laborious and time consuming for all parties involved. A solution to this problem needs to be designed and one is currently being developed by a team of engineering students from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and Katmandu …

Design Of A Releasable Snowboard Binding, Rex Crossen, Brian Kruse, Timothy Scott

Mechanical Engineering

A releasable snowboard binding will be proposed to our sponsor. This binding will allow the user to release and engage on demand for aerial tricks, comfort, and increased safety. The releasable snowboard binding we will come up with will be revolutionary within the snowboard industry and make current bindings old and inferior.

Olympic Bocce Ballers, Steven Erickson, William Haley, Taylor Vaughan

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Piedras Blancas Clock Works, Andrew James, Andrew Jupin, Matt Weber

Mechanical Engineering

In 1875, the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse was built to warn ships sailing the California coast of the hazards of the rocky shore. In 1949 a fierce storm damaged the top portion of the lighthouse and the eight ton cast iron and brass assembly had to be replaced by a much lighter piece that still served the purpose of warning oncoming vessels. The former top portion came to rest in downtown Cambria and is still there today, enclosed in a glass room to be observed by visitors and townspeople. Today, the Piedras Blancas Light station is cared for by the Bureau …

Design And Manufacture Of Tennis Ball Retriever, Philip Hurst

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

No abstract provided.