Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Design And Fabrication Of A Force-Displacement Control Mechanism For Bone-Surgical Tool Testing, Kenneth Nwagu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project focuses on the design and fabrication of an experimental setup for orthopedic-tool testing, tailored for a surgical instrumentation company. The multifaceted project encompasses a literature review, conceptual design, prototyping, and rigorous testing, resulting in a versatile control system capable of assessing various orthopedic tools, including bone drills, saws, burrs, and power handpieces.

Orthopedic surgical procedures (which include cutting and/or drilling into bone) often need to be performed on bones for faster recovery. The drilling and cutting process can cause an increase in temperature at the cutting site which can cause bone necrosis. The tools also need to be …

Quality Assurance Of Lightweight Structures Via Phase-Based Motion Estimation, Ikenna E. Ifekaonwu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, lightweight structures have become mature and adopted in various applications. The importance of quality assurance cannot be overemphasized hence extensive research has been conducted to assess the quality of lightweight structures. This study investigates a novel process that exploits motion magnification to investigate the damage characteristics of lightweight mission-critical parts. The goal is to assure the structural integrity of 3D printed structures and composite structures by determining the inherent defects present in the part by exploiting their vibration characteristics. The minuscule vibration of the structure was recorded with the aid of a high-speed digital camera, and the …

In-Situ Process Monitoring For Metal Additive Manufacturing (Am) Through Acoustic Technique, Md Shahjahan Hossain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is currently a widely used technology in different industries such as aerospace, medical, and consumer products. Previously it was mainly used for prototyping of the products, but now it is equally valuable for commercial product manufacturing. More profound understanding is still needed to track and identify defects during the AM process to ensure higher quality products with less material waste. Nondestructive testing becomes an essential form of testing for AM parts, where AE is one of the most used methods for in situ process monitoring. The Acoustic Emission (AE) approach has gained a reputation in nondestructive testing …

The Development Of A Holistic Quality Score Using In-Situ Monitoring Of Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Ryan Daigneault

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Additive manufacturing processes allow for a great degree of flexibility in terms of part production. The process is autonomous once the part has started printing in that the operator generally does not need to intervene until the part is finished. One issue that this introduces, however, is an inability to determine part quality during the printing process. Once a part has started printing, the operator must either wait until the part is finished or regularly check on the part during the print to determine the part quality. Using data gathered from multiple sensors, a quality score can be used to …

Color Removal From Pulp Mill Effluent Using Coal Ash Produced From Georgia Power Coal Combustion Plants, Christopher B. Willett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two environmental concerns currently face Georgia: coal fly ash (CFA) waste from coal power plants, and the effluent generated by pulp mills. Pulp mill effluent discolors surface waters into which it is discharged, and has been proven to negatively impact the dissolved oxygen and carbon necessary for aquatic life. The proposed solution is a cost-effective adsorption treatment using an inexpensive but abundantly available waste material: CFA. CFA possesses beneficial properties that allow it to effectively remove contaminants, and is available at significantly reduced cost. The primary research objective was to define treatment parameters that would result in the maximum removal …

Neuromodulation Based Control Of Autonomous Robots On A Cloud Computing Platform, Cameron Muhammad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the advancement of neurobiologically plausible models and computer networking has resulted in new ways of implementing control systems on robotic platforms. The work presents a control approach based on vertebrate neuromodulation and its implementation on autonomous robots in the open-source, open-access environment of robot operating system (ROS). A spiking neural network (SNN) is used to model the neuromodulatory function for generating context based behavioral responses of the robots to sensory input signals. The neural network incorporates three types of neurons- cholinergic and noradrenergic (ACh/NE) neurons for attention focusing and action selection, dopaminergic (DA) neurons for rewards- and …