Engineering Commons^™

Reliable Software Updates For On-Orbit Cubesat Satellites, Sean Fitzsimmons

Master's Theses

CubeSat satellites have redefined the standard solution for conducting missions in space due to their unique form factor and cost. The harsh environment of space necessitates examining features that improve satellite robustness and ultimately extend lifetime, which is typical and vital for mission success. The CubeSat development team at Cal Poly, PolySat, has recently redefined its standard avionics platform to support more complex mission capabilities with this robustness in mind. A significant addition was the integration of the Linux operating system, which provides the flexibility to develop much more elaborate protection mechanisms within software, such as support for remote on-orbit …

Lyfi, Kianoosh Salami, Justin Cotton, Elush Shirazpour

Electrical Engineering

This paper will cover the steps necessary to design, build, and manage networkable smart light switches over WiFi via a mobile application. It contains a microcontroller running a real time operating system, a WiFi module, a Java server with SQLite databasing, and a mobile phone application.

LyFi is designed to turn on/off and dim household lights while only requiring the same installation procedure as a less capable dimmer switch. Once installed and connected to a network, LyFi will self-discover and configure. The server automatically propogates a database of nodes where any mobile device running an application can receive an updated …

Cal Poly Xpress Project: Exploring Interactive Storytelling Through Digital Multimedia Platforms, Eugene Bistolas

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Roborodentia Scoring System, Justin Kikuchi

Computer Engineering

Every year at Cal Poly there is a robotics competition called Roborodentia . Roborodentia is sponsored by various industry leaders to provide a valuable and fun learning experience for Cal Poly students and alumni. The competition is held during the Cal Poly open house and draws a large number of spectators. In order to provide the spectators with a fun experience, it is necessary to present them with a live scoreboard, with visual and auditory effects.

The objective of this senior project was to design and build a fully functional scoreboard and tournament bracket with real-time scoring and timer. The …

Wireless Sensor Network For Wine Fermentation, Kerry Scharfglass, Andrew Lehmer

Computer Engineering

This project implements an automated temperature monitoring system for wine fermentation which is affordable, easy to use, and scalable to typical small winery setups. To realize these requirements, we implemented the system as a wireless sensor network utilizing commercial off-the-shelf hardware. Temperature and system diagnostic information is communicated wirelessly in a peer-to-peer network topology such that all information flows toward an aggregating server. The server makes the temperature information available over the Internet via a web application and alerts the winemaker by email when the temperature has left acceptable bounds that the winemaker may configure. This project also involved materials …

Design And Simulation Of Interconnected H-Bridge Inverter, Samuel Muehleck

Computer Engineering

In this project, the research, design and simulation of an interconnected H-bridge single-phase inverter was explored. The inverter design was divided into three separate sections. First, a VHDL programmed CPLD was used to generate control signals for the transistors of the inverter circuit. Second, power electronics was used to create an inverter circuit to change a DC input to a 60 Hz AC output. Lastly, additional circuits were used to link the generated control signals to the MOSFET transistors of the inverter circuit. The operation of the three components was then validated with computer simulations. Results of computer simulation demonstrate …

Isus - An Autonomous Off-Road Balancing Robot - High Level Software And Components Implementation, Kent Williams

Computer Engineering

The ISUS Mobile Robot is a balancing off-road mobile robotic vehicle capable of driving while balancing on two wheels in rough and changing terrain. The robot can be operated over WI-FI via a computer.

A Web-Based Approach To Music Library Management, Jason Young

Computer Engineering

This application utilizes modern standards developing in web browsers to create a desktop-like application for managing a music library online. The server side application is written in a model-view-controller style using Python backed by a MySQL database. The client side JavaScript was designed around a modular concept interfacing several third-party frameworks and libraries. By taking advantage of developing browser features such as persistent local storage, this web application was designed to handle a large library of music.

Pier Portal, Andrew Belis, Andrew (Andy) Crafts, Jeremy Depangher, Aaron Hein, Michael Machado, Aaron Poulos

Computer Engineering

This project constitutes the design, build, and test of a camera system that runs on a track along the length of a pier piling at the Cal Poly pier in Avila Beach. The goal of the camera system is to observe the abundant sea life active on the surface of the piling underwater and in the tidal zone. The camera system will stream live video to the internet, record HD video, and be controllable remotely. The track is mounted to the piling with brackets and extends from the sea floor to a few feet above the pier deck. The camera, …

Beaglebone Webcam Server, Alexander Corcoran

Computer Engineering

The Beaglebone Webcam Server is a Linux based IP webcam, based on an inexpensive ARM development board, which hosts its own web server to display the webcam feed. The server has the ability to either connect to a wired router, or to act as a wireless access point in order for users to connect and control its functions via any Wi-Fi enabled device.

Non Interference For Intuitionist Necessity, Radha Jagadeesan, Corin Pitcher, James Riely

Technical Reports

The necessity modality of intuitionist S4 is a comonad. In this paper, we study indexed necessity modalities that provide the logical foundation for a variety of applications; for example, to model possession of capabilities in policy languages for access control, and to track exceptions in type theories for exceptional computation.

Noninterference properties of the intuitionist logic of indexed necessity modalities capture the limitations on the information flow between formulas that are under the scope of necessity modalities with different indices. The impact of noninterference is seen in the unprovability of certain formulas. Noninterference is necessary for several applications. In models …

The Micro Check-In Framework For The Next Generation Of Location-Based Applications, Shraddha Kacha

Master's Theses

Today's mobile computing platforms provide new, convenient possibilities for location-based commercial activity. In particular, the global positioning system (GPS) provides location data for local advertising and retail activity. In this thesis, we take the next step and introduce the concept of micro check-in. Micro check-in is a simple framework that allows users to match their current location to specific objects or places at a resolution much finer than that allowed by GPS based check-in. We show that micro check-in enables customers to reveal their location at a fine level of granularity. By describing the concepts of points of service, service …

Real World Computer Forensics, Jessica Riccio

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

No abstract provided.

Mac's Fiesta: A Foreign Language Game For The Sifteo Platform, Karina Cordon

Computer Engineering

Mac’s Fiesta is a Spanish learning game designed on the Sifteo gaming platform for children ages four and up. The Sifteo gaming platform provides a new way of interacting with computers by giving users a set of tangible and interactive cubes. Each Sifteo cube has a clickable colored screen and can sense motion and adjacent blocks. Games on this platform are designed to encourage the development of core thinking skills. This project aims to explore how Sifteo cubes can be used for language learning as well as observe how effective they are as educational tools.

Cpe Senior Project Final Report: Roborodentia 2012 - Team Street Sweeper, Jason Miller, David Pascale

Computer Engineering

The Street Sweeper was a multi-disciplinary, autonomous robotics project constructed to compete in Cal Poly's Roborodentia XVII in 2012. The goal of the competition was to collect painted cat food cans in the team's goal area, with bonus points for stacking the cans. Street Sweeper was very much a budget robot, but due to good planning and strategy, managed to place 2nd in the competition.

Riley The Cat, Nicholas Zankich

Computer Engineering

There are many toys that exist that are comfort objects. Generally these are toys that are soft such as blankets, stuffed animals, and pillows. Robotic toys also exist such as games, interactive books, and instruments. There exists a crossover market that includes Furbys, Tomagachi pets, and Fur Real Friends. While being very popular, I believe that this crossover isn’t perfect, and that there is a lot of room for improvement. Riley (Figure 1) was created to make something that is both completely a robot and a comfort object.

Polygrasp: Reach; Myoelectric Prosthetic Hand Iteration, Devon Patrick Augustus, Mighells Blaed Deuel, Ian Noel Fraser, Nicholas Philip Moesser

Mechanical Engineering

Amputations are a common occurrence in soldiers returning home who have suffered the effects of IED and munitions explosions. For upper limb amputees, trans-radial amputations are the most common. Traditional hook devices do not offer an adequate level of normalcy for users, prompting the use of myoelectric devices. While current myoelectric devices do offer a more natural experience, they come with a host of other problems that makes their adoption by service personnel not desirable or not permitted by the VA. PolyGrasp Reach seeks to reduce weight and cost and improve performance. This addresses several of the issues with devices …

Iphone Breathalyzer: Point Oh Wait!, Gurpal Bhoot

Electrical Engineering

This final year project combines hardware and software components to create an alcohol breathalyzer that is compatible with the iPhone. The final design of the circuit and the iPhone application is original and combines multiple components to create the final product. Most of those components are seen in a simplified version of a breathalyzer, while the added components take care of the interface to the iPhone.

Frg Turbojet, Tyler Vitti

Computer Engineering

Members of the Cal Poly SLO campus club FRG work together with students of several different disciplines to build a functional turbojet engine. Engineering approaches include design, fabrication, testing, and computer sensing, control, and integration. The goal of the project is to produce a running turbojet engine monitored and controlled by embedded hardware and specialized PC software. This project is to be used by later groups for further research and development.

Patterns For Success: Women In Technology: Analyzing Top Technical Women For Repeated Mindsets, Life Experiences, And Career Navigation, Julie L. Gill

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss and discover why some women are so successful in the computing fields when public opinion continues to hold that computing is not a women’s field because there are so few women in computing. The roots for this shortage begin in theAmerican educational system, “Nationwide only about 20 percent of the bachelor's degrees incomputer science go to women,” according to a November 11, 2011 NPR story titled “Addressing the Shortage of Women in Silicon Valley”. This shortage is well noted and heavily researched, Plausible solutions have been proposed and it is critically important …

A Discriminative Imaging-Based Framework For Road Sign Condition Assessment Using Local Features And Svm Classifiers, Jafar Jameel Abukhait

Dissertations

Transportation departments are required to monitor the condition of road signs through appropriate condition assessment mechanisms to improve road safety and keep drivers properly informed. Typically, these mechanisms include visual inspection or specialized equipment such as retroreflectometers. These methods are costly, tedious, and risky since they need direct contact with road signs. Efforts to use emerging computer vision techniques for the assessment of road signs condition combined with the availability of road data inventories are allowing the automation of these processes, thus easing the inspection process, reducing costs of equipment, and decreasing the risks associated with the need for maintenance …

Robotron, Fabian Rodriguez, Oscar Daniel Muneton, Adelaido Jimenez

Computer Engineering

Roborodentia 2012 is a competition where students and alumni could build an autonomous robot to perform a certain task for points. This report is about Robotron, the 3rd place winner of this competition, and how it came to be.

California Polytechnic State University Senior Project Winter-Spring 2012, Roborodentia Xvii, Stack-E, Alejandro Ignacio, Austin Hobbs

Computer Engineering

The main goal for our project is to design and build a functional autonomous robot that is capable of navigating an open arena while avoiding obstacles, as well as identify other objects or cans on the field. It must also be capable of stacking and containing these cans. Deliverables will include the fully assembled robot chassis containing the essential hardware components needed to accomplish the navigation and movement, as well as capabilities like identification of objects and stacking of cans. Alongside the hardware, there will also be software developed to showcase these capabilities of the robot design, including the vision …

Improvement Of Statistical Process Control At St. Jude Medical's Cardiac Manufacturing Facility, Christopher Lance Edwards

Master's Theses

Sig sigma is a methodology where companies strive to reproduce results ending up having a 99.9996% chance their product will be void of defects. In order for companies to reach six sigma, statistical process control (SPC) needs to be introduced. SPC has many different tools associated with it, control charts being one of them. Control charts play a vital role in managing how a process is behaving. Control charts allow users to identify special causes, or shifts, and can therefore change the process to keep producing good products, free of defects.

There are many factories and manufacturing facilities having implemented …

Lottery Scheduling In The Linux Kernel: A Closer Look, David Zepp

Master's Theses

This paper presents an implementation of a lottery scheduler, presented from design through debugging to performance testing. Desirable characteristics of a general purpose scheduler include low overhead, good overall system performance for a variety of process types, and fair scheduling behavior. Testing is performed, along with an analysis of the results measuring the lottery scheduler against these characteristics. Lottery scheduling is found to provide better than average control over the relative execution rates of processes. The results show that lottery scheduling functions as a good mechanism for sharing the CPU fairly between users that are competing for the resource. While …

Cuda Web Api Remote Execution Of Cuda Kernels Using Web Services, Massimo J. Becker

Master's Theses

Massively parallel programming is an increasingly growing field with the recent introduction of general purpose GPU computing. Modern graphics processors from NVIDIA and AMD have massively parallel architectures that can be used for such applications as 3D rendering, financial analysis, physics simulations, and biomedical analysis. These massively parallel systems are exposed to programmers through in- terfaces such as NVIDIAs CUDA, OpenCL, and Microsofts C++ AMP. These frame- works expose functionality using primarily either C or C++. In order to use these massively parallel frameworks, programs being implemented must be run on machines equipped with massively parallel hardware. These requirements limit …

Detecting Netflix Service Outages Through Analysis Of Twitter Posts, Cailin Cushing

Master's Theses

Every week there are over a billion new posts to Twitter services and many of those messages contain feedback to companies about their services. One company that has recognized this unused source of information is Netflix. That is why Netflix initiated the development of a system that will let them respond to the millions of Twitter and Netflix users that are acting as sensors and reporting all types of user visible outages. This system will enhance the feedback loop between Netflix and its customers by increasing the amount of customer feedback that is being received by Netflix and reducing the …

Using Inductance As A Tuning Parameter For Rf Meta-Atoms, Derrick Langley, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., Peter J. Collins

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The resonant frequency of metamaterials structured with split ring resonator (SRR) meta-atoms is determined primarily through the capacitance and inductance of the individual meta-atoms. Two designs that vary inductance incrementally were modeled, simulated, fabricated, and tested to investigate the role inductance plays in metamaterial designs. The designs consisted of strategically adding sections to the SRR to increase the inductance, but in a manner that minimized capacitance variations. Each design showed a shift in resonant frequency that was proportional to the length of the added section. As the length of each section was increased, the resonant frequency shifted from 2.78 GHz …

Wireless Medical Sensor Networks: Design Requirements And Enabling Technologies, Cecilia H. Vallejos De Schatz, Henry P. Medeiros, Fabio K. Schneider, Paulo J. Abatti

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This article analyzes wireless communication protocols that could be used in healthcare environments (e.g., hospitals and small clinics) to transfer real-time medical information obtained from noninvasive sensors. For this purpose the features of the three currently most widely used protocols—namely, Bluetooth^® (IEEE 802.15.1), ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4), and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11)—are evaluated and compared. The important features under consideration include data bandwidth, frequency band, maximum transmission distance, encryption and authentication methods, power consumption, and current applications. In addition, an overview of network requirements with respect to medical sensor features, patient safety and patient data privacy, quality of service, and interoperability …

Energy-Efficient Continuous Activity Recognition On Mobile Phones: An Activity-Adaptive Approach, Zhixian Yan, Vigneshwaran Subbaraju, Dipanjan Chakraborty, Archan Misra, Karl Aberer

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Power consumption on mobile phones is a painful obstacle towards adoption of continuous sensing driven applications, e.g., continuously inferring individual’s locomotive activities (such as ‘sit’, ‘stand’ or ‘walk’) using the embedded accelerometer sensor. To reduce the energy overhead of such continuous activity sensing, we first investigate how the choice of accelerometer sampling frequency & classification features affects, separately for each activity, the “energy overhead” vs. “classification accuracy” tradeoff. We find that such tradeoff is activity specific. Based on this finding, we introduce an activity-sensitive strategy (dubbed “A3R” – Adaptive Accelerometer-based Activity Recognition) for continuous activity recognition, where the choice of …