Engineering Commons^™

Real Time And High Fidelity Quadcopter Tracking System, Tyler Mckay Hall

Computer Engineering

This project was conceived as a desired to have an affordable, flexible and physically compact tracking system for high accuracy spatial and orientation tracking. Specifically, this implementation is focused on providing a low cost motion capture system for future research. It is a tool to enable the further creation of systems that would require the use of accurate placement of landing pads, payload acquires and delivery. This system will provide the quadcopter platform a coordinate system that can be used in addition to GPS.

Field research with quadcopter manufacturers, photographers, agriculture and research organizations were contact and interviewed for information …

Poly Spotlight Control, Ryan P. O'Neill, C. Oleg Frandle, Anthony T. Lombardi

Mechanical Engineering

When this project began, The Cambria Center for the Arts Theater used a manually-operated spotlight. The sound created by the fans, along with the sheer size of the spotlight, required that it be housed in an attic room above the theater and shined through a closed window. This trapped a lot of heat in the room and involved some risk with climbing into and out of the attic room. This project sought to remedy those issues by mounting a pair of newer LED spotlights inside the theater. Doing this required a method for remotely controlling and actuating the angular position …

Flexible Custom Electric Skateboard, Caleb Adam Kelsay

Electrical Engineering

At Cal Poly traveling long distances only accessible by foot such as across campus or from the car park to class can be tiring and time-consuming. While not physically demanding, the trek consumes time in our tight college life schedule. To improve our time efficiency this project provides a relatively lightweight, powered solution to quickly and effectively travel long distances while maintaining full control and safety even on hills, a current limitation of traditional skateboards.

This electric skateboard includes the battery capacity to travel all around campus on a single charge with a compact and flexible skateboard design that provides …

Thermal-Fluid Dynamic Model Of Luge Steels, Brandon Stell

Master's Theses

Luge is an Olympic sport in which athletes ride feet-first on sleds down an ice-covered track. Competitors spring from the starting position and accelerate their sled by paddling with spiked gloves against the ice surface. Once the Luger leaves the starting section, their downhill motion is solely propelled by the effects of gravity. Athletes compete, one after the other, for the fastest time. Runs can differ by as little as a thousandth of a second, meaning that every minor sled adjustment, change of line choice, and shift of body position is critical. In the past, the sport of Luge has …

Development Of A Rotordynamic Signal Processing Matlab Interface And A Two-Disk Rotor Model, David L. Baker

Master's Theses

Using MATLAB and a National Instruments data acquisition card, a signal processing program meant to monitor the behavior of rotordynamic systems in real-time was developed and tested. By using traditional analysis methods in this field of engineering, commonly desired data representations such as bode, polar, orbit, full spectrum plots were able to be produced to a very high accuracy. Additional capabilities offered by this application are slow roll compensation, synchronous and sub-synchronous filtering, and true three dimensional plotting. The verification of this program was done by comparing the results to the ones acquired with Bently Nevada’s “Automated Diagnostics for Rotating …

Museum Wave Tank Design, David James Streng, Lisa Michelle Dischinger, John Frederick Niemoller

Mechanical Engineering

The Santa Maria Discovery Museum would like to add a tsunami wave tank to be one of their demonstrations. The wave tank needs to draw the attention of their young crowd and be educationally informative about the shapes and effects of waves. As this is a museum demonstration for children, the structure, user interface, and wave making mechanism must be durable.

We are a senior project team from California Polytechnic State University that worked on this project with Allan Hancock College and Stanford University. We created waves by rapidly moving a plunger vertically in the water column. This project allows …

Deep Well Pump Seal, Peter M. Gordon, Matt C. Johnson, Dylan A. Smith

Mechanical Engineering

Lifewater International, a Christian non-profit, trains locals to repair water well hand pumps in various third world countries. It would be beneficial to retrofit difficult-to-repair hand pumps with a locally-made pump cylinder such as HydroMission's "SlapShot". The majority of the components in the "SlapShot" can be easily obtained in rural third world villages. However, the thick leather gaskets required to seal the water cylinder during the pumping operation are imported. These thick leather gaskets are expensive, and when they fail, this results in pumps being out of commission for extended periods of time. Lifewater has presented this problem to a …

Development Of An Insulated Solar Electric Cooker (Isec) With Thermal Storage For Use In Developing World Countries, Amanda Gyokery, Spencer W. Davis, Kyle Henry Smit

Mechanical Engineering

According to the World Health Organization, about half of the world’s population uses biomass stoves to cook their meals. However, biomass fires can be dangerous. Unattended biomass fires and indoor air pollution are responsible for an estimated 600,000 deaths annually and the creation of approximately 4 million instances of chronic disease. They also release CO2 and other pollutants into the air, and require the families to gather enough material to keep it burning (WHO 2017). Although cleaner cooking technology seems like a clear solution, often families are either unwilling to change how they cook food or are unable to afford …

Usa Boccia Ball Ramp For Athletes With Quadriplegia, Alissa A. Koukourikos, Matthew Lee, Nathan Bernards

Mechanical Engineering

In this report, the design process in creating an assistive device for Boccia Classification 3 (BC3) players is outlined. The initial research steps, including research into the rules of the game, capabilities of the players, and existing products is documented to show where ideas for the product stemmed from. This transitions into requirements that the sponsor requested, and preliminary designs and ideas for the product. Finally, this report explains the details of the final design, which has been analyzed for safety, ease of use, and ability to function under different conditions. The processes of manufacturing and testing will also be …

Dyno-Mite Redesign, Brandon Joseph Miller, Daniel Robert Hoffman, Richard Demedici Young

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Mechanical Control Systems Laboratory currently employs an outdated device, known as the Motomatic, to teach students about various motor characteristics and control methods. These include open-loop vs. closed-loop control, speed vs. position control, and DC motor response curves. The current device does not function properly and produces unreliable data due to overwhelming non-linear effects such as stiction and shaft misalignment. Our team was tasked with designing a replacement device that retains many of the same educational goals as the original lab procedure, while also adding new educational goals pertaining to the device system dynamics. The new apparatus, …

Rogue Rotary - Modular Robotic Rotary Joint Design, Sean Wesley Murphy, Tyler David Riessen, Jacob Mark Triplett

Mechanical Engineering

This paper describes the design process from ideation to test validation for a singular robotic joint to be configured into a myriad of system level of robots.

Medium Duty Gas-Turbine Engine Blade Removal Tool, Elliott James Greb, Jacob Thomas Syage, Kellen Thomas Field

Mechanical Engineering

Solar Turbines Incorporated sponsored a team of three Cal Poly Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering students to design, manufacture, prototype, and test a tool for the removal of turbine blades from their respective disk assembly without damaging the disk itself. The tool was developed for Solar’s industrial gas turbine engines. The tool complies with all OSHA and Solar Turbines safety and engineering constraints, and was designed for use in a shop facility. The tool was made adaptable for geometric variances in multiple turbine rotor disk stages, and requires no more than one technician to operate using a maximum of two shop resources. …

Animated Otto-Langen Atmospheric Engine, Keiran M. Hansen, Lance Hodgson, Rachel A. Jakob, Chris J. Splees

Mechanical Engineering

Based on an existing relationship between Dr. Owen and the Deutsches Museum, Otto-Mated was given the opportunity to collaborate with the two in a year-long senior design project. Otto-Mated was tasked with modeling and simulating the Otto-Langen Atmospheric Engine as a form of preservation and education. The model was created in SolidWorks and animated in Blender, effectively providing the museum with accurate and educational videos demonstrating the engine’s function. Within this document are the plans, decisions, and processes used to create our final product for Deutsches Museum.

Process Management And Design Layout Of High Throughput Screening, Anthony Vasquez, Kyle Dupuy

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Calibr is a pharmaceutical company in San Diego and growing very quickly rate and need help redesigning their lab layout and in doing so reducing their cycle times and down times in machines. In addition to this, they do not currently have an accurate measurement of how long their processes take in an overall cycle. The objective of this project is to provide Calibr with a redesigned layout to accommodate new equipment as well as a software tool that can output Gantt charts for their planning of their testing. Our approach to this project first included mapping out the facilities …

Effects Of Support Structure Geometry On Slm Induced Residual Stresses In Overhanging Features, Ryan Baskett

Master's Theses

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a new and rapidly developing manufacturing method for producing full-density, geometrically complex metal parts. The SLM process is time and cost effective for small-scale production; however, wide-spread adoption of this technique is severely limited by residual stresses that can cause large deformations and in-process build failures. The issues associated with residual stress accumulation are most apparent in parts with overhanging features. Due to the complexity of the SLM process, the accumulation of residual stresses is difficult to assess a priori. The deformations and in-process failures caused by residual stress accumulation often lead to an expensive …

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.

Device To Standardize Leaflet Droop Testing, Mark Butler, Daniel Lussier, Kyle Timm

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Reliability Test Fixture For Flexible Hybrid Electronics, Julia Akiko Roche, Maya Francesca Zumel Manzano, Paul Alfred Swartz

Mechanical Engineering

During the 2016-2017 school year, the Cal Poly NextFlex Group, in conjuncture with the Cal Poly Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department, was comprised of professors, undergraduate students, and graduate students all working towards the manufacturing of flexible hybrid electronics (FHEs). FHEs, which are comprised of a flexible plastic substrate (thermoplastic polyurethane), screen-printed silver ink, and a thin silicon wafer, have a wide range of potential applications. At the time of this project, FHEs and other flexible electronics did not have a set of test standards to characterize their mechanical and electrical properties. The Cal Poly NextFlex Group recruited three Cal …

Electric Vehicle Drivetrain, Jimmy Andrew King, Kevin Kristopher Moore, Charissa Cadence Seid

Mechanical Engineering

This document serves to outline the design and development of Sharpell Technologies' ST5 electric vehicle drivetrain. Background research was conducted on various drivetrain components and testing methods, leading to the development of our drivetrain’s design requirements. Compiled in this report are the specifications of the components that will be integrated into our drivetrain design. All component calculations and specifications can be located in the appendices. An in-depth manufacturing plan features the modifications necessary to create several key components such as the shafts and housing. The assembly plan details a step-by-step process in which the components are arranged to ensure a …

Additive Manufacturing Part Failure Detection, Angel Coria Jr, Shaunessy Grant, Jacob Whipple

Mechanical Engineering

The objective of this project is to create a part failure detection sensor system that will allow Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to detect cracking during the building process. Due to the time intensive nature of the SLM process, a part that may take 14 days to create could have a defect within the first hour of manufacturing, but the operator would have no idea that there was a fault in the manufacturing until culmination of the process. The proposed system will allow the operator to know when in the process the part became defective, and therefore save resources and machine …

Inyo National Forest Sign Maker, Brandon Mainini, Lauren Kirk, Alec Boyer

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Yeager Multi-Function Tool Ql+, Osiel Flores-Hernandez, Carter Wilson, David Wright, Mitchell Jackson

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

No abstract provided.

Design Of A Process To Implement An Annual Community Fundraiser For Sprout Up, Katherine Lynette Phillips, Kimberly Nicole Walter

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Sprout Up—in San Luis Obispo—is currently a non-profit organization that teaches free environmental science education to first and second graders around the San Luis Obispo area. Due to recent circumstances, Sprout Up will soon be losing its non-profit status, and therefore they will be losing their funding as well. Their problem is that they need a stable annual fundraiser that will help the organization continue to provide free services to local elementary schools as a Cal Poly club rather than a non-profit. Multi-criteria analysis techniques were used to determine what would be the best solution to their problem and found …

Addressing The Existence Of Overcrowding In The Cal Poly Rec Center Exercise Rooms, Josue Alvarez, Robert Hemphill

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Cal Poly’s Rec Center is a facility that has been extremely popular among students ever since its initial creation many decades ago. Despite its popularity being a positive quality in most ways, it does ultimately yield a certain issue for the users of the facility; the issue of overcrowding. This senior project aimed to analyze the problem of overcrowding at the Rec Center and improve upon its most critical areas of impact. Ultimately, we identified the Rec Center’s exercise rooms as the most impacted area, with the issue of equipment unavailability being the largest factor. Thus, we designed alternative equipment …

Design For Waste Reduction And Efficiency Improvement For The Construction Usage Of The Tower Crane, George Merida, Roman Richard

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Webcor Concrete Group’s on-site tower crane is currently experiencing unknown forms of inefficiency. The project team used the DMAIC methodology to implement Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control in order to guide and structure the project. After the project team formulated a problem statement, observations were collected of tower crane deliveries resulting in 470 individual data points. The data was then analyzed using basic statistics, histograms, and lean manufacturing tools in order to identify wastes and inefficiencies. Once the wastes and inefficiencies were identified, root cause analysis was performed. The identified root causes were then used as the basis for …

Design Of Process Improvements To Increase Field Work Efficiency At Webcor Concrete Group, Fiona Blackburn

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This study set out to analyze and improve field work efficiency at Webcor Concrete Group, a subcontractor working on a new housing project at the Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo campus. Specifically, they would like to access their performance in regards to end-of-break to back-to-work time and the 30-30 rule, which states that everything a field worker needs should be accessible within 30 seconds or 30 feet. The problem statement is that Webcor wishes to utilize their field hours 5% more efficiently through a study of current shortcomings and recommended improvements. A review of the literature generated process improvement ideas …

Design Of A Decision-Aiding Model Between Subtractive Manufacturing And 3d-Printing, Tuan Minh Ryan Pham, Colton Harrison

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

3D-printing is becoming more and more widely used in industry. As this happens, manufacturers are becoming unsure of when to use this new technology and when to trudge on with subtractive (conventional) manufacturing processes. Subtractive manufacturing processes are well-established within many manufacturing companies due to its high efficiencies and low costs. However, 3D-printing offers a greater level of customization, can be automated, and can easily have designs transferred via computer files. Each method has its respective advantages, however, each one also has its downfalls. Subtractive manufacturing produces unnecessary waste, is limited from creating certain geometries, and requires a skilled laborer …

Manufacturing Process And Product Design For Mass Production Of Environmentally-Friendly Fishing Lures And Weights, David Ichlokmanian, Justin Jake Bert

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The current industry standard for the manufacture of recreational fishing tackle uses lead-based weights and PVC or silicone-based lures. Both materials have serious negative effects on those who handle these products, waterfowl, fish, and other animals that may consume this discarded tackle. The goal of this project is to find and design an environmentally safe process and product alternative for this industry. To do this, we researched a large amount of viable safe materials for weights and lures and used decision matrices to decide on the best one. We found that brass would be the most suitable alternative and created …

Design Of An Automated Welding Process For Synergy Mfg., Parsa Bakhtiari

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This senior project involves a partnership with a local off-road parts manufacturer called Synergy Mfg. Synergy is experiencing a rapid increase in demand that is difficult to meet with their current processes. Because of this issue, Synergy is exploring automation in order to decrease their cycle times and increase their production output. More specifically, this report concentrates on automating a manual welding process that has a lengthy cycle time which causes Synergy’s difficulties with meeting demand. Due to time constraints, this project focused on the automation of a welding process for only one part that Synergy produces. This part contains …

Redesign Of Good Karma Bike’S Facility Layout And Bike Storage Process, Ryan Phillip Ogan, Derek Chung, Tommy Chang

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Good Karma Bikes is a non-profit organization that services and restores bikes that customers bring into the shop. Good Karma Bikes has plans for a dramatic increase in storage capacity for the next few years. Good Karma Bike’s warehouse area is currently overflowing with bikes due to the large increase in demand. A redesign of the warehouse layout is needed to handle the increase of incoming bikes and to improve product flow through the space. The project team’s objectives are to:

• Improve accessibility and reduce time it takes to unrack a bike
• Increase space utilization by improving bike storage capacity …