Engineering Commons^™

Furnace System Improvements, Kenji K. Anzai, Ethan Fedor, Patrick Zailaa

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review (FDR) documents the work done by the group to manufacture the system to deliver improvements to the furnace in the Cal Poly microfabrication laboratory (better known as the cleanroom). The document describes the material covered in the Scope of Work (SOW), including background research, customer needfinding, and the problem statement, material associated with concept development and selection for Preliminary Design Review (PDR), material detailing the design and manufacturing plan of the system for Critical Design Review (CDR), and new material detailing the manufacture of the system for FDR.

Research done for the SOW resulted in a …

Automating The Analysis Of Uncertainties In Multi-Body Dynamic Systems Using Polynomial Chaos Theory, Paul Ryan

Dissertations (1934 -)

Variation occurs in many multi-body dynamic (MBD) systems in the geometry, mass, or forces. This variation creates uncertainty in the responses of an MBD system. Understanding how MBD systems respond to the variation is imperative for the design of a robust system. However, the simulation of how variation propagates into the solution is complicated as most MBD systems cannot be simplified into to a system of ordinary differential equations (ODE). This presentation shows the automation of an uncertainty analysis of an MBD system with variation. The first step to automating the solution is to create a robust algorithm based on …

Automating Variation And Repeater Analysis In Physical Design Of Integrated Circuits, Subrat Mahalik

Dissertations and Theses

Rapid advancement and innovation in semiconductor research have continuously helped in designing efficient and complex integrated circuits in miniature size. As the device technology, is aggressively scaling to improve the device performance, the issues related to device interconnects, power, and reliability have become a major concern for the designers. These challenges make the design and validation of ASIC extremely complicated.

The primary idea of this work is to develop automation tools, to be used in the physical design flows to improve the efficiency of the design flow. The first tool named as variation analysis tool automates the on-chip variation modeling …

3-Dimensional Automated Heat Flux Calibration Device, Victor Raul Chacon, David Madison Morrisset, Alex Michael Schnorr, Kevin Scott

Mechanical Engineering

This document aims to describe the problems in current radiant heat source heat flux calibration techniques and the approach our team took to solve them through automation. The following sections outline the basic premise of the problem we addressed and who our end product benefited. The proceeding sections addresses the research that we have performed regarding heat flux measurements and automation. This research includes current solutions – mostly partial solutions for problems that are similar but not exactly like ours. Following the background research, we define objectives, with specific details that outline how we evaluated different possible solutions, and how …

Protection, Automation, And Frequency Stability Analysis Of A Laboratory Microgrid System, Christopher Eric Osborn

Master's Theses

Due to increasing changes in the power industry, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's electrical engineering department introduced a set of initiatives to adequately equip students with the skills and knowledge to interact with new technologies. Specifically, the department proposed a microgrid and power systems protection and automation laboratory to strengthen students' knowledge of microprocessor-based relays. This paper outlines a microgrid laboratory system that fulfills the initiative's goal and proposes a collection of laboratory experiments for inclusion in a new laboratory course at Cal Poly. The experiments provide students with practical experience using Schweitzer Engineering Laboratory (SEL) relays and teach fundamental …

Improvement Of Quality Processes- Asset Condition Assessment Tool And Process For Vanderlande Industries, Mariantonia Hoyos Lopez, Tori Shonk

Senior Design Project For Engineers

Vanderlande Industries is the global market leader in the value added logistic process automation for airports, the parcel market, warehouses, and e-commerce. The company’s extensive portfolio of integrated solutions results in fast, reliable and efficient automation technology. The VI Marietta office supports airport sites that have an operational BHS. These sites hire VI to operate and maintain the site. Preventive, corrective, and emergency maintenance is completed on the equipment to maintain operational success. Usually, the U.S. sites that are supported have BHS systems that are old and worn down. It is important for VI to determine the risk of maintaining …

Manipulation And Automation Of Fbj Short-Axis Fasteners, Shane Forrest Wood

Theses and Dissertations

Legislative and market pressures are pushing automakers to achieve new fuel economy requirements in the coming years. To help achieve these goals automakers are reducing the overall weight of the vehicle by increasing the use of high-strength aluminum and advanced high-strength steels, and with this increased use comes the desire to quickly, and securely, join these materials within the vehicle. Friction bit joining is a process that lends itself well to joining these materials. This process uses consumable fasteners that need to be used in an automated production line. The geometry of these fasteners causes two main problems: the bits …

The Effect Of Task Load, Automation Reliability, And Environment Complexity On Uav Supervisory Control Performance, Sarah M. Sherwood

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Over the last decade, military unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have experienced exponential growth and now comprise over 40% of military aircraft. However, since most military UAVs require multiple operators (usually an air vehicle operator, payload operator, and mission commander), the proliferation of UAVs has created a manpower burden within the U.S. military. Fortunately, simultaneous advances in UAV automation have enabled a switch from direct control to supervisory control; future UAV operators will no longer directly control a single UAV subsystem but, rather, will control multiple advanced, highly autonomous UAVs. However, research is needed to better understand operator performance in a …

Collaborative Robotic Path Planning For Industrial Spraying Operations On Complex Geometries, Steven Brown

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Implementation of automated robotic solutions for complex tasks currently faces a few major hurdles. For instance, lack of effective sensing and task variability – especially in high-mix/low-volume processes – creates too much uncertainty to reliably hard-code a robotic work cell. Current collaborative frameworks generally focus on integrating the sensing required for a physically collaborative implementation. While this paradigm has proven effective for mitigating uncertainty by mixing human cognitive function and fine motor skills with robotic strength and repeatability, there are many instances where physical interaction is impractical but human reasoning and task knowledge is still needed. The proposed framework consists …

Human-Robot Collaborative Force-Controlled Micro-Drilling For Advanced Manufacturing And Medical Applications, Parimal Mahesh Prajapati

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Robotic drilling finds applications in diverse fields ranging from advanced manufacturing to the medical industry. Recent advances in low-cost, and human-safe, collaborative robots (e.g., Sawyer) are enabling us to rethink the possibilities in which robots can be deployed for such tedious and time-consuming tasks. This thesis presents a robotic drilling methodology with features of force-control enabled micro-drilling and human-robot collaboration to reduce programming efforts and enhance drilling performance. A Sawyer robot from Rethink Robotics, which offers safe physical interactions with a human co-worker, kinesthetic teaching, and force control, is used as the test bed. The robot’s end-effector was equipped with …