Engineering Commons^™

Microgrid Protection Student Laboratory, Ian Hellman-Wylie, Joey Navarro

Electrical Engineering

To better prepare students for careers in the electric power industry, specifically in the discipline of power system protection, the Electrical Engineering Department at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo proposed an initiative calling for the creation of new laboratory curriculum that uses microprocessor-based relays to give students hands-on experience in the application of protection theory. This report describes the creation of a system that meets this need by providing a laboratory-scale power system that demonstrates the use of common protective relays and protection schemes. This system provides a platform for laboratory coursework using protective relays for transmission line, transformer, and …

Solid State Drive, Shaun A. Steele

Electrical Engineering

This project documents the design and implementation of a solid state drive (SSD). SSDs are a non-volatile memory storage device that competes with hard disk drives. SSDs rely on flash memory, a type of non-volatile memory that is electrically erased and programmed. The appeal of SSDs lies in the fact that they allow a fast, reliable, and durable memory storage device. The goal of this project is to have a working external SSD built from scratch.

Remote Cable Gantry, Allen L. Bailey

Electrical Engineering

The Remote Cable Gantry is a robotic system that was initially intended to aid in the art of aerial videography. It was designed to enable novice and expert users alike to capture both video footage and audio from perspectives unachievable by current methods. This system uses a series of cables to control the position of a camera gimbal in a defined 3D space and, as a self-contained unit, is portable and easy to use. The Remote Cable Gantry offers a quiet, intuitive, and safe alternative to existing technology, which has been limiting the market and potential of aerial photography and …

Music Synthesizer Senior Project: Danalog, Vikrant A. Marathe

Electrical Engineering

The Danalog is a 25 key portable digital music synthesizer that uses multiple synthesis methods and effects to generate sounds. Sound varieties included three synthesis methods including FM, subtractive, and sample-based, with up to eight adjustable parameters, at least four effects, including reverb, chorus, and flange, with five adjustable parameters, and at least two note polyphony, and a five band equalizer. The user would be able to adjust these effects using digital encoders and potentiometers and view the settings on two LCD screens. The finals project was unable to meet the original design requirements. The FM synthesis method was primarily …

Formula Sae Power Distribution Controller, Daniel Baron

Electrical Engineering

The Power Distribution Controller senior project aims to replace the current Power Distribution Module (PDM) on Cal Poly’s Formula SAE internal combustion vehicle with a more advanced, configurable, and reliable system. The Power Distribution Controller is a MOSFET based system that can be controlled through either controller area network or a parallel interface to distribute and control power from the vehicle’s battery to the several electrical devices on the car. The Power Distribution Controller also collects output voltage and current data, and communicates this data to the vehicle’s data logger. This will allow engineers to troubleshoot electrical problems on the …

Water Leak Detection System, Ryan T. Hanson

Electrical Engineering

The water supply shortage has increased in recent years due to overpopulation, climate change and obsolete water facilities, where deteriorated pipes cause most of the water leaks. The problem is not the size of the leak, but the time it takes to detect it. This paper presents the implementation of a system installed in the hydraulic facilities of a residence, to detect water leaks. The system consists of a water sensor installed by a water reservoir of interest, a microprocessor to interpret the data and evaluate whether it is a water leak or not, an SMS alert message, and an …

Danalog: Digital Music Synthesizer, Evan R. Lew

Electrical Engineering

The Danalog is a 25 key portable digital music synthesizer that uses multiple synthesis methods and effects to generate sounds. Sound varieties included three synthesis methods including FM, subtractive, and sample-based, with up to eight adjustable parameters, at least four effects, including reverb, chorus, and flange, with five adjustable parameters, and at least two note polyphony, and a five band equalizer. The user would be able to adjust these effects using digital encoders and potentiometers and view the settings on two LCD screens.

The finals project was unable to meet the original design requirements. The FM synthesis method was primarily …

Auxiliary Power System, Karianne Laplante, Nidia Vara, Eve Wassenaar, Carter Whittington

Electrical Engineering

The main objective for this project is to design and build a prototype for an all-electric SUV for the start-up company, Sharpell Technologies. This vehicle will comprise of the following configurations: auxiliary power system (APS), battery management system, battery pack wiring, CAN bus system, DC-DC charging converter, DC/DC auxiliary converter, instrument cluster, and motor controller/inverter. Each car configuration is a project assigned to a 2-4 student team; in total, eight EE senior projects and one ME project is produced. New lightweight batteries are also in the process of being developed to provide a viable electric source for the car. A …

Light Sensing Automated Blinds, Andrew B. Hodges, Ryan C. Flick

Electrical Engineering

This project is solving the problem of wasted energy within buildings and homes, because currently the lights turned on inside building do not utilize natural, ambient light from the sun. Rather than having unnecessary light from a light source, the automated light sensing smart blinds can sense the amount of light outside the window and in the room, and then adjust the angle of the blinds to save energy by utilizing the available outdoor light. This way, the light source will not be running at maximum power output while there is excess light coming through the window. This project aims …

Data Fusion With 9 Degrees Of Freedom Inertial Measurement Unit To Determine Object’S Orientation, Long Dinh Tran

Electrical Engineering

Data fusion is a technique to integrate different types of data to a single unit to provide a more reliable representation of tracking measurement. Today, data fusion can be found in many applications such as tracking and surveillance system as well as on mobile applications. In this project, 9 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) composed of 3-axis Magnetometer, 3-axis Accelerometer, and 3-axis Gyroscope are processed to yield the object’s rotations in 3 dimensions. While the magnetometer (compass) is used to determine the heading angle, accelerometer is used to determine tilt axis, gyroscope can be process to calculate …

Seestar Iii Sensor Module, Matthew M. Ducasse

Electrical Engineering

SeeStar is an autonomous, underwater camera system for observing aquatic environments. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) developed SeeStar to provide a low cost solution for marine researchers wishing to observe underwater ecosystems over long durations. The system consists of completely open-source designs featuring only common, commercially available components. This means users may purchase the components and build the system themselves. While MBARI originally intended for the system to simply capture photo and video data, many customers have requested additional sensors to gather contextual data to complement the captured images. The latest generation, SeeStar III, features a sensor module, …

Redesign Of The Medtronic Kyphon Bone Cement Mixer For Vertebral Compression Fractures, Mollie Benson, Sarah Freesemann, Aj Konnath, Benjamin Murray

Biomedical Engineering

The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsor. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time.

Multi-Fidelity Model Predictive Control Of Upstream Energy Production Processes, Ammon Nephi Eaton

Theses and Dissertations

Increasing worldwide demand for petroleum motivates greater efficiency, safety, and environmental responsibility in upstream oil and gas processes. The objective of this research is to improve these areas with advanced control methods. This work develops the integration of optimal control methods including model predictive control, moving horizon estimation, high fidelity simulators, and switched control techniques applied to subsea riser slugging and managed pressure drilling. A subsea riser slugging model predictive controller eliminates persistent offset and decreases settling time by 5% compared to a traditional PID controller. A sensitivity analysis shows the effect of riser base pressure sensor location on controller …

Diy Grip Tape Website, Jason E. Krein

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The goal of this senior project was to create an easy to use website that will allow people to design and order their own custom skateboard grip tape. Custom skateboard decks are a large business, however the top, more visible, part of the board is largely ignored by custom shops. With the help of a local entrepreneur, I aim to enable skateboarders the ability to get custom grip tape shapes that they can stick on their board to spice it up from the normal black tape that everyone uses. The website was completed over the course of 4 months, in …

Gridiron-Gurus Final Report: Fantasy Football Performance Prediction, Kyle Tanemura, Michael Li, Erica Dorn, Ryan Mckinney

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Gridiron Gurus is a desktop application that allows for the creation of custom AI profiles to help advise and compete against in a Fantasy Football setting. Our AI are capable of performing statistical prediction of players on both a season long and week to week basis giving them the ability to both draft and manage a fantasy football team throughout a season.

Recommendation Of A New Transit Performance Measure In The National Transit Database, Fatemeh Baratian-Ghorghi, Hossein Ahmadianyazdi

Journal of Public Transportation

The frequency of incidents negatively changes public perception with regard to the public safety in transit systems. The level of safety expressed as performance measures, ensures contractors and users that a quality safety level is maintained. Both the private and public sectors in the U.S. annually report accurate data to the National Transit Database (NTD) to be used in assessing the progress of the nation's public transportation systems. Although they must provide both the annual report and monthly reports including Safety and Security data, measures are only grouped into the indicators of efficiency and effectiveness of a system and there …

A Fuzzy Ahp Approach To Compare Transit System Performance In Us Urbanized Areas, Xin Li, Yingling Fan, John W. Shaw, Yunlei Qi

Journal of Public Transportation

Public transit systems in the United States often face multiple policy objectives. Typically, stakeholders desire frequent service on an extensive network, but funding and other resources are constrained, creating complicated relationships between service effectiveness goals and business efficiency goals. Using data from the National Transit Map (NTM), this study evaluated the general performance of transit systems across 294 Urbanized Areas (UZAs) in the US, which were stratified into six peer groups based on population. Transit efficiency and effectiveness were compared by developing a composite business efficiency index score and a composite service effectiveness index score for each urbanized area. The …

Assessment Methods From Around The World Potentially Useful For Public Transport Projects, Eric Bruun, Marianne Vanderschuren

Journal of Public Transportation

The financial crisis in 2008/2009 has made many countries aware that public funds need to be managed better. A logical step is to identify methods that thoroughly assess the impacts of infrastructure and service investment. The authors argue that assessments should both identify and use performance indicators related to the ‘triple bottom line’, i.e. economic, social and environmental impacts.

This paper provides an overview of assessment methods used to evaluate public transport investments. Positive and negative aspects of various assessment tools are identified and discussed. Some developing world examples appear to be more elaborate and appropriate, than developed world examples, …

Jfs Turbine Engine For Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering Department, Dorian Capps, Zoe Kai Tuggle

Mechanical Engineering

This project concerns the development of a gas turbine engine laboratory activity for use in one of Cal Poly’s technical elective courses in the Mechanical Engineering Department, ME 444: Combustion Engine Design. The class is taught by Dr. Patrick Lemieux, who is also in charge of the on-campus engines lab where the turbine engine will be installed. The engine itself is a JFS-100-13A turboshaft engine that will be coupled to an electric dynamometer inside of the dyno test cell. Students taking the ME 444 class, likely starting in Winter Quarter of 2018, will be able to perform hands-on experiments using …

Soft Target For Advanced Emergency Braking System Daimler Trucks, Kurt C. Ebert, Kolter Knapp, Esgar Pulido

Mechanical Engineering

This report provides an overview of the AEBS Soft Target project delivered to Daimler Trucks North Amer- ica as part of the 2016-2017 Mechanical Engineering Senior Design class at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The purpose was to build a soft target to test Advanced Emergency Braking Systems, or AEBS, on Daimler 0 s large trucks. Though this design is for Daimler specifically, there may be other interested parties such as highway safety groups and rival auto manufacturers. Currently, there are no suitable alternative products that satisfy every requirement for Daimler to validate their systems. They require a …

Additive Manufacturing For Post-Processing, Nathan D. Goodwin, Andrew Furmidge

Mechanical Engineering

Additive Manufacturing for Post Processing (AMPP) is a team comprised of two Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering students: Nathan Goodwin and Andrew Furmidge. The project is focused in the area of metal additive manufacturing (AM) machines, which are still a developing technology. Improvements have been made to the quality of the machines in the past years, but many limitations still exist. One of these is the inability to print parts that are larger than the build volume. In an effort to solve this problem, whole parts are divided into pieces that are printed individually. This team’s senior project is to create …

Bear Minimum: Ultralight Composite Bear Canister, Rama B. Adajian, Adam C. Eisenbarth

Mechanical Engineering

The ultralight backpacking community needs a strong, easy to use, safe bear canister that is lighter than current market products for trekking in the backcountry. A full design of the lid for the bear canister is to be completed. This includes the locking mechanism to ensure it is bear proof, the interface between the lid and the canister, and the structure of the lid so it passes the strength and weight specifications. The lid, along with the already designed canister body, is to be manufactured with formal documentation. The lid will initially be tested separately and then with the canister …

Self-Powered Ankle Prosthetic, Corina M. Espelien, Kelsey Pietzsch, Anna Sullivan

Mechanical Engineering

Originating from QL+'s customer requirements, the main technical specifications were to have 80% physiological range of motion, elastic energy return, impact absorption, and no external power sources. Based on the background research conducted and the discussions with experts in the field, the project team decided to focus on designing a prosthetic that focused on plantarflexion and dorsiflexion for a more comfortable gait. The main components of the final design are a hydraulic shock absorber, cam, torsion springs, heel, stopper, and separated keel. The heel, front and back keels, and stopper were manufactured out of carbon fiber. The link, lever, attachment …

Prototype Vehicles Laboratory Steering Apparatus, Zachary W. Sharpell, Jorge Lopez, Colby R. Genasci

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Prototype Vehicles Team (PROVE) is designing a solar powered vehicle to break an international land speed record. The space within the driver’s cockpit allotted for the steering mechanism was too small for a conventional steering wheel. This report describes the process that was followed to design, manufacture, and test a compact and lightweight steering apparatus for the PROVE solar vehicle. A lateral lever steering system, the final design selected for PROVE’s solar car, was designed to withstand the maximum expected loads applied by the driver during the three-minute run of the competition. The lateral lever steering apparatus …

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

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Logic Tiles, Andrew Wheeler, Tristan Lennertz

Computer Engineering

This project was originally conceived by Professor Andrew Danowitz as he considered the restructuring of the introductory digital design course at Cal Poly. As it stands now, students apply their knowledge of boolean algebra and combinatorial logic through the programming of a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) using a Hardware Descriptive Language (HDL). While this is the industry standard for designing large, complex digital circuits, and is an fundamental skill to learn, there is a lack of actual circuit building in the process that can cause a disconnect from theory to application for students who have little-to-no experience with digital …

Smartfarm, Nathan A. Oto, Caleb Fink

Computer Engineering

The overall expectation of this product is to create an autonomous Arduino library that accurately and robustly collects plant environment data from the Smart Farm board. The Smart Farm PCB is split into two primary functions: Data Acquisition(DAQ) and Power Control. Each function of the PCB is controlled by an Atmega 328P Microcontroller. The primary concern for this report is the functionality of the DAQ microcontroller.

Underwater Computer Vision - Fish Recognition, Spencer Chang, Austin Otto

Computer Engineering

The Underwater Computer Vision – Fish Recognition project includes the design and implementation of a device that can withstand staying underwater for a duration of time, take pictures of underwater creatures, such as fish, and be able to identify certain fish. The system is meant to be cheap to create, yet still able to process the images it takes and identify the objects in the pictures with some accuracy. The device can output its results to another device or an end user.

Multispectral Identification Array, Zachary D. Eagan

Computer Engineering

The Multispectral Identification Array is a device for taking full image spectroscopy data via the illumination of a subject with sixty-four unique spectra. The array combines images under the illumination spectra to produce an approximate reflectance graph for every pixel in a scene. Acquisition of an entire spectrum allows the array to differentiate objects based on surface material. Spectral graphs produced are highly approximate and should not be used to determine material properties, however the output is sufficiently consistent to allow differentiation and identification of previously sampled subjects. While not sufficiently advanced for use as a replacement to spectroscopy the …

M3 Pi: Obd-Ii Touchscreen Car Computer, Geoffrey Wacker

Computer Engineering

There are a wide range of off-the-shelf OBD-II car computers available for purchase, but the majority of them are either prohibitively expensive or simply unreliable. Furthermore, almost all of these devices are closed-box systems that cannot be expanded or modified. As such, this project aims to create a Raspberry Pi-powered OBD-II car computer that will allow data from the ECU of a 1997 BMW M3 to be displayed on an interactive touchscreen GUI. This will allow the user to quickly monitor important information about the vehicle during high performance applications such as track use. The end product should be low-cost, …