Engineering Commons^™

Autonomous Mapping Rover, Garrett Jones, Timothy Kyle Chu, Eugenio Caruso Pasos

Electrical Engineering

This report details the design, implementation, and evaluation of "Rovero," an autonomous mapping rover developed as a senior project. Rovero integrates state-of-the-art technologies, including ROS2 for communication, SLAM algorithms for mapping, and sensor fusion for accurate navigation. The project aimed to achieve robust autonomous operation in indoor environments, leveraging a combination of LiDAR, IMU, and encoder data for real-time decision-making. Key challenges addressed include path planning, obstacle avoidance, and integration of multiple sensor inputs. Results demonstrate successful mapping capabilities and efficient navigation performance.

Project Owl: Quad Rc2, Ethan Cy Zane

Electrical Engineering

Quad RC2 is a new radio designed to be compatible with the Cluster Duck Protocol (CDP). It must be able to act as all parts of the mesh network and be able to find its location with GPS. Much of the RC2 effort is already completed. This project ports the previously developed firmware to the new board and runs tests to assess its capabilities.

An Analysis Of The Power Consumption Of Various Computer Vision Machine Learning Techniques On A Microcontroller Utilizing The Clusterduck Protocol, Kaveh Shafiei

Electrical Engineering

Constant data processing is essential for effective data collection, particularly in remote and hard-to-reach areas. The need for efficient, autonomous data acquisition and transmission is increasingly addressed by integrating machine learning within larger communication networks. This paper explores the application of machine learning techniques with Internet of Things (IoT) mesh networks. Utilizing the LoRa communication protocol, data is captured and analyzed on an edge device and transmitted to a larger communication network. The ClusterDuck Protocol (CDP), developed by OWL Integrations, serves as an IoT mesh network designed to allow for communication in areas lacking traditional static infrastructure such as WiFi …

Leader-Follower Platooning With Turtlebot3: A Low-Cost Ros Test-Bed Using Vision-Lidar Fusion, Patrick Kelly Crandall, Kalon Ma Bienz

Electrical Engineering

This report presents the design, implementation, and indoor validation of a two-robot leader–follower platoon built on low-cost Turtlebot3 platforms. Each robot runs ROS Noetic on an on-board Raspberry Pi 4, fusing a fisheye camera for HSV-based lane detection with an LDS-02 LiDAR for clustering-based leader identification. A dual-loop architecture (PD steering for lateral control and PID for longitudinal gap regulation) maintains a 0.40m headway and keeps the follower centered within +/- 5 cm of the lane midline, without any inter-vehicle communication or external localization. Track experiments at speeds up to 0.18m/s achieved mean gap error of +/- 3 cm and …

Advanced Light Dimming Power Converter, Jaden Nguyen, Edwin Lin, Alan Thai

Electrical Engineering

This senior project discusses and follows the development of the Advanced Light Dimming Power Converter meant to modernize the power electronics curriculum and improve student safety for a lab. The power converter attempts to replace the original experiment which includes a traditional TRIAC-based dimmer and focuses on demonstrating phase angle control for incandescent light bulbs. However, several drawbacks including high-voltage exposure and outdated technology warranted a revamp. The redesigned module includes a dual-experiment setup with an updated TRIAC-based dimmer circuit and a new AC-DC LED driver circuit with constant current control and PWM dimming capability. Both systems have been fabricated …

Graduate School Blog - June 2025, Cynthia Haynes

UofM Grad School Blog

The June 2025 edition of the UofM Graduate School Blog helps prospective and current students make informed financial decisions with Part 1 of the Graduate School Cost Guide, breaking down tuition structures such as per-credit hour versus flat-rate models, highlighting UofM’s tuition cap for in-state students, and explaining key university fees and cost differences between online and on-campus formats. The blog also features Brianna Reilly, a Doctor of Musical Arts graduate from New York, who shares how a graduate assistantship and her passion for music education led her to continue at UofM through the pandemic. Additional resources include an …

Foot Pedal Assistive Device, Julian Rubinstein, Connor Jessen, Isabelle Utsler, Sydney Alexander

Mechanical Engineering

Individuals with lower-limb mobility problems may have trouble accurately locating the pedals of a three-pedal manual transmission car, and some medical conditions cause individuals to fatigue more quickly when driving. This project aimed to create a device that assists in locating the user’s feet, indicates to the user which pedals are currently in use, and provides a visual and physical warning if they are not in the correct place. The project sponsor, Alan Keizer, is the primary stakeholder in this project. This device will be designed specifically for Alan’s Subaru BRZ and will address Alan’s specific lower-limb mobility issues that …

Van Accessibility, Ann Larson, Camelia Anne Noureddine, Stephanie Rose Ruzicka, Kayla Joanne Gowey

Mechanical Engineering

The SLO Achievement House provides resources and activities for their clients, including daily trips to different parts of the community, to keep their clients connected to society. These trips require the clients, many of whom struggle with general mobility and strength, to step up to the high entrance of a van or company car. This daily activity poses a challenge both physically and emotionally for the clients. The current solution utilizes commercially available step stools, which lack handrails, overall stability, and adequate step depth. The Achievement House needs a stool or ramp tailored to their client’s needs and their specific …

7lr-C Upper Limb Dancing Prosthetic, Victor Ochoa, Zoe Kelemen, Ged Mulingtapang, Marley Paltiel

Mechanical Engineering

Ella Wallis, a student at Cal Poly and performer in the Cal Poly Drag Club with a trans humeral upper limb difference, wants a prosthetic device that allows for a large range of motion and high degree of articulation to help them better dance in the style of voguing, allowing them to express themselves further while performing. The prosthetic arm is body-driven and relies on momentum to reposition. It attaches to the user through a harness, which is clipped to a socket with elastic straps to not impede the shoulder’s range of motion. The design contains urethane resin, aluminum, stainless …

Drone Package Delivery System, Aiden Tyler Sim, Ryan Anders O'Toole, Matthew Karl Wyant, James Shaw Glanville

Mechanical Engineering

In response to the demands of the 2025 C-UASC (California Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition), our team developed an autonomous drone payload delivery system capable of two distinct delivery modes: a precision-controlled descent and a high-speed aerial drop. Designed for modular integration with UAV platforms, the system prioritizes reliability, accuracy, and simplicity under desert environmental conditions. Our solution features a custom winch mechanism with a programmable stepper motor, a passive mechanical hook for tension-based release, and a servo-actuated trapdoor for high-altitude drops. The design was extensively tested for structural integrity, motor torque requirements, drop precision, and electronics reliability—culminating in a robust …

Llnl Raft Flash Pole Redesign, Jack Stangel, Evan Wolfson, Jake Borden, Alexander Meeter

Mechanical Engineering

During research exercises in the ocean, Lawrence Livermore deploys a fleet of rafts outfitted with flash modules affixed to tall poles (in tandem called flash poles) that flash while a photo is taken to act as datums for data collection. The current flash pole design that the LIDSS (Lawrence Livermore Independent Diagnostic Scoring System) team uses is too short to be visible in high seas, not mechanically suited to be made taller, too susceptible to the elements and blunt impact and too difficult to service. We aim to solve these issues.

Torsional Vibration Kit Simulator (Tks), Joseph Thachet, Luca Lawson, Ryan Ota, Otis Mcloughlin

Mechanical Engineering

The goal of this project was to create torsional vibration on a shaft while limiting axial and radial vibration. To do this an eddy current brake was used to slow down a rotating shaft. The electromagnets used to create the eddy currents are able to be turned on and off at a frequency produced by a function generator. This power cycling of the electromagnets creates an alternating braking force thereby inducing torsional vibration while limiting the other two vibration types

Uv Vessel Hoist Scope Of Work, Quinn J. Horak, Harvey Perkins, Andrew A. Osborn, Mikayla H. Nieman

Mechanical Engineering

The San Luis Obispo Wastewater Treatment Plant uses ultraviolet (UV) tubes to purify water. These tubes are cleaned by an internal wiping mechanism that must be removed for servicing and replacing damaged tubes. Currently, this is accomplished by using an engine hoist, but this method requires a large amount of effort and is not safe. Technicians have requested a new method of lifting wiper mechanisms that is safer, faster, and easier to use than their current method.

To solve this problem, we have developed a design that consists of a custom gantry crane with a hoist on a trolley. The …

Trailer Transport System For Multi-Ton Bins, Joanna Lizbeth Bendy, Kevin Matthew Creel, Annelise Vaara Cuneo, Hugo Alonso Valdez

Mechanical Engineering

This project aimed to improve the process of transporting 10,000-pound industrial waste bins. The current method for relocating these bins poses safety risks and requires significant manual effort. This project presents a conceptual solution that enables a single operator to efficiently and safely move roll-off bins using a custom-designed trailer system. The design incorporates three main subsystems: a trailer frame, an integrated winch system, and an off-the-market puller device to guide and secure the bin during transport. Two scaled proof-of-concept prototypes were fabricated to evaluate key aspects of the system's functionality. Testing and analysis suggested that the system is viable …

Brush Seal Cycling Test Rig, Angelo J. Reis, Neil M. Bedagkar, Max A. Soury, Eoin K. Lenham

Mechanical Engineering

To prevent backflow from the high pressure compressor stages of their gas turbines to lower pressure regions, Solar Turbines utilizes brush seals along their driveshafts. Due to manufacturing limitations, no shaft is perfectly symmetric about its rotating axis, leading to orbiting that creates asymmetric friction on the shaft through rubbing. With this biased application of friction comes a hotspot on one side of the shaft, causing bowing of the shaft and cascading into an amplified vibrational response. Our goal is to gather data on this phenomenon and offer a potential solution.

Heart Valve Leaflet Cutting Automation, Gabriella Aclan, Josh Deweese, Lizzie Dilao, Jason Wong

Mechanical Engineering

The content contained in this report is confidential and proprietary information of Edwards Lifesciences.

Poly Mars Mini-Rover, Dane Carroll, Aaron Lubinsky, Henry Bouma, Gerardo Tapia-Onate, Scott Frizzel

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Mars Rover project is creating a fleet of near-identical rovers operating collaboratively to research the surface of Mars. Over the last six years, teams at Cal Poly have been developing vehicles to be launched upon the commercialization of interplanetary travel. Two of these vehicles are to take the roles of ‘Scout’ and ‘Relay’ with the most significant difference being their respective ‘arms.’ The ‘Scout’ will have a robotic arm that interacts with objects on the surface while the ‘Relay’ will have a fixed arm, equipped with a StarLink antenna to communicate with orbiting satellites as seen in …

Air To Water Capture In Support Of Un Sustainable Development Goals, Jordan Macconnell, Michael Tiscareño, Ari Dennis, Baxter Mercy

Mechanical Engineering

This senior project explored the use of thermoelectric cooling for atmospheric water capture. The system was designed to cool aluminum condensing surfaces below the dew point using Peltier modules, with forced convection heat sinks on the hot side. The purpose of this system was to gather reliable amounts of water for various water-scarce areas around the world to help meet the UN's sixth Sustainable Development Goal.

The final design of this project consisted of a 1.5 x 1.5 x 2 foot frame made of acrylic panels and insulation. Within the frame, the thermoelectric system was constructed using Peltier modules with …

One-Handed Wheelchair, Brian Azevedo, Cade Veljovich, Carlos Perez, Jakob Zuckermandel, Alexander Harper

Mechanical Engineering

A person who uses a wheelchair for mobility needs a way to operate it with only one hand. This may be necessary if they lack functionality in one hand or prefer to use only one hand while operating the wheelchair. Even for users with two available hands, it is difficult to operate As of now, such wheelchairs are not widely available or easily accessible, yet these devices are crucial for improving the quality of life and mobility of many people. The goal of this project is to design a more viable and ergonomic solution for people who operate a wheelchair …

Micro Mobile Home R3, Roha Y. Ali, Yuka M. Iwashita, Luke C. Douglas, Joshua Q. Le

Mechanical Engineering

Homelessness is an ever-growing issue all around the world. In 2023, over 250,000 or ~40% of all people experiencing homelessness did not have access to shelter spaces in the U.S. [1]. All people have the right to a place where they are safe from violence, crime, and the constant fear that they will be forced out.

Both homeless people and outdoor enthusiasts need a new way to keep themselves and their belongings safe when living outdoors, since existing products do not offer adequate security, portability, or versatility.

2024-2025 Cal Poly Fluid Power Vehicle Competition Team, Jaskaran Singh Hothi, Justin Menzie Lesko, Tristan Kai Crawford, Lucas Rupert Erickson, Diego Velazquez

Mechanical Engineering

The Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge (FPVC) provides an avenue for the exploration of fluid-powered transportation, adhering to regulations set by the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA). This document serves as a roadmap for our team’s research, design, and manufacturing of a vehicle for participation in the FPVC. The team’s journey began with extensive background research, encompassing stakeholder engagement, analysis of existing solutions, and education on fluid power fundamentals. From this information, we decided to focus on enhancing mechatronics systems, improving the transmission, optimizing the mounting, adding a pneumatic element, and improving the efficiency of the hydraulic system of the vehicle …

Large Backflow Check Valve Life Cycle Test Stand, Colin Bentley, Christopher Carloni, Ethan Gray, Luke Romanini

Mechanical Engineering

Backflow preventers are plumbing devices containing internal check valves used to prevent cross-contamination between downstream contaminants and potable water supply. Zurn Wilkins needs a life cycle test stand to mechanically force open check valves submerged in contaminated water and verify check performance. The stand needs to be modular to work with a range of check types and sizes.

Zurn Wilkins is the primary stakeholder for this project. Secondary stakeholders include commercial and residential building owners, contractors, and water utility companies, who rely on their products for safe and efficient water management. The team for this project consists of four Cal …

Hi-Trac Camera Jig, Gabriel Frank Junge, Josh Sherreitt, Jake Weiser, Luke Silver

Mechanical Engineering

Uranium fuel assemblies are stored upright in an underwater container inside the spent nuclear energy fuel pool at Diablo Canyon. The engineers and in-service-inspection team all work together to safely locate this container inside the pool on pins so it is guaranteed safe before they begin loading it with spent uranium fuel rods. The Operators currently employ the use of a zip-tied camera jig that is lowered into the pool along with the tank (called a HI-TRAC) to ensure it is oriented correctly in the pool. This camera jig is in desperate need of re-vamping and re-designing to optimize efficiency …

Expeditionary Ocean Power Generator, Otto Jacob Van Willigen, David Scott Nyberg, Logan Christopher Schilling, Kyle James Hohman, Travis Michael Eccher

Mechanical Engineering

The Expeditionary Ocean Power Generator (ExOPG) project is a point absorber wave energy converter developed by a team of five mechanical engineering seniors at California Polytechnic State University in partnership with NAVFAC EXWC. Designed to support U.S. Marine Corps operations, the device aims to reduce the reliance on diesel generators by generating and storing up to 100 watts of power from ocean waves in a sturdy and self-sufficient device.

The ExOPG device uses a rack and pinion mechanism driven by vertical wave motion to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy via a generator, which is then processed and stored by …

Evaluation Of Damages And Economic Losses In Light-Frame Timber Houses, Mason P. Leonard

Master's Theses

This thesis aims to evaluate the damages and economic losses in light-frame timber houses by designing and constructing a two-story, full-scale, fully equipped, code conforming timber assembly. Specifically, the structure will be analyzed based on how the non-structural components (NSC) like gypsum wallboard, interior doors, windows, and sliding patio doors as well as structural components like light-frame timber shear walls impact the economic losses.

Damage limit states were obtained from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) P-58, Performance Assessment of Buildings to extract at what inter-story drift (ISD) ratio each damage limit state was expected to occur at. Fragility and …

Single-Sideband Pulse Width Modulation For Parametric Acoustic Arrays, Douglas Liu

Master's Theses

Parametric acoustic arrays are directional loudspeakers that operate using ultrasonic carriers to project sound within a narrow beam. Input audio is first modulated onto an ultrasonic carrier and transmitted through air, where it self-demodulates into audible frequencies in the far field.

This thesis introduces a method for preprocessing audio into scaled quadrature signals using a passive analog polyphase filter. These signals are modulated using microcontroller-generated waveforms to create quadrature ultrasonic pulse-width modulation (PWM) signals. The modulated outputs are combined through a wired-OR summer, producing single-sideband ultrasonic content at the desired frequency of 40 kHz. This signal is amplified through high-efficiency …

Design And Development Of A Laboratory Star Tracker System, Kevin D. Iverson

Master's Theses

This thesis presents the design, calibration, and validation of a low-cost star tracker system and hardware-in-the-loop testbed intended for small satellite applications. The system is composed entirely of commercial off-the-shelf components and integrates both a custom star tracker and a screen-based star field simulator for controlled, repeatable testing. An analytical modeling approach was used in the early design phase to predict system accuracy based on key optical and geometric parameters, informing the selection and configuration of components and guiding the development of calibration routines.

A simulation environment was developed to validate the star tracker software and assess the impact of …

Design Principles For Robotic-Controlled 3d Printing Of Soft Tissue-Mimicking Materials, Karina Mealey

Master's Theses

Geometrically and physically accurate 3D models are emerging as essential tools for surgeons in pre-operative planning and training, but current methods of producing these models are not sufficient. Existing solutions have downsides such as high costs, long and tedious production times, high complexity resulting in a lack of scalability, or an inability to meet material requirements for accurately simulating human tissue.

The objective of this work is to develop principles for a low-cost, easy-to-use 3D printing system capable of prototyping with soft tissue-mimicking materials. To pursue this goal, a MyCobot280 robot arm was used as the mechanism to explore the …

Effect Of Household Oil Contamination And Agricultural Soil Contamination On Phyllosilicate Nanocatalyst Performance During Pyrolysis Of Polyolefins, Joey Velasquez

Master's Theses

The effect of household oil and agricultural soil contamination on catalyst performance during polyolefin pyrolysis was simulated on mixed virgin plastic pellets by evaluating contamination influence on mixed plastic degradation temperatures. Three phyllosilicate nanocatalysts including Fulcat435, Fulcat22F and Y-Zeolite were evaluated in this work based on a literature review of catalyzed plastic pyrolysis and these catalysts’ ability to lower plastic decomposition temperature by 50 °C – 100 °C. These findings were confirmed in this research through thermogravimetric analysis of a polyolefin mixture and further developed in furnace experiments containing household oil and agricultural contamination. Household oil contamination deactivated each of …

Characterization Of Indoor Air Quality And Thermal Comfort Of University Classrooms, Andrew Sugamele

Master's Theses

Indoor air quality (IAQ) significantly affects cognitive performance, yet many older buildings at Cal Poly, such as Building 20, struggle to maintain healthy indoor environments due to outdated ventilation systems. This thesis aims to identify issues and provide suggestions on how we can improve the learning environment to improve student success within Building 20. Temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration inside Building 20 were measured from January to April 2025. To determine the effects of different ventilation strategies, a model of Building 20, room 128, was developed and validated using DesignBuilder. Additionally, ventilation rates were measured …