Systems Engineering and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Commons^™

Prediction Of Satellite Temperature During An Orbit Of A Cubesat, Michael Reynolds

Honors Theses

This thesis develops a thermal-simulation strategy for predicting CubeSat component temperatures, applied to Jag-Sat-1, a CubeSat developed at the University of South Alabama and deployed from the International Space Station in 2022. The orbit was reconstructed from two-line element (TLE) data using simplified general perturbations (SGP4) propagation, and spacecraft attitude was recovered from onboard gyroscope measurements. Sunlight, penumbra, and umbra intervals were computed geometrically, and the external radiative environment — direct solar, Earth infrared, and albedo heat fluxes — was modeled using orientation-dependent view factors. These time-varying fluxes drove a transient finite-element thermal simulation of the full satellite geometry in …

Nozzle Erosion Reconstruction Model For Data Analysis In Rocket Engines And Correlation With Chamber Pressure, Ryan J. Thibaudeau, Stephen A. Whitmore

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

Graphite nozzles remain the dominant choice for small hybrid and solid rocket motors operating on laboratory and university budgets, owing to their low cost, ease of machining, and rapid turnaround during iterative design campaigns. These same programs, however, must contend with the fact that graphite erodes through coupled thermochemical and mechanical mechanisms when exposed to the oxidizing species generated by high-energy propellant combustion, and the resulting throat-area growth fundamentally alters the time histories of chamber pressure, thrust, and delivered specific impulse. This paper presents a nozzle-erosion reconstruction model that extracts the time-resolved throat area from coupled thrust and chamber-pressure measurements …

Mars Rover Wheels And Drive, Presley S. Sacavitch, Ryan W. Trevena, Dylan A. Mack, Daniel Hudak

Mechanical Engineering

Cal Poly’s Poly1Rover team, advised by Professor Rich Murray, aims to deploy four student-designed mini-Mars rovers, each equipped with a sample-tube retrieval claw, before 2030. However, the wheels of Poly1Rover’s current 6th generation rover are not ready for deployment to Mars, as they do not utilize space-grade materials, are not optimized for manufacturability, and lack sufficient spoke compliance to absorb landing and high-impact loads. This project will be developed by a team of Mechanical Engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly): Daniel Hudak, Dylan Mack, Presley Sacavitch, and Ryan Trevena. Next Intent is providing funding …

Design And Optimization Of A Bluff Body For Energy Harvesting Of Transverse Galloping Induced By Low-Speed Wind Using Bernstein Polynomial Equations, Youssef Wael Abdelmoneim

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a computational framework is proposed for optimizing the aerodynamic shape of bluff bodies used in galloping-based wind energy harvesters. The system targets low-wind speed environments, where normal wind turbines are not effective, offering a potential alternative to batteries used for powering small electronic devices such as wireless sensors. The design relies on the galloping effect, where airflow around a bluff body induces transverse oscillations that drive an energy conversion mechanism. To generate efficient bluff body geometry, the Class-Shape Transformation (CST) method is used to define a wide range of candidate shapes with minimal design parameters. These shapes …

Design Optimization Of Active-Stabilizing Canards For High-Powered Rockets, Simon Babcock

Senior Honors Theses

Rocket canards are a common means of stabilizing a high-powered rocket in flight by producing aerodynamic forces to correct the rocket's trajectory. The size, shape, and position of the canards relative to the rocket body determine their control effectiveness and aerodynamic efficiency – two objectives of canard design with an inverse relationship to each other. By integrating automated iterative rocket trajectory simulation with adaptive surrogate modelling, this research optimized the canard planform geometry for a high-powered rocket to maximize the canards’ control effectiveness and aerodynamic efficiency through multi-variable, multi-objective design optimization. The canard design was first parameterized into four design …

Lunar Manufacturing Systems And The Role Of Additive Recycling Technologies, Camille A. Newman

Honors Theses

Renewed international interest in sustained lunar exploration has created a growing demand for technologies to support long-duration space exploration. Part of the recent Artemis missions and the Moon to Mars initiative is to improve key mission capabilities and fill critical gaps necessary to sustain lunar habitation. Waste management, recycling systems, and manufacturing systems have been identified as critical technologies that need further development before a sustained mission is possible. This thesis explores the feasibility of an additive manufacturing and recycling system designed to process plastic waste generated during extended lunar habitation. Initial research focused on existing manufacturing and recycling technologies …

Torque-Based Detection And Isolation Of Bucket-Specific Load Variations In A Continuous Bucket Ladder Excavator, Mason R. Krause

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Understanding how cutter geometry, material, and operating conditions influence excavation performance is critical for the design of lunar surface systems operating in regolith environments. This work presents a torque-based methodology for detecting and quantifying bucket-specific load variations in a continuous bucket ladder excavator. A nine-bucket excavator was constructed to record drivetrain torque while operating in a regolith simulant over multi-day test periods. Each bucket featured a unique combination of cutting edge material and geometry. A method was developed to separate the continuous torque data into individual excavation events, enabling identification of individual bucket interactions. Analysis of the resulting event-based dataset …

Gradient-Based, Post-Optimality Sensitivity Analysis With Respect To Parameters Of State Equations, Gene Hou, Jonathan Degroff

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Design optimization is a computational tool that can enable a designer to investigate the effectiveness of a design concept in an organized format. However, this design process requires the design variables, constraints, and objective function to be properly defined and expressed in mathematical forms. Post-optimality analysis thus becomes a necessary step to investigate different variations in the problem formulation and parameters to ensure that optimization produces a stable and trustworthy outcome. One efficient way to achieve this aim is to compute the local derivative of the optimized objective function with respect to the optimization problem parameters, such as bounds on …

Large Telescope Mount For Long Exposure Photos, Payne M. Landis, Anna J. Gray

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

When viewing the stars through a telescope, it is common that the object you are viewing drifts out of view. Many amateur astronomers seek to capture long exposure images of the stars, planets, and galaxies with commercially available sky tracking telescope mounts. The complication is that these telescope mounts are both incredibly expensive and have low weight limits. These issues limit accessibility to these products based on the telescope. For each person, telescope parameters determine the amount of light and magnification that can be viewed, which then determines exposures time for adequate photo results. The options on the market for …

Automated Soil Resetting System For Extraterrestrial Regolith Simulation, Parker W. Brennan, Anthony C. Daniels

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project focuses on designing an automated soil resetting system for extraterrestrial regolith simulation. The system will prepare a regolith simulant testbed to a desired, repeatable density, enabling reliable wheel–terrain testing for planetary rover research. Manual soil preparation currently exposes testers to hazardous particulates and produces inconsistent results.

The proposed system will integrate mechanical and control elements to reset the soil bed safely and efficiently. A combination of raking and vibrational methods will be explored, with feedback sensors and automation to achieve target density control. The research will proceed through literature review, benchtop experimentation, prototype design, and full-scale testing over …

Modeling And Testing Chain Trencher Excavator And Cone Penetrometer Robotic Prospecting Systems For Lunar In-Situ Resource Utilization, Marcello C. Guadagno

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Artemis Missions aim to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon, requiring In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) of water-ice deposits in permanently shadowed regions. Two critical capabilities must be developed to enable ISRU at scale: prospecting instruments that can characterize the spatial distribution and geotechnical properties of icy regolith in situ, and excavation systems that can extract hardened icy regolith efficiently. This dissertation addresses both needs through the development and testing of a Percussive Heated Cone Penetrometer (PHCP) for geotechnical prospecting and a chain trencher excavator for icy regolith mining.

The PHCP was developed across eight design iterations and …

Wind Tunnel Instrumentation And Testing, Nicholas Marek, Abraham Mezera, Laura Jin, Hayden Smith, Curtis Cook

Student Scholar Symposium

The Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering was contacted by an automotive engineering firm seeking to use the college’s wind tunnel for gathering data on the aerodynamic performance of a proprietary prototype automotive door. Specifically, the client requested the quantification of the drag coefficient of the model at extreme wind speeds. The drag coefficient, a dimensionless number that quantifies the resistance of a specific geometric shape to airflow, will be a valuable datapoint for the client’s design iteration. Due to the sensitive nature of their work, the client has wished to remain anonymous. RBJCOE professors tasked a senior design team …

Tradespace Exploration For Multiple Collaborative Vehicles, Mrunal Deshmukh

All Theses

Modern military operations demand systems that adapt to uncertain, rapidly changing missions across diverse terrains. Traditional single-platform vehicle design is insufficient for such complexity. This research introduces a hierarchical tradespace exploration framework for designing and evaluating families of heterogeneous ground vehicles under a System-of-Systems (SoS) architecture. The framework treats vehicle design as a co-optimization problem, where a “parent” vehicle (e.g., a Squad Multipurpose Equipment Transport) coordinates specialized “child” vehicles for reconnaissance, amphibious tasks, terrain traversal, and stealth missions. Unlike conventional approaches that optimize vehicles individually, this study emphasizes collaborative performance, resource sharing, and adaptability at the family level. Central to …

Understanding Policy Transfer Under Decomposition And Coordination: Sequential Reinforcement Learning With Relaxation-Based Feasibility Control, Aannand Lal

All Theses

This thesis investigates how decomposition and coordination (D&C) choices influence exploration, learning, and transfer in reinforcement learning (RL) based design frameworks. A unified methodology is developed to evaluate generality under decomposition and to demonstrate sequential coordination on a representative physical task. The generality study holds the underlying physics constant while varying problem presentation - specifically scalarization weights, objective orientations, and feasibility handling. A train-evaluate matrix is constructed in which each trained policy is assessed across all alternative decompositions. Set-based diagnostics quantify generality through exact-match identity, Jaccard similarity of distinct feasible states, total feasible coverage, and Pareto-front quality. Results show that …

Development Of A Cost-Effective Daq For Measuring Brake Performance In Race Cars, Adrin Alias

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This project explores the feasibility of creating a cost-effective data acquisition (DAQ) system for high-speed, real-time brake performance testing of Formula SAE racecars. The research addresses the limitations of the current MoTeC DAQ system currently employed by the team, which is costly and time-consuming to set up for on-car testing. The team will use a brake dynamometer for steady-state comparisons of different brake pad compounds (senior design project), but evaluating real-world performance requires on-car testing. By systematically comparing various hardware platforms, sensors, communication protocols, and storage solutions, this project aims to balance cost-efficiency with reliability and performance. The research evaluates …

G.W.A.I.H.I.R. Guided Wing Aircraft For Intelligent Hybrid Insertion And Recovery, Abdirahman Ahmed Shirwa, Zach Richards, Derek Harwood, Alex Duncan

Senior Design Project For Engineers

The paper outlines the conceptual and preliminary design of a hybrid vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) heavy lift unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for autonomous cargo transport missions. The primary design objective was to create an aircraft capable of carrying a 15 kg payload over a range of 33 km, achieving a top cruise speed of 45 km/h and maintaining an endurance capacity of at least 90 minutes.

A comprehensive literature review informed key design decision, including airfoil selection, structural material, propulsion system configuration, and control. Key requirements were established early in the design process, such as payload capacity, energy efficiency, …

Simulation-To-Hardware Validation Of Mpc For Binary Thruster 2d Cubesat Control, Aevar Amundinusarson Oefjoerd

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Small satellites must execute precise, fuel-limited maneuvers under strict actuation and operational constraints. Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a suitable approach because it optimizes future actions while explicitly enforcing these limits. This work evaluates (1) whether MPC can operate in real time using binary (on/off), asymmetric thrusters, and (2) whether a high-fidelity digital twin can be used to tune and validate the controller prior to hardware testing.

An MPC framework was implemented on a planar satellite prototype that floats on air bearings, operates at 16.7 Hz (60 ms period), and uses eight binary thrusters exhibiting up to 13.2% variation in …

Development Of A Design Tool For Tow-Steered Composite Structures With Machine Learning-Assisted Modeling, Bangde Liu

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Fiber-reinforced composites (FRCs) are widely used in aerospace, automotive, and other engineering applications due to their lightweight characteristics and superior mechanical properties. Traditional FRCs employ a fixed fiber orientation in each layer, and while different layup sequences can tailor performance, the mechanical properties remain spatially uniform. Tow-steered composites, which enable fibers to follow curvilinear paths, offer the potential for spatially varying stiffness and strength, improving structural performance.

This dissertation addresses key challenges in modeling and designing tow-steered composite structures, including the lack of commercial design tools, the high computational cost of design optimization, and the need to efficiently evaluate manufacturing …

Ultrashort Pulsed Laser Treatment Is Effective At Sterilizing Metal Surfaces For Planetary Protection, Kaleb Mcquillan

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To prevent forward contamination from microbes aboard spacecraft intended for exploration of solar system bodies there is a need for effective sterilization methods. However, current techniques are both time-consuming and expensive. For example, dry heat sterilization requires removal from the assembly site and several days of treatment. Furthermore, some components such as optics and electronics are not compatible with current sterilization techniques. In this thesis, a novel femtosecond laser surface processing technique for the rapid sterilization of spacecraft hardware is reported. Femtosecond lasers produce extremely high photon fluxes (10²⁹ photons/s*cm², ~0.03 J/cm²) in extremely short …

Design Of A Launchable Remote-Controlled Rover And Protective Aeroshell, Matthew Loewer, Colby Weeks, Lake Williams, Jackson Zazzaro

Senior Theses

Planetary rovers, vehicles that can traverse challenging terrain, have excelled in their exploration missions to other celestial bodies. They have been especially suitable for exploring Mars, as rovers such as Opportunity and Perseverance have collected valuable geological, atmospheric, seismic, and magnetic information from the Martian surface. Rovers will remain vital in future space exploration missions, and it is necessary to understand their design and functionality. This paper focuses on the design and prototyping of a miniature rover that can survive the rough Martian terrain while collecting and submitting environmental data for scientific analysis. The design is based off proven Martian …

Development Of A 3d Printed Optimization-Driven Aeroelastically Scaled Wind Tunnel Model For High Aspect Ratio Flying Wings, Mikaela K. Leevy

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Design optimization coupled with 3D printing and parametric CAD offers a unique approach to investigating flutter phenomena by creating low-cost iterative aeroelastic wind tunnel models. Recently, there is an interest in studying flutter phenomena at low air speeds in flying wing configurations. The X-56 experimental flying wing was designed to investigate flutter phenomena and flutter suppression, which makes the X-56 a logical choice for the full-scale model. The goal of this work is to optimize, physically print, and geometrically characterize a scaled aeroelastic wind tunnel model. The 18% reduced scale X-56 model was optimized by matching the mode shapes to …

Numerical Simulation And Optimization Of Fin Configurations For Enhanced Heat Sink Performance In Aluminum And Copper Materials, Rimpy Singh

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

The constant evolution of data centers and high-power electronic systems has raised critical challenges in heat dissipation and thermal management. Single-phase immersion cooling, where electronic components are submerged in a thermally conductive but non-electrically conductive liquid (dielectric liquid), offers improved heat dissipation capabilities and emerges as a promising alternative to traditional air-cooling methods, which often fail to meet the thermal demands of densely packed, high-power systems. This study investigates and compares the thermal performance of aluminum and copper heat sinks with fin thicknesses of 0.33 mm and 0.54 mm, respectively, using finite element analysis based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) …

Materials Testing For Large Format 3d Printing, William Jenkins

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

An ABS Carbon Fiber blend was printed into single walled hexagons at a variety of settings on a Cincinnati BAAM large format 3D printer. These hexagons were then cut down into sheets and had tensile and flexural test samples cut out of them, in order for materials testing to be performed. Tensile strength, tensile strain, young’s modulus, flexural strength, deflection and elastic modulus were all determined. A desktop CNC machine and a planer were purchased for the manufacturing of these samples, and an efficient cutting procedure was designed and optimized. After all data collection concluded, this data was thoroughly analyzed, …

Short Strand Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polylactic Acid Filament For Additive Manufacturing, Dale Chenoweth, Lukas Seggi, Luke Phillips

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In this design project, the additive manufacturing filament of short strand carbon fiber (SSCF) reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) composite was developed. The micro-size, precision cut SSCFs were mixed with the PLA pellets through a melting homogenization process. Through this process the composite material block is cut and divided into pieces for ease of pelletizing. The material block pieces are then pelletized to be fed through the single screw extruder to develop the SSCF-PLA composite filament. The SSCF-PLA filaments were manufactured with a varying amount of SSCF ranging from 0.5% to 10% of the material block's weight. Development of a 1% …

Kwad - Ksu All Weather Autonomous Drone, Nick Farinacci, Sebastian Gomez, Stewart Baker, Ed Sheridan

Symposium of Student Scholars

"KWAD" or "KSU all-Weather Autonomous Drone" project was sponsored by Ultool, LLC to the KSU Research and Service Foundation to create a lightweight drone capable of capturing HD video during all-weather operations. The conditions of all-weather operation include rainfall of one inch per hour and wind speeds of up to twenty miles per hour. In addition, a global minimum structural safety factor of two is required to ensure the system's integrity in extreme weather conditions. Potential mission profiles include autonomous aerial delivery, topological mapping in high moisture areas, security surveillance, search and rescue operations, emergency transportation of medical supplies, and …

A Systematic Study Into The Design And Utilization Of Burn Wire As A Means Of Tensioning And Releasing Spacecraft Mechanisms Through Applied Joule Heating, Chandler Dye

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The joule heating characteristics of Nichrome burn wires, often used as a thermal cutting device in mechanisms designed to fasten and release CubeSat deployables, are examined in the following thesis. Wires ranging from 0.125 inches to 2 inches long, and diameters of 30 Ga and 40 Ga, are investigated through analytical calculations and thermal simulations based on heat transfer due to joule heating, and through physical circuitry-based experiments. The temperature data is used to generate heating curves to predict the time it takes for Nichrome wires to fail under varying testing parameters. This research aims to catalog a series of …

Multi-Robot Symbolic Task And Motion Planning Leveraging Human Trust Models: Theory And Applications, Huanfei Zheng

All Dissertations

Multi-robot systems (MRS) can accomplish more complex tasks with two or more robots and have produced a broad set of applications. The presence of a human operator in an MRS can guarantee the safety of the task performing, but the human operators can be subject to heavier stress and cognitive workload in collaboration with the MRS than the single robot. It is significant for the MRS to have the provable correct task and motion planning solution for a complex task. That can reduce the human workload during supervising the task and improve the reliability of human-MRS collaboration. This dissertation relies …

Smart Manufacturing—Theories, Methods, And Applications, Zhuming Bi, Lida Xu, Puren Ouyang

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Smart manufacturing (SM) distinguishes itself from other system paradigms by introducing ‘smartness’ as a measure to a manufacturing system; however, researchers in different domains have different expectations of system smartness from their own perspectives. In this Special Issue (SI), SM refers to a system paradigm where digital technologies are deployed to enhance system smartness by (1) empowering physical resources in production, (2) utilizing virtual and dynamic assets over the internet to expand system capabilities, (3) supporting data-driven decision making at all domains and levels of businesses, or (4) reconfiguring systems to adapt changes and uncertainties in dynamic environments. …

Concept Evaluation And Development Of A Novel Approach For Integration Of Turbogeneration, Electrification And Supercharging On Heavy Duty Engines, Satyum Joshi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

While many technologies such as electrically assisted turbocharging, exhaust energy recovery and mild hybridization have already proven to significantly increase heavy-duty engine efficiency, the key challenge to their widespread adoption has been their cost effectiveness and packaging. This research specifically addresses these challenges through evaluation and development of a novel technology concept termed as the Integrated Turbogeneration, Electrification and Supercharging (ITES) system. The concept integrates a secondary compressor, a turbocompound/expander turbine and an electric motor through a planetary gearset into the engine cranktrain. The approach enables a reduced system cost and space-claim, while maximizing the efficiency benefits of independent technologies. …

Cfd And Heat Transfer Analysis Of Rocket Cooling Techniques On An Aerospike Nozzle, Geoffrey Sullivan

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In recent years the development of rocket engines has been mainly focused on improving the engine cycle and creating new fuels. Rocket nozzle design has not been changed since the late 1960s. Recent needs for reliable and reusable rockets, as well as advancements in additive manufacturing, have brought new interest into the aerospike nozzle concept. This nozzle is a type of altitude adjusting nozzle that is up to 90% more efficient than bell nozzles at low altitudes and spends up to 30% less fuel. Since the nozzle body is submerged in the hot exhaust gasses it is difficult to keep …