Hardware Systems Commons^™

Teaching The Internet Of Things: Bridging A Path From Cpe329, Steven Han, Rafael Lopez

Computer Engineering

“The ability to connect, communicate with, and remotely manage an incalculable number of networked, automated devices via the Internet is becoming pervasive, from the commercial kitchen to the residential basement room to the arm of the fitness buff.” - WSO2

In this report, we will investigate procedures and technologies used in IoT. A variety of cloud platforms will be described to demonstrate its strengths and usage on IoT applications. Furthermore, demonstrate the most popular hardware being used in several of these applications. This report is aimed to give a good understanding on what it takes to put together an IoT …

Robostock: Autonomous Inventory Tracking, Drew Christian Balthazor

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Android Drone: Remote Quadcopter Control With A Phone, Aubrey John Russell

Computer Engineering

The purpose of the “Android Drone” project was to create a quadcopter that can be controlled by user input sent over the phone’s Wi-Fi connection or 4G internet connection. Furthermore, the purpose was also to be able to receive live video feedback over the internet connection, thus making the drone an inexpensive option compared to other, equivalent drones that might cost thousands of dollars. Not only that, but the Android phone also has a host of other useful features that could be utilized by the drone: this includes GPS, pathing, picture taking, data storage, networking and TCP/IP, a Java software …

Autonomous Golf Cart Firmware, Gerik Kubiak

Computer Engineering

The Autonomous Golf Cart Project is a project sponsored by the Cal Poly Robotics Club. The multidisciplinary team is adding sensors and electronics to a regular golf cart with the goal to drive the golf cart around campus without and human input. This task requires a plethora of hardware and firmware to control that hardware. The firmware provides an interface for higher level software to then control the hardware and therefore drive the golf cart. This report is focused on the hardware modifications and the firmware used in order to drive the golf cart from a computer.

Duck Watch: A Smart System For Public Lap Pools, Daniel Griffith, Jill Thetford

Computer Engineering

This paper presents Duck Watch, a proof of concept for a smart swimming pool. With our system, a swimmer will be able to log on to our website prior to leaving his or her house to help them decide if the conditions are favorable to go to a public lap swimming pool. Our system will inform the user of a number of environmental factors such as water temperature, exterior temperature, and humidity, as well as whether or not there are any open lanes currently.

Pet Food Monitor Using The Raspberry Pi, Kimberly Aguero

Computer Engineering

Computer system built on a Raspberry Pi that will monitor the levels of food in a pet food bowl. If it detects that there is no food in the bowl, it will notify the user via email or text.

Senior Project: Control System For An Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle, Tyler Mau, Joseph Mahoney

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

El Capitán: Cal Poly Rose Float Digital Drive System, Gregory Raffi Baghdikian

Computer Engineering

In today’s world of smartphones, self-driving cars, and internet-connected coffee makers, it seems as if computers are contained in everything around us. These “embedded systems” have become critical components of our lives, improving everything about the things they control, from cost, to speed, to simplicity. One area that embedded systems has hardly gained a foothold is in the world of floatbuilding. Most of the floats in the Tournament of Roses Parade, including the one built jointly by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona, are technologically very simple, using mostly analog components and rudimentary discrete digital logic to …

Oluso, Diego Fernandez, Tyler Heucke, Nishant Mattu, Michael Roesch

Computer Engineering

Oluso is a new startup offering affordable, inexpensive technology to empower the individual. Our product is designed to keep the user in contact with someone close to them in emergency situations. Over the course of the past several months we have performed interviews with both individuals who may be interested in this product as well as organizations who may be interested in purchasing this product for their members. Our product is nearing completion and all of the companies we have interviewed have displayed a significant amount of interest in our product. The combination of easy communication and peace of mind …

Rapid Battery Exchange Automation, Andrea Everson

Computer Engineering

With the drastic threat of exhausting the world’s fossil fuels, society has been scrambling to find alternative forms of energy for transportation. One of these viable options is an electric vehicle powered by batteries. While this idea is fairly viable, consumers are looking to have the same experience with an electric car than they would with a gas-powered vehicle. One of their major concerns is the lack of range in an electric vehicle.

This project aims to present a solution that would extend the range by allowing users to quickly go from low battery to fully charged battery by performing …

Pinpoint: Location Beacon And Tracking, Ezequiel Lopez Iii

Computer Engineering

The purpose of Pinpoint was to create a device that can collect and transmit location information for multiple users on a wireless network. The device would be used to keep track of and communicate with other users nearby. The final design includes a touchscreen display as a graphical user interface (GUI), an XBee RF module for wireless networking, a GPS receiver for location tracking, and a Programmable System on a Chip (PSoC) to control the modules.

Stand, Lisa Yip

Computer Engineering

With busy lives, people sometimes forget to take breaks for multiple hours at a time. The purpose of this project is to remind the user to move around every hour if they have not already. To do so, stand will be a light weight fitness tracker that will detect the number of steps made within an hour. If the step count, dependent on goals, is not met then a vibration motor will gently remind them to take a break and walk. The data throughout the day will be shown on an iOS application where the user will be able to …

Microcontroller Application For Linear And Rotational Motion Sensing, Zachary Mintzer

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Printed Circuit Board For Introductory Animatronics Course, Preston Brown

Computer Engineering

For many years, freshmen Computer Engineering students at California Polytechnic State University have taken a course that introduces them to the “processes of electronics manufacturing. They are lectured on concepts such as CAD/CAM design, Design for Manufacture (DFM), documentation requirements, prototyping and production planning”. The laboratory portion of the course allows students to “use hands-on techniques to solidify knowledge of project planning, soldering, automation, hand tool usage and production methods” by manufacturing their own power supply, starting with aluminum sheets, a bag of components, and and an unassembled printed circuit board (PCB).

While the project is popular among students, department …

Universal Uav Payload Interface, Nolan Reker, David Troy Jr, Drew Troxell

Computer Engineering

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology is becoming increasingly accessible for civilian use. Both open-source and commercial-purpose UAVs can be obtained affordably or even built. However, the platforms available are very segmented in their customization to a specific application (i.e. land surveying, payload delivery). This project aims to create a Universal Payload Interface (UPI) mounted to the underside of multi-rotors or other UAVs to enable the attachment of customizable sensor payloads. These payloads allow a single UAV to be rapidly reconfigured to perform a multitude of tasks.

The Universal Payload Interface facilitates communication between the payload, onboard flight controller, and operator …

Power Supply For Driving High Power Leds With Wireless Control, Joshua C. Avery

Computer Engineering

This project is the design of a power supply for driving high power light emitting diodes (LEDs) with wireless control. The project is divided into two sections, the power supply for driving the LED lights, and the wireless control and fan power supply.

Spirit: A Home Automation System, Andrew Choi

Computer Engineering

Spirit is a multi device home automation system. Designed and implemented for California Polytechnic State University’s Senior Project program, this project was worked on during the duration of two school quarters from January 7, 2014 to June 13, 2014. The system consists of monitor/controllers designed to carry out everyday tasks in the average American household and an accompanying mobile application designed to receive information and control the devices. The monitor/controllers, or “Spirits”, are primarily developed using Arduino development tools and Arduino microcontroller boards. The spirits include a thermostat, named Tempus, an electrical outlet, Electrus, and a wall light switch, Luxos.

Chromium Os On Freescale I.Mx6q, Pushpal Sidhu

Computer Engineering

This projects intention is to get Chromium OS running on a Freescale i.MX6q processor, a processor based on the ARM® Cortex™-A9 architecture. The development board I used is the Ventana GW5400 by Gateworks. This project inherently meant using Chromium OS's development system which meant I created a board specific package for the Ventana single board computer. This project is a proof of concept that can mean extending Chromium OS to various implementations of the ARM® Cortex™-A9 architecture.

Design Of Cpu Simulation Software For Armv7 Instruction Set Architecture, Dillon Tellier

Computer Engineering

Simulations have long been a part of the engineering process in both the professional and academic domain. From a pedagogic standpoint, simulations allow students to explore the dynamics of engineering scenarios by controlling variables, taking measurements, and observing behavior which would be difficult or impossible without simulation. One such tool is a CPU simulator used in Cal Poly’s Computer Architecture classes; this software simulates an instruction accurate operation of a computer processor and reports statistics regarding the execution of the supplied compiled machine code. For the last several years Cal Poly’s computer architecture classes have used a previous version of …

Wii-B-Fit Adaptive Wii Remote, Chris Lombardo

Computer Engineering

The goal of this project was to fix and supplement the original Wii-B-Fit system in order to get it running again and improve on the original design. Wii-B-Fit’s original mission is to give people with paralysis the ability to participate in activities that they would not otherwise get to do, while creating a more fun, social, and independent lifestyle.Physical activity can help stimulate brain activity and is an integral part to a healthy lifestyle. Quadriplegia however makes it extremely hard to perform most forms of physical activity and severely limits the choices available to victims of the disease. The original …

Motion Sensing Fifa Controller, Anthony Agius, Jake Troychak

Computer Engineering

Our Project is designed to control the XBOX 360 video game FIFA Soccer by different kicking motions made by the user. This system consists of two pieces: the microcontroller attached to the XBOX 360 controller and the foot piece that is attached to the users foot in order to read all of the movements needed to control the game. Our project brings the soccer game to life by forcing the users to actually perform the different kicking motions that they want their game avatar to copy on the game. This project was designed for those who want to be more …

Motohud: Intelligent And Safe Navigational Data Presentation For Motorcyclists, Drew Bentz, William Budney

Computer Engineering

The system uses a GPS (Global Positioning System) sensor, Bluetooth modem, and OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen to display navigational information to a motorcycle rider. Currently supported navigational information are speed and heading, with a framework in place for future turn-by-turn navigation. The system is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack and controlled by an Arduino Micro. For turn-by-turn navigation, an Android powered smartphone running our Android App is required. Our system aims to reduce safety hazards from having to tilt or move one’s head when trying to view speed on a motorcycle speedometer, which is usually mounted down by …

Bluelock: A Secure Bluetooth Operated Padlock, Trever Mckee

Computer Engineering

For this project a secure, battery operated, Bluetooth operated padlock was created. The project included both the hardware to integrate with a padlock and an Android application used to interface with the hardware. In order to make the padlock secure both AES encryption and challenge response authentication were used for secure message passing between the device and the Android phone. The project also included power consumption and sustainability tuning including exploring Arduino sleep states and integrating the project with a solar charging unit.

Riley The Cat, Nicholas Zankich

Computer Engineering

There are many toys that exist that are comfort objects. Generally these are toys that are soft such as blankets, stuffed animals, and pillows. Robotic toys also exist such as games, interactive books, and instruments. There exists a crossover market that includes Furbys, Tomagachi pets, and Fur Real Friends. While being very popular, I believe that this crossover isn’t perfect, and that there is a lot of room for improvement. Riley (Figure 1) was created to make something that is both completely a robot and a comfort object.

Frg Turbojet, Tyler Vitti

Computer Engineering

Members of the Cal Poly SLO campus club FRG work together with students of several different disciplines to build a functional turbojet engine. Engineering approaches include design, fabrication, testing, and computer sensing, control, and integration. The goal of the project is to produce a running turbojet engine monitored and controlled by embedded hardware and specialized PC software. This project is to be used by later groups for further research and development.

Robotron, Fabian Rodriguez, Oscar Daniel Muneton, Adelaido Jimenez

Computer Engineering

Roborodentia 2012 is a competition where students and alumni could build an autonomous robot to perform a certain task for points. This report is about Robotron, the 3rd place winner of this competition, and how it came to be.

Kreative Outlets, Travis Crist, Steve Clark, Jason Peressini

Computer Engineering

With the widespread use of smart phones and the advancement of WiFi technologies, people now have the Internet at their fingertips at all times. Home automation and control has the possibility of becoming the next big technology that can utilize the abundant availability of the Internet. This paper documents the findings and results of a project aimed at developing the infrastructure needed for a home automation system that is accessible anywhere. We implemented a system that utilized a web enabled ethernet connection and RF wireless technology to control AC outlets and provide the user with feedback information about the status …

Bluemote!, Philip Kaye

Computer Engineering

In today’s society, our mobile phones are an extremely useful device when we are on the go and away from our homes; however, when we return home, our smart phone becomes just a communication tool again. Home automation is inevitable, and it will find its way into every house. The first person to commercialize it to the point where it is as easy to set-up and as affordable as a home router will end up breaking this slow trend. The key to this success is the smart phone; this should end up being the most expensive piece of hardware for …

Cplop - Cal Poly's Library Of Pyroprints, Kevin Webb

Computer Engineering

California Polytechnic Library of Pyroprints, CPLOP, is a web driven data-base application that stores data from the biology’s departments E. coli Pyrosequencing project. Some of this data was stored in Excel datasheets, while data from the pyrosequencing machines was stored as just a list of random .xml files. There was no useful way to organize and store the massive amounts of data from multiple file sources in one location, nor to perform the complicated searches and comparisons that the project requires. CPLOP’s primary goal is to store such data in three organized tables that relate to one another. It was …

Detection Of Breathing And Infant Sleep Apnea, Brian Berg

Computer Engineering

Sleep apnea is a condition where people pause while breathing in their sleep; this can be of great concern for infants and premature babies. Current monitoring systems either require physical attachment to a user or may be unreliable. This project is meant to develop a device that can accurately detect breathing through sound and issue appropriate warnings upon its cessation. The device produced is meant to be a standalone device and thus was developed as an embedded systems project on a Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA.