Controls and Control Theory Commons^™

Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle Controller With Pid Stability Regulation, Christian E. Aguirre

Electrical Engineering

The earth’s oceans and rivers remain widely unexplored. Hobbyists and companies across the globe invest money and resources into remotely operated vehicles (ROV) to further expand underwater knowledge. Each ROV includes a controller that operates motors and monitors other crucial system vitals. The ROV Controller project makes the process of designing an ROV simpler and more affordable by providing a multi-purpose programmable controller.

The ROV controller features programmable digital inputs/outputs and analog inputs. The controller processes control signals from analog joysticks, digital signals from a gyroscope and utilizes a MUX to expand the analog input capabilities of the Arduino. The …

Asphalt And Adhesive Flow And Level Control, Kajan V. Moorthy

Electrical Engineering

This project entails the design of a flow control system to manage flow rates of asphalt to maintain constant thickness on the fiberglass sheet. By using the proposed system, the amount of scrap created by extremely thick or thin deposits on the mat would be reduced. The design of the proposed system aims to produce a flowrate of 10 gpm while it is also capable of self-correcting and shutting down when unsafe conditions occur. Selection of various components of the control system took place which included the Allen Bradley PLC and Flex I/O, power supply, radars for level sensor, and …

Microgrid Protection Student Laboratory: Human-Machine Interface And Scada Database, Nathan P. Martinez

Electrical Engineering

The electric utility system, a ubiquitous and fundamental component of modern life, has changed more in the last 20 years than the last 100. With more homes and businesses installing distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar panels, battery storage, and other intermittent sources, massive changes need to take place in the electric transmission and distribution systems. Engineers must develop a new skill set for a modern utility industry. This project summarizes a component for a new laboratory class aimed at power engineering students at Cal Poly which supports the laboratory through the creation of a human-machine interface (HMI) and …

Flexible Custom Electric Skateboard, Caleb Adam Kelsay

Electrical Engineering

At Cal Poly traveling long distances only accessible by foot such as across campus or from the car park to class can be tiring and time-consuming. While not physically demanding, the trek consumes time in our tight college life schedule. To improve our time efficiency this project provides a relatively lightweight, powered solution to quickly and effectively travel long distances while maintaining full control and safety even on hills, a current limitation of traditional skateboards.

This electric skateboard includes the battery capacity to travel all around campus on a single charge with a compact and flexible skateboard design that provides …

Two Senior Projects: 2.4 Ghz, 40% Efficiency Radio Frequency Amplifier, Ieee Design Contest, & Design And Implementation Of A Software Costas Loop For Audio Frequencies, Robert J. Tong

Electrical Engineering

How to Read this Document:

This document combines two senior project reports. The first senior project documents designing a class AB RF amplifier. The second, discusses the design and implementation of a software Costas loop for audio frequencies. The first report begins on the next page, while the Costas loop report starts on page 24. The two reports are orthogonal from one another. It is not a prerequisite to read the RF amplifier report before reading the Costas loop report. This document is merely two reports combined into one document. The second report, about the Costas loop, was written as …

Acceleration Amplitude Control System For Oscillating Silicon Oil Physics Experiment, Eric Chen

Electrical Engineering

This project is an ‘acceleration amplitude control system’ for use in an ‘oscillating silicon oil physics experiment’. The physics experiment has a tray of silicon oil. This tray must oscillate vertically at a specific amplitude (either at or just below the level for Faraday Waves). This control systems manages taking measurements of acceleration amplitude, and also manages correcting the shaker’s driving signal to obtain the correct acceleration. Features of the control system are designed for ease of use, because the system will mostly be operated by professor/ students without background knowledge in electrical engineering.

Dc House Energy Management System, Zachary L. Eldredge, Zoe M. Hay

Electrical Engineering

In this work, a previously completed proof of concept for an Energy Management System (EMS) for the DC House project has been revised and re-implemented. The implemented design changes will improve the performance and reproducibility of the system. This new design of the EMS replaces the two-separate buck and boost DC-DC converters with a single bidirectional DC-DC converter to reduce components and improve efficiency. Analysis of the bidirectional DC-DC converter shows high efficiency especially at larger load currents. The code of the previous work was updated for smoother operation as well as to accommodate an LCD capable of displaying more …

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 …

Automatic Water Pump Controller, Alam D. Salguero, Kyle Russell Marquez Weeks

Electrical Engineering

In countries including Indonesia, Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador, a city water authority supplies the clean water and pumps it into large ground-level storage tanks. A resident’s water pump then pumps the water to a water tank on top of his/her house. When the water level in the ground-level storage tank becomes too low, the pump siphons air and shuts down, requiring a resident to manually prime the water pump to get it running again. Residents struggle to monitor the water level of the tanks effectively and keep the pump running properly. To remedy the issue, the Automatic Water Pump …

A Stroke Therapy Brace Design, Evan Kirkbride

Electrical Engineering

Victims of stroke often have difficulty with rehabilitation. With limited movement on their affected arm, patients often do not want to move much for physical therapy. In this project, we design a robotic brace that helps stroke patients move their arm more effectively in a reaching or pulling motion. By giving patients more movement in their affected arm than they would have otherwise, patients gain more from rehabilitation. The brace also adapts to the patient’s needs, providing more inclination or resistance as needed for their physical therapy. This kind of therapy engages patients rather than relying on their likely dwindled …

Cal Poly Supermileage Electronic Fuel Injection, Alexander Pink

Electrical Engineering

Cal Poly Supermileage is a student-run engineering club that builds prototype gasoline vehicles optimized maximum fuel-efficiency. To power their vehicles, the Supermileage team makes use of single-cylinder, 4-stroke, electronically fuel-injected (EFI) gasoline engines. This report details the development, iterative design & test cycles, and integration of an EFI system for the Supermileage club. This project develops an EFI system that interfaces to the most common types of sensors found in the low-power Supermileage-range of engines, including throttle-position sensors, manifold absolute pressure sensors, gear-tooth hall-effect sensors, variable-reluctance position sensors, engine coolant temperature sensors, intake air temperature sensors, and exhaust oxygen sensors. …

Exertion Control, Travis Taylor

Electrical Engineering

Current wearable fitness devices give the user after-the-fact fitness data, but little real-time feedback. Exertion Control, a new wearable device, continuously measures the user’s heart rate, creates a heart rate target, and helps the user reach it. This project completes the senior design and master’s thesis requirements and contains two milestones. The senior design product continuously measures the wearer’s heart rate and logs it with a user-friendly interface. This data models the heart’s exertion response and recovery response. The master’s thesis device refines the closed control loop with the user to give them a workout optimized to fit their needs.

The Electric Reel For Soccer Fields, Stephen Taylor

Electrical Engineering

Painting a soccer field consumes too much time. The process of reeling the string after laying out string along the field needs to improve. As a result, my project addresses improvements in how the workers retrieve the string through the production of an electric reel. This electric reel allows the worker to have control of the speed, direction, and on/off state of the device. Direction control allows the user ability to reel and unwind the string. Variable speed allows the user to control how fast the reel unwinds and reels the string. The device gathers string in an orderly manner …

Phase Locked Loop Integrated Circuit, Scott Buchanan, Jonathan Bonello

Electrical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Real Time Swim Instructor, Konrad Antoniuk

Electrical Engineering

Both competitive and recreational swimmers want an efficient swim stroke but often lack consistent feedback with technical insight. Competitive swimmers rely on coaches for instruction but have to stop swimming to listen. The Real Time Swim Instructor project provides live feedback to a swimmer so they can feel their stroke correction while they’re swimming. The developing swimmer feels the difference between correct and incorrect form instantaneously.

The project takes on the responsibility of measuring the moving body, accurately determining stroke improvement, functioning under water, and providing recognizable feedback. Additionally, the user can review their swim from data stored in memory. …

Automated Pet Food Dispenser, Kevin M. Shibley

Electrical Engineering

Electronics revolutionize the world and simplify life. The Automated Pet Food Dispenser (APFD) revolutionizes the pet industry and provides unprecedented food capacity and delivery capability, giving pet owners worry-free vacationing. Sensors and timers optimize functionality and reduce waste while improving reliability and usability. User-defined settings and customization gives the device adaptability to meet every customer’s needs.

Meat Smoker, Rhianna Topp

Electrical Engineering

This Senior Project consists of designing and building a meat smoker. The design of this meat smoker incorporates knowledge of control systems, programming, hardware, and materials manufacturing. This smoker is made to allow the user an easy experience of smoking food. The smoker provides the user with a programmable temperature and timer. It also has an automatic wood chip loader as deemed necessary to keep the correct amount of smoke distributed. Lastly, this smoker has an automatic application of the user’s choice of liquid to the meat. By designing a smoker with these capabilities, an untrained person desiring to smoke …

Geothermal Injection Well Monitoring, Timothy Rempher

Electrical Engineering

People depend on electricity all over the world. They depend on it for anything from drying their hair to global communications to heating up food. Many methods of power generation exist, each using a different fuel such as nuclear power, natural gas, coal, wind or the sun. This project focuses on a power plant which uses the naturally hot water in the ground to generate electricity. This process of generating power is called “Geothermal.” This project consists of two parts. The first and major part is the design logic of a PLC program that monitors the flow rate of an …

Control System For Glucose Detector System, David Smith

Electrical Engineering

In this paper I design and test on a prove of concept level a control/timing circuit for a blood glucose detector built in a previous senior project. The specifications of the design given are to properly power the detector with a low power source. The design is completed on a transistor level basis using Cadence Virtuoso Software. The system is design from the ground up; designing, building, and testing smaller circuits first then combined into increasingly larger circuits till the completed circuit is finished. The design used to based off of the 555 Timer and uses differential pairs, CMOS designed …

Independent Moisture-Sensitive Automatic Watering System, Jessica Sherbon

Electrical Engineering

With the availability of home improvement supplies, plant owners can quickly and easily set up an automatic system that waters their gardens based on a specified schedule. However, most of these systems require an electric outlet or water faucet making them unusable in locations where installed water and power lines do not exist, such as apartment balconies. This project defines a small-scale automated watering system that runs independently of installed water and power lines. The system takes water from a reservoir, such as a tank or bucket, and supplies that water to individual plants via a drip system. The design …

Heart-Rate Monitoring Control System Using Photoplethysmography (Ppg), Wesley Nguyen, Ryan Horjus

Electrical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Off-Grid Photovoltaic System Design Project, Brian Duffy

Electrical Engineering

This project uses the BP SX 150S solar panel to charge a 12 V battery. This battery powers an AIMS 400 W Modified Sine Wave Inverter to provide 120 V RMS AC power to a load of up to 40 W. Inverter efficiency was measured at different load conditions. A control circuit was implemented to prevent overcharging or over-discharging of the battery, by disconnecting it from the panel or the load, respectively. The control circuit turn-on and cutoff voltages were measured versus battery voltage, and the on-resistance of the MOSFET switches was measured for various load currents. A table of …

Aether, Thomas Cameron, Kristine Colton, Daren Childers

Electrical Engineering

Aether is a RC-style autonomous air vehicle that utilizes GPS positioning along with a wireless communication system to achieve a computer-controlled flight.

This report will incorporate the acquisition, design, integration, implementation and testing phases of the UAV development. Furthermore a discussion of troubleshooting as well as improvements for future projects will be included.

Fuzzy Logic Control Of An Inverted Pendulum Robot, Kyle Reid

Electrical Engineering

The inverted pendulum is a classical problem in controls.  The inherit instabilities in the setup make it a natural target for a control system.  Over the years it has been the benchmark for testing new and innovative control theories such as Fuzzy Logic.  During the course of this project a software fuzzy logic controller was implemented using a PIC microcontroller.  At the conclusion of the experiment an interesting realization was made about the nature of Fuzzy Logic and its applicability in the world of controls.

Solar Panel Tracker, Andrew Hsing

Electrical Engineering

This project will be a design and implementation of a polar single axis solar panel tracker. It will have a fixed vertical axis and an adjustable horizontal motor controlled axis. This setup is similar to an office swivel chair. The tracker will actively track the sun and change its position accordingly to maximize the energy output. To prevent wasting power by running the motor continuously, the tracker will correct it's position after 2 to 3 degrees of misalignment. The sensors will compare the light intensities of each side and move the panels until the tracker detects equal light on both …

Prediction Of Wind Speeds With An Artificial Neural Network, Justin Tracy

Electrical Engineering

This project involved designing and programming an artificial neural network, testing its function, and testing the resulting function against existing wind speed measurement data, in order to determine the ability of an artificial neural network to learn the relationship between measured data and future wind speed. The artificial neural network includes gradient momentum, batch training, incremental training, and a function to test the results of the trained neural network against an additional set of data without back propagation. It was first found that the artificial neural network was able perform unsupervised learning, and learn the model for a XOR gate. …

Automated Basketball Return System, Victor Mendoza, Chris Chamberlain

Electrical Engineering

The project is meant to assist a basketball player in their practicing. The project hangs directly on the basketball rim and automatically rotates to find the player on the court. Once the player is detected, the automated basketball return system (ABRS) stays focused in the direction of the player so that any baskets successfully made will be funneled back to the player. When the player moves from center, IR motion detectors find which direction you moved to and rotates accordingly, until the player is focused in front of the funnel again. If at any time the player is absent from …