Electrical and Electronics Commons^™

Multiple Camera Control Using An Octaplexer In A 5.8 Ghz Video System, Uciel Garcia Olmedo, Skylar Tamke

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

One of the greatest challenges with camera systems on High-Altitude Balloons (HAB) is to control the direction that they point. This is because the payload boxes constantly rotate during the flight. While mechanical gambles are normally used, an electronic gambled was designed using multiple cameras and a series of multiplexers. The design consists of 8 version 1 pi cameras, connected through a series of multiplexers and interfacing with an IMU to tell the direction the cameras are facing. This design attaches to the Raspberry Pi through the GPIO pins. The multiplexers turn on the camera facing the orientation desired and …

Answering Food Insecurity: Serving The Community With Food And Knowledge Using Technology, Courtney Simpson

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The courses of Tech120, CGT110, and ENGT 180/181 and Red Gold at Purdue collaborated to design a robot that would plant and water a garden for a local community charter school. The students centered the project on the users’ needs for fresh food, nutrition education, and early exposure to STEM for children. The school, Anderson Preparatory Academy (APA), is comprised of many children who come from low-income families and are in the free or reduced lunch program. Inspired from “Farm Bot,” a similar system that allows for almost hands-free gardening, the “Boiler Bot” is designed to be scalable so children …

Event And Time-Triggered Control Module Layers For Individual Robot Control Architectures Of Unmanned Agricultural Ground Vehicles, Tyler Troyer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Automation in the agriculture sector has increased to an extent where the accompanying methods for unmanned field management are becoming more economically viable. This manifests in the industry’s recent presentation of conceptual cab-less machines that perform all field operations under the high-level task control of a single remote operator. A dramatic change in the overall workflow for field tasks that historically assumed the presence of a human in the immediate vicinity of the work is predicted. This shift in the entire approach to farm machinery work provides producers increased control and productivity over high-level tasks and less distraction from operating …

Parallel Computation Using Mems Oscillator-Based Computing System, Xinrui Wang, Ilias Bilionis, Salar Safarkhani

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In recent years, parallel computing systems such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been of great interest. In these systems which emulate the behavior of human brains, the processing is carried out simultaneously. However, it is still a challenging engineering problem to design highly efficient hardware for parallel computing systems. We will study the properties of networks of Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) oscillators to explore their capabilities as parallel computing infrastructure. Furthermore, we simulate the time-variant states of MEMS oscillators network under various initial conditions and performance of certain tasks. Recent theoretical results show that networks of MEMS oscillators have some …

Blend It Wine Blending Distribution System, Connor Clarry, Russell Temple, Matt Moren

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Project Pradio, Trigg T. La Tour

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper examines the design and manufacturing of a device that allows two or more users to share a wireless audio stream. Effectively, this allows a group of people to listen to the same audio in a synchronized manner. The product was unable to be completed in the allotted time. Regardless, significant progress was made and valuable insight into the circuit board design process was gained.

Automation In Entertainment: Concept, Design, And Application, Ryan Thally

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The focus of this thesis is to explore the automation technology used in the modern entertainment industry. Upon completion of my thesis, I will deliver a working prototype of the chosen technology and present its capabilities in a choreographed show.

Investigation Of The Use Of 3-D Printer Platform As Building Block For Rapid Design Of Research And Manufacturing Tool, Handy Chandra

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This thesis attempts to show how an open source 3-D printer platform, the self replicating rapid prototype (RepRap), could be used to accelerate the development of research and manufacturing tools. Two projects are shown as examples, both utilizing components of the 3-D printer platform.

The first project is to develop an instrument capable of performing automated large-area four-point probe measurements. A modified RepRap 3-D Printer with a four-point probe in place of the 3-D printer head is utilized as a precision positioning platform. The printer together with custom designed measurement circuit and software performs automated measurement on multiple points on …

Mechanical Design And Optimization Of An Interactive Animatronic Bald Eagle, Eric Burns

Phi Kappa Phi Research Symposium (Archived)

Animatronics is a specialized sub-category of mechatronics, a fusion of mechanical and electrical engineering. The field has grown from small, individual projects into a major industry. As animatronics progress, mechanical engineers are pushed to design internal structures which occupy ever-decreasing spaces and to ensure designs can undergo maintenance and modifications smoothly. This research investigates methods of reducing space required for mechanisms and several other beneficial methods of development as well as varying satisfactions for audiences when exposed to actor-controlled systems rather than pre-scripted functions. The mechanical systems are designed using CAD software available at Georgia Southern. On-campus, resources are used …

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 …

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. …

Wireless Authentication Of Smart Doors Using Rfid, Austin A. Hentrup, Deyi Lu, Peter R. Roldan

Honors Thesis

In an increasingly interconnected world, the traditional metal lock-and-key method of securing homes and businesses is becoming more outdated and inconvenient when compared to modern solutions. Modern systems are smarter, faster, lighter, more secure and more integrated than ever before. Though the costs of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are shrinking overall, professional solutions remain prohibitively expensive. The aim of this project is to develop an inexpensive, secure, and internet-enabled RFID door authentication system. This is to transparently investigate the design limitations for these systems and help determine the ultimate feasibility of RFID growing to define the modern door-authentication standard.

Estimation On Gibbs Entropy For An Ensemble, Lekhya Sai Sake

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In this world of growing technology, any small improvement in the present scenario would create a revolution. One of the popular revolutions in the computer science field is parallel computing. A single parallel execution is not sufficient to see its non-deterministic features, as same execution with the same data at different time would end up with a different path. In order to see how non deterministic a parallel execution can extend up to, creates the need of the ensemble of executions. This project implements a program to estimate the Gibbs Entropy for an ensemble of parallel executions. The goal is …

Forest Sign Maker, Victor Espinosa Iii, Kevin Ly, Lisa Yip

Mechanical Engineering

Executive Summary:

The Inyo National Forest is arguably one of the most beautiful locations in California, containing natural masterpieces such as Mount Whitney and the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Despite its magnificence, the Inyo National Forest can be a treacherous region. The Friends of the Inyo take pride in being able to facilitate the viewing experience for all outdoorsmen by maintaining the mountain trails, which includes providing adequate trail signage.

Unfortunately, there is a fundamental issue with the recent state of trail signage in the Inyo National Forest: the rate at which signs are being vandalized or naturally destroyed is …

Design And Development Of Two Component Hydrogel Ejector For Three-Dimensional Cell Growth, Thomas Dunkle, Jessica Deschamps, Connie Dam

Honors Scholar Theses

Hydrogels are useful in wound healing, drug delivery, and tissue engineering applications, but the available methods of injecting them quickly and noninvasively are limited. The medical industry does not yet have access to an all-purpose device that can quickly synthesize hydrogels of different shapes and sizes. Many synthesis procedures that have been developed result in the formation of amorphous hydrogels. While generally useful, amorphous hydrogels exhibit limited capability in tissue engineering applications, especially due to their viscous properties. This endeavor aims to modulate the appropriate gelation parameters, optimize the injection process, and create a prototype that allows for the extrusion …

Disc Golf Locator, Christian Wallenfelsz, Shane Gamble, Noah Sanor, Brandon Linhart

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research

Disc golf is a game similar to traditional golf where players throw small plastic discs into chain-link nets. Disc golf courses cover several acres containing lakes, small wooded areas, large bushes, and grassy fields. It is not uncommon to accidentally throw a golf disc into the woods or bushes, so it is the goal of this project to create a device to locate the disc and make suggestions for the player to improve performance. A small device will be attached the disc which will track its location and flight characteristics. The device will contain a GPS receiver, an inertial measurement …

Design Of An All-In-One Embedded Flight Control System, Joel D. Elmore

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes an all-in-one flight control system (FCS) that was designed for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The project focuses on the embedded hardware aspect of a stand-alone system with low-cost and reliability in mind.

Ultra-Fast, Autonomous, Reconfigurable Communication System, Paul Bupe Jr

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The recent years have witnessed an increase in natural disasters in which the destruction of essential communication infrastructure has significantly affected the number of casualties. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina in the United States resulted in over 1,900 deaths, three million land-line phones disconnections, and more than 2000 cell sites going out of service. This incident highlighted an urgent need for a quick-deployment, efficient communication network for emergency relief purposes. In this research, a fully autonomous system to deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as the first phase disaster recovery communication network for wide-area relief is presented. As part of this system, …

Battery Management System, Michael Desando, Kyle Woody

Electrical Engineering

Problem Statement:

There have been recent reports of multi-million dollar companies having to recall entire projects due to their BMS’s malfunctioning or operating incorrectly. The purpose of this project is to analyze the future of batteries, the Lithium-Ion cell, and to exercise a BMS to better understand its capabilities and possible cases for errors. Lithium ion batteries are intolerant of overcharge and overdischarge. Abuse of this kind can result in high temperatures, venting of gases, fire, or explosion. Therefore battery management systems have been devised to prevent such abuse. Recent events such as fires on the Boeing Dreamliner and the …

All Purpose Mobile Gps, James C. Smith, Matt Weege, Kevin Peters

Electrical Engineering

The aim of the All Purpose Mobile GPS (The System) is to create a GPS tracking device that can accurately record location and calculate velocity, distance traveled and elevation change even when the satellite signal is lost. This data can later overlay on existing internet-based maps illustrating a trip to oneself or others. The portable tracker consumes very little power achieving several days’ worth of power in a single charge. A solar cell provides a quick battery boost in a pinch. SD Card storage increases compatibility with computers and other forms of data transfer. Data processing, such as viewing the …

Design Of A Low Power Cargo Security Device Using A Micropower Ultra-Wideband Impulse Radar, Brian M. Wihl

Master's Theses

Each year, thousands of cargo containers are broken into during shipping, costing billions of dollars in lost and damaged goods. In addition to removing its contents, intruders can also add unwanted and dangerous materials to a container, posing a threat to National Security. The possibilities of cargo container break-ins require that the containers go through check points at which they are physically searched. These searches often require the opening of the container, unloading and inspecting all cargo, and then loading the container and resealing it. This is a long and costly process.

Because of the high costs of break-ins and …

Vehicular Motion Sensor: Developing A Wide-Range Motion Sensing Alarm System, Joshua Isaacson

Senior Honors Theses

Vehicular safety has become a serious concern in recent years. Many drivers have difficulty backing out of parking spaces, especially when large trucks and sport utility vehicles block the peripheral view from smaller vehicles. This can lead to accidents and pedestrian injuries when drivers are unable to see or do not pay careful attention to their surroundings.

Vehicular motion sensor systems can alert drivers of approaching obstacles when attempting to back out of parking spaces with limited visibility. This thesis aims to explain the limitations of current systems and the research conducted by the author to develop a prototype for …

Digital Control Board For Phased Array Antenna Beam Steering In Adaptive Communication Applications, Mayur Bansal

Master's Theses

The application of adaptive communication techniques for mobile communications has attracted considerable interest in the last decade. One example of these techniques is spatial filtering through planar antenna array beam forming.

This thesis describes the development of a digital system that adaptively controls a phased array antenna. The radiating structure of the phased antenna array is tetrahedral-shaped and contains four antenna elements on each of its three faces. The overall system comprises of a digital control board with an external computer interface, an RF control board, and the phased antenna array. The RF controls the main lobe direction on the …

The Visual Representation Of Sound For The Hearing Impaired, Jonathan Brophy

Electrical Engineering

There are many difficulties that arise when one is faced with a hearing disability. New applications of advancing technology have the potential to enable designs capable of assisting the hearing impaired with the ability to see sound. This project seeks to provide a user with a visual representation of loud noises detected using small directional microphones. The microphones determine the location of the sound above a set decibel level and a microprocessor determines the approximate location of the sound source and displays a vertical colored bar on a video image in the direction of the noise using virtual reality glasses. …

Lyfi, Kianoosh Salami, Justin Cotton, Elush Shirazpour

Electrical Engineering

This paper will cover the steps necessary to design, build, and manage networkable smart light switches over WiFi via a mobile application. It contains a microcontroller running a real time operating system, a WiFi module, a Java server with SQLite databasing, and a mobile phone application.

LyFi is designed to turn on/off and dim household lights while only requiring the same installation procedure as a less capable dimmer switch. Once installed and connected to a network, LyFi will self-discover and configure. The server automatically propogates a database of nodes where any mobile device running an application can receive an updated …

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 …

Project 308: Augmented Reality Mario Kart, Joseph Abad, David Allender, Joryl Calizo, Ryan Gaspar, Gavin Lee

Computer Engineering

Mario Kart is a popular go-kart racing game developed by Nintendo. The premise of the game is simple: drive a go-kart along a racetrack and reach the finish line before the other players. What makes this game unique, however, is the inclusion of weapons, traps, and other projectiles that a player can use to gain an advantage in the race. We have taken on the challenge of not only recreating this amazing game, but using the art of Augmented Reality to fully immerse the player in the full experience. Rather than play the game on a television screen with a …

Discrete Alarm Clock, Travis Moore, Collin Barth

Electrical Engineering

The standard alarm clock, as used daily by millions worldwide, has clear room for modification and improvement.  This paper documents an implementation that rectifies many of these flaws.  Improvements include adjustable snooze length, an IR remote for ease of use, and an RF headset for discrete alarm use or potential incorporation into a device much like a hearing aid.  The processes involved in creating a digital alarm clock, as well as the obstacles met in the implementation of the enhanced design, are detailed within.

A Pipelined Architecture For Real Time Correction Of Barrel Distortion In Wide-Angle Camera Images, Hau Trung Ngo

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Images captured by wide-angle cameras show barrel type spatial distortion due to wide-angle configuration of the camera lens where image regions farther from the center are compressed in a nonlinear fashion. The barrel distortion correction technique based on least squares estimation attempts to correct a distorted image by expanding it nonlinearly so that straight lines in the object space remain straight in the image space. The intensity value of a pixel in the expanded image is calculated by back mapping its position to the corresponding position in the distorted image and performing linear interpolation on the neighboring pixels. Distorted images …

Genetic Algorithms Vs. Simulated Annealing: A Comparison Of Approaches For Solving The Circuit Partitioning Problem, Theodore W. Manikas, James T. Cain

Computer Science and Engineering Research

An important stage in circuit design is placement, where components are assigned to physical locations on a chip. A popular contemporary approach for placement is the use of simulated annealing. While this approach has been shown to produce good placement solutions, recent work in genetic algorithms has produced promising results. The purpose of this study is to determine which approach will result in better placement solutions.

A simplified model of the placement problem, circuit partitioning, was tested on three circuits with both a genetic algorithm and a simulated annealing algorithm. When compared with simulated annealing, the genetic algorithm was found …