Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Design Of A Proprioceptive Actuator Utilizing A Cycloidal Gearbox, Craig John Kimball

Master's Theses

Legged robotics creates the demand for high torque compact actuators able to develop high instantaneous torque. Proprioceptive actuator design theory is a design theory that removes the need for a torque feedback device and relies on the stiffness in the leg for absorbing the high Ground Impact Forces created by walking locomotion. It utilizes a high torque density motor paired with a gearbox with a high gear ratio for torque multiplication. Previously work has been done to design a proprioceptive actuator design that utilizes a planetary gearbox to create a modular low-cost actuator for legged robotics. The purpose of this …

Frugal Leafy Green Shredding & Washing Machines, Seth Brown, Guillermo Escobar, Shane Murphy, Leslie Valenzuela, Ben Voelz

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The goal of this project is to create specialized frugal appliances to assist women in rural Cameroon by reducing the amount of time it takes to prepare food. Specifically, the project focuses on two tasks: slicing eru leaves and washing bitter leaves. After researching the market and collecting information from women in South Cameroon, two appliances were designed: an eru leaf shredder and a bitter leaf washer. The shredder is a manual shredding device that uses a rotating blade and shaft subsystem to slice leaves, reducing labor time by 62% and increasing safety with features such as a hopper and …

Proof Of Concept Mars Rover Crash Vehicle Test Article, Peter Habelt, Benjamin Rupp, Gavin Maloney, Stan Lieberman, Reid Whitney

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The goal of the Mars Rover Crash Vehicle Test Article is to act as an impact-absorbing crumple-zone structure that protects a Mars Rover in the case of failure of other landing systems. This crash vehicle was designed for free-fall applications to absorb drops from different heights due to its modular crumple zone system. The design utilized readily available and recycled materials to create a low-cost, quick-build-time, modular system.

The design was split into two subsystems-the Crumple Zone and Inner Vessel-that would be placed inside and around the Outer Frame. The Crumple Zone underwent various iterations with the final design being …

Robovac: A Combined Vacuum Blower Toolkit For Agricultural Robots, Ershad Forghany, Joe Galang, Nico Urdanivia, Alessandro Zagni

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Robotics and automation are the multi-billion dollar future of farming, but many labor-intensive tasks including bug and moisture control are still performed by hand. The new RoboVac toolkit will streamline and economize these operations as one neat compact system. It is a fully electric bug vacuum solution that is intended for pest management on various crops. For this project, it was tested on chives. It features a retrofitted leaf blower repurposed into a vacuum, mounted onto a portable modular aluminum frame with efficient electronics that can be easily integrated into an autonomous vehicle platform. The intended future operation platform will …

An Improved Method To Estimate Savings From Thermal Comfort Control In Residences From Smart Wi-Fi Thermostat Data, Abdulelah D. Alhamayani, Qiancheng Sun, Kevin P. Hallinan

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The net-zero global carbon target for 2050 needs both expansion of renewable energy and substantive energy consumption reduction. Many of the solutions needed are expensive. Controlling HVAC systems in buildings based upon thermal comfort, not just temperature, uniquely offers a means for deep savings at virtually no cost. In this study, a more accurate means to quantify the savings potential in any building in which smart WiFi thermostats are present is developed. Prior research by Alhamayani et al. leveraging such data for individual residences predicted cooling energy savings in the range from 33 to 47%, but this research was based …

Mars Rover Structure, Ethan Nikcevich, Justin Marhoefer, Will Kish, Brenden Billing

Mechanical Engineering

Our project is the third iteration of a design to create a small Mars rover. Our main challenge was to change the existing rover structure into something that could survive the harsh conditions of Mars. This meant altering the design so that it could resist the large temperature fluctuations while still maintaining the structural stability and interface to support driving functions and the projects of the other rover teams. Our team accomplished this goal by altering the design of the existing rocker bogey from completely 3D printed to a tube and joint system. The longer portions of the rocker bogey …

Laser-Scribed Conductive, Photoactive Transition Metal Oxide On Soft Elastomers For Janus On-Skin Electronics And Soft Actuators, Ganggang Zhao, Yun Ling, Yajuan Su, Zanyu Chen, Cherian J. Mathai, Ogheneobarome Emeje, Alexander Brown, Dinesh Reddy Alla, Jie Huang, Chansong Kim, Qian Chen, Xiaoqing He, David Stalla, Yadong Xu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Laser-assisted fabrication of conductive materials on flexible substrates has attracted intense interests because of its simplicity, easy customization, and broad applications. However, it remains challenging to achieve laser scribing of conductive materials on tissue-like soft elastomers, which can serve as the basis to construct bioelectronics and soft actuators. Here, we report laser scribing of metallic conductive, photoactive transition metal oxide (molybdenum dioxide) on soft elastomers, coated with molybdenum chloride precursors, under ambient conditions. Laser-scribed molybdenum dioxide (LSM) exhibits high electrical conductivity, biocompatibility, chemical stability, and compatibility with magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, LSM can be made on various substrates (polyimide, …

Developing A Miniature Smart Boat For Marine Research, Michael Isaac Eirinberg

Computer Engineering

This project examines the development of a smart boat which could serve as a possible marine research apparatus. The smart boat consists of a miniature vessel containing a low-cost microcontroller to live stream a camera feed, GPS telemetry, and compass data through its own WiFi access point. The smart boat also has the potential for autonomous navigation. My project captivated the interest of several members of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo’s (Cal Poly SLO) Marine Science Department faculty, who proposed a variety of fascinating and valuable smart boat applications.

Interactive Lego Girl Scout Arm, Christopher Suzuki, Emi Okuyama, Bryson Shores, Karina Sandoval

Mechanical Engineering

This Senior Project Report document outlines the senior design project for Girl Scouts of California’s Central Coast (GSCCC) led by a team of four Mechanical Engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The project encompasses the researching, designing, prototyping, and testing of a LEGO robotic arm for the Girl Scouts to learn more about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and provide support to each Girl Scouts cookie sales in their stores. Their goal was to build a LEGO robotic arm that will interact with customers at the Girl Scout stores and promote the girl scouts' interest …

Mmteg Heatsink Design, Peyton Nienaber, Kadin Feldis, Alec Savoye, Jack Waeschle

Mechanical Engineering

In this document, Cal Poly Senior Design Team F16 presents a summary of its work developing a suitable heatsink for Gas Technology Institute’s Methane Mitigation Thermoelectric Generator. After several months of iterating between experimental testing and simulated heat transfer, a suitable prototype was selected for use in further refining simulation parameters. This was called the structural prototype and it allowed Team F16 to confirm several remaining unknowns relating to component thermal conductivity. All documentation of this process can be found in Preliminary, Critical, and Interim Design Review documents (PDR, CDR, IDR), included in this report. Having a realistic model …

Mtb Daq - Mountain Bike Data Acquisition System, Theodore J. Philliber, Ronan M. Shaffer, Dylan M. Ruiz, John M. Ringrose

Mechanical Engineering

Mountain bike suspensions systems are set up and tuned based only on qualitative, ‘feeling’-based metrics. The MTB DAQ, sponsored by Dr. Joseph Mello with the Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering Department, is a data acquisition system we developed to improve suspension tuning with a data-driven approach. The system mounts to a bicycle frame and has sensors that measure vibration and travel speed to characterize the bike’s motion. While similar systems exist, they cost in the thousands of dollars range and are very specific to individual bike geometry. Our system was designed to be more affordable to the average rider as well …

Acoustic Release And Receiver System, Sebastien Danthinne, Carlos E. Otero, Joseph R. Lyons, Reagan M. Lawson, Lily G. De Torres

Mechanical Engineering

To design and build an acoustic release and receiver system, our team performed extensive
background research, developed thoughtful concepts of potential designs, performed ideation,
and constructed multiple prototypes. After constructing both a conceptual and structural
prototype, our team began updating the structural prototype to meet requirements expected of the
verification prototype. After completing the verification prototype, our team entered the testing
stage of the project. The electronics housings were pressure tested to determine if any leaks
would occur, the Dyneema rope was tensile tested to verify the system could withstand affected
loads, and the time to re-spool the device was …

Mono Ski Trainer, Alexander Scott Hinerman, Shayla Anne Schoensee, Carson Rinkenberger, Barrett L. Osborne

Mechanical Engineering

The intent of this Final Design Report document is to provide the final design of a mechanical engineering senior project to our client and user Ethan Scott. The aforementioned project is a mono ski at-home trainer carried out by a group of students attending California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo over one academic year. This document contains the previously shared reports Statement of Work (SOW), Preliminary Design Review (PDR), and Critical Design Review (CDR) that provide background and details of our team’s design process to reach our final design. The as-built design and evaluation is described in the Final …

Universal Tread For Power Wheelchairs, Daniel Ceja Gonzalez, Ryan Scarcella, Aaron Rocha, Brian Song

Mechanical Engineering

This project was centered around developing a fully independently driven powered wheelchair attachment that would allow users to traverse non-wheelchair accessible terrain. The initial goal was to create a full-scale model that would allow our user to use and test as a prototype to get over curbs and some light dirt off-roading. However, as the project progressed and limitations of time and money came up, this project was rescoped to a quarter-scale proof of concept model. The goal of this new project was to create a prototype that would carry a scaled-down load and traverse a scaled-down curb. This was …

Picnic Table Solar Powered Shade, Louis Gerny, Esmeralda Gonzalez, Connor Gigone, Ryan Dean

Mechanical Engineering

The Electrical Engineering department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo has an outdoor courtyard that, until recently, was lacking in accommodations for student studying, group meetings, or simple leisure. A group of four mechanical engineering majors, “The Benchwarmers,” were tasked by Dale Dolan with the construction and installation of a picnic table to fulfil these needs. More specifically, Dr. Dolan also requested that the table provide off-the-grid power to charge student’s devices.

This report details the design, manufacturing, and testing of a solar powered picnic table. The table was designed to accommodate up to seven users, including one …

Bongoties Tying Machine Design, Zachary Stednitz, Tori Bornino, Jackson Mclaughlin, Shea Charkowsky

Mechanical Engineering

BongoTies are a reusable tool for cable management or general fastening, consisting of a strong rubber band attached to a bamboo pin. BongoTies is a company founded by our sponsor Tim Petros that sells its product on a variety of popular shopping sites, such as Amazon and eBay. Currently, the assembly process is to hand-tie the rubber band to the pin for every BongoTie. This is too slow to keep up with demand, requires a skilled worker with good dexterity, and can cause pain or injury if the rubber band snaps back onto the worker’s fingers. In this senior project …

Solar Solution For Mini-Rover, Michaella Ochotorena, Derick Louie, Jonathan Cederquist, Collin Petersen, Cole Korchek

Mechanical Engineering

This project focuses on designing, building, and testing a functional prototype of a collapsible solar array on the mini Mars rover being developed by client and sponsor, Mr. Rich Murray. Although many previous collapsible solar arrays have been deployed for space missions, the previous solar-powered Mars rovers only deployed their arrays once upon landing. This solar array will be able to collapse and deploy multiple times to allow for greater rover mobility and stability when the rover is not charging. This system is critical to the success of the rover project because it provides power without which the rover cannot …

Therapeutic Mechanical Horse, Cade M. Liberty, Aleya Dolorfino, Peter Philips, Zuzanna Dominik, Luke Watts

Mechanical Engineering

Jack's Helping Hand and its hippotherapy participants required a device to serve as an alternative to a live horseback riding experience that could also increase the range of riders. This would provide more clients with equine-assisted therapy that has proven to better the lives of people with both physical and mental disabilities. Horses can be unpredictable, tall, and sometimes anxiety-inducing, especially for new riders. Our group’s aim was to develop a mechanical horse that will be able to reduce these issues for equine therapy centers and the riders they help. When a rider gets to practice sitting on the horse …

Total Sky Imager Project, Ryan D. Maier, Benjamin Jack Forest, Kyle X. Mcgrath

Mechanical Engineering

Solar farms like the Gold Tree Solar Farm at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo have difficulty delivering a consistent level of power output. Cloudy days can trigger a significant drop in the utility of a farm’s solar panels, and an unexpected loss of power from the farm could potentially unbalance the electrical grid. Being able to predict these power output drops in advance could provide valuable time to prepare a grid and keep it stable. Furthermore, with modern data analysis methods such as machine learning, these predictions are becoming more and more accurate – given a sufficient data set. The …

Interactive Lego Girl Scout Arm, Chris Suzuki, Emi Okuyama, Bryson Shores, Karina Sandoval

Mechanical Engineering

This Senior Project Report document outlines the senior design project for Girl Scouts of California’s Central Coast (GSCCC) led by a team of four Mechanical Engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The project encompasses the researching, designing, prototyping, and testing of a LEGO robotic arm for the Girl Scouts to learn more about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and provide support to each Girl Scouts cookie sales in their stores. Their goal was to build a LEGO robotic arm that will interact with customers at the Girl Scout stores and promote the girl scouts' interest …

Baja Bug Suspension, James Ankers, Rebecca Hansen, Dakota Robert Hollingsworth, Thomas Alfred Spycher

Mechanical Engineering

The goal of this senior project was to design and build a long travel front suspension system for a VW Bug. This started by defining the scope of the project and performing preliminary research. In this step, similar products were investigated, and research was done on stakeholders and customers. Next, concept development, design, and evaluation were performed. With this, the first iteration of our CAD model was designed, and physical prototypes were made. Using all this information, and feedback from advisors and sponsors, multiple iterations of our CAD were performed until the design was ready to manufacture. Drawings were taken …

B.A.C.O.N. (Battery-Powered Autonomous Cart Conversion) Autonomous Vehicle Design, Robyn C. Ribet, Damond Li, Tanner Hillman, Christopher Or

Mechanical Engineering

The goal of our project is to convert an electric go cart into an autonomous testing platform. We must enable autonomous braking, steering, and acceleration with electro-mechanical systems. We began the project with ideation to create our initial design and have since received ample feedback from faculty, students, and our sponsor. With this feedback we were able to refine our preliminary ideas and produce a detailed design supported with ample analysis, research, and external advice. We have developed our project in four main subsystems: Steering, braking, acceleration, and emergency braking. Following, we procured, manufactured, and assembled all of our designed …

Brush Clearing Tool -- Trimmer Assembly, Juan Martinez, Jayson Reyes Salvador, Paula X. Ortiz-Arango

Mechanical Engineering

The Final Design Review (FDR), this report, encompasses the work done by three Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering seniors along with two other teams of four (members each) for Brian Rois-Mendez. Originally, Dr. Mendez presented his idea to clear overgrown brush along trails. Our main purpose was to eliminate the drawbacks of his prototype and improve where we saw fit. For our team specifically, to reduce the workload of clearing brush, we focused on designing a seamless vertical and horizontal adjustment as well as increasing the trimmer’s cutting power. This report will cover the details of said evolutions.

Since the Critical …

Offshore Wind Turbine Gearbox, Michael Cooper, Ernesto Portillo, Kyle Hammer, Carson Bryan

Mechanical Engineering

New offshore wind turbine farms are currently in development on the East Coast and off California’s Central Coast. Preliminary design considerations from mechanical and civil engineers are needed to ensure constructability of these deep-water, floating-platform wind farms, which will then be connected to the power grid at the grid ties of Morro Bay and Diablo Canyon. The purpose of this project is to design an epicyclic gearbox fit to take in the torque loads from the slowly rotating rotor shaft and successfully output a significantly faster rotating motor shaft to allow more accessibility to generator options including ones with far …

Galilean Cannon, Mariah Kirkham, Marcus Beloney, Jonas Honeyman, Joshua Pratt

Mechanical Engineering

This comprehensive report details our team’s senior capstone design project, which involved the design, construction, and installation of a Galilean Cannon exhibit—a linear momentum experiment involving rebounding balls—for the San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum.

This report is split into four parts, as follows. Part One describes the needs of our sponsor and target market, as well as background research on the concept. Part Two details the ideation, decision making, and proofing process leading to our Preliminary Design concept. Part Three discusses the preliminary analysis and plans for the final prototype. Part Four describes construction and testing of the operational exhibit …

Tholos - Eva Sample Location Calibration Device, James Verheyden, Kat Gipson, Julia Rios, Ben Trust

Mechanical Engineering

To support NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions, an extravehicular activity (EVA) photometric calibration scale was developed to replace the Apollo-era Gnomon device. The Gnomon was a gimbaled stadia rod mounted on a tripod which provided color and reflectivity photo calibration, vertical orientation, and solar shadow direction, to include in photos of lunar geologic samples and features. With over 50 years of innovation since the first Gnomon deployment on Apollo 11, this redesign of the photometric calibration scale will support NASA’s missions in the modern day. The Tholos™, named after the ancient Greek repository of standardized measures, consists of a quadrupedal design …

Mechanized Theatre Turntable, Chloe Huiyi Chou, Ethan Lee Stroh, Ruodolf Reller Quelnat Rumbaoa, Davide Lanfranconi

Mechanical Engineering

This project aimed to create a remote-control and drive system for a theatrical turntable that was constructed by the Theatre and Dance Department of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Over the course of three quarters, the team successfully designed and manufactured a working verification prototype. This verification prototype was then tested, and the project sponsor verified that it met all specifications. The current iteration of the verification prototype can support up to a load of 1400 lbf, rotate a 12 ft diameter turntable clockwise and counterclockwise with a speed range of 1 to 4 rpm, and is able …

Multifamily Complex Smart Locks For Property Management And Tenant Security, April Mills, Allen Chen, Dana Kumamoto, Michael Cook

Mechanical Engineering

Maintaining and managing hundreds of locks and physical keys for an apartment complex can be time consuming and costly, especially when the apartments turn over to new tenants. Our goal was to develop a smart door lock that is compatible with Obodo’s management app for apartment complexes to make accessing apartments secure and simpler for tenants and easier to manage for owners.

We designed and manufactured one smart door lock that is powered with four AA batteries and utilizes a dynamic NFC device and Bluetooth technology. The board can enter a sleep mode which reduces power consumption. The dynamic NFC …

Polygait Conveyor Upgrade, William J. Schafer, Carolyn E. Palmer, Carly A. Tudor, Bryan C. Cordutsky

Mechanical Engineering

The PolyGAIT Conveyor Upgrade Mechanical Engineering Senior Project consisted of the complete design process to construct an operational “smart” control system for the conveyor belt loop on Cal Poly’s campus. As requested by project sponsor Dr. Tali Freed, an Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering professor at Cal Poly, the control system requirements included connecting existing conveyor components together, such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader tunnels, photo eye motion sensors, motor powered rollers, and diverting elastic bands. The main design problem is when packages with RFID tags are moving at industry high speed (10 ft/s) they are occasionally not scanned by …

Demonstration Triple Spool Turbine And Controls, Synnovea Alaina Wood, Marco Eston Salguero, Michael Bruce Megna, Wyatt Scott Conner

Mechanical Engineering

The demonstration triple-spool turbine and controls project consisted of the conceptualization, design, analysis, build, and test of a demonstration model of three concentric driveshafts, such as those used in conventional turbofan (or power generation turbine) engines. Specifically, our team focused on building a basic, portable, mechanical model of such a driveshaft assembly, while also developing the backend firmware/control and user interface software used to control it. This model was developed with the initial intent of use in the Cal Poly engines lab with a goal of remotely controlling the motors driving the driveshaft model by means of a USB cable …