Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Modeling And Control Of A Planar Bounding Quadrupedal Robot, Patrick John Ward

Master's Theses

Legged robots have the potential to be a valuable technology that provides agile and adaptive locomotion over complex terrain. To realize legged locomotion's full abilities a control design must consider the nonlinear piecewise dynamics of the systems. This paper aims to develop a controller for the planar bounding of a quadrupedal robot.

The bounding of the quadruped robot is characterized by a simplified hybrid model that consists of two subsystems for stance and flight phases and the switching laws between the two states. An additional model, the Multibody model, with fewer simplifications, is used concurrently to best approximate real-world behavior. …

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 …

How Advances In Low-G Plumbing Enable Space Exploration, Mark M. Weislogel, John Graft, Andrew P. Wollman, Karl Cardin, Logan Torres, J. E. Goodman, J. C. Buchli

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In many ways, plumbing is essential to life support. In fact, the advance of humankind on Earth is directly linked to the advance of clean, healthy, reliable plumbing solutions. Shouldn’t this also be true for the advancement of humankind in space? Unfortunately, the reliability of even the simplest plumbing element aboard spacecraft is rarely that of its terrestrial counterpart. This state of affairs is due entirely to the near-weightless “low-g” state of orbiting and coast spacecraft. But the combined passive capillary effects of surface tension, wetting, and system geometry in space can be exploited to replace the passive role of …

Numerical Modelling Of Elastic Wave Propagation In Anisotropic Media Using The Finite-Difference Time Domain (Fdtd) And Elastodynamic Finite Integration Technique (Efit), Seth M. Golembeski

Master's Theses

As ultrasonic testing becomes increasingly widespread, education and simulation in UT becomes increasingly useful. This thesis describes development of two simulations - the first, a Finite Difference Time Domain method that can be deployed to consumer GPUs. This simulation is designed to be user-friendly and provide quick interactivity for pedagogical use, for example, in a classroom or industry training. The second simulation is an anisotropic Elastodynamic Finite Integration Technique implementation, which can be deployed to high performance computers for large-scale parallel simulations. This anisotropic simulation is, to the author’s knowledge, the first open-source implementation of anisotropic EFIT.

Evaluating The Effects Of Granulated Rubber And Glass Fibers In Polymer Concrete As A Structural Material For Wafer Grinding Machines, Kevin Gabriel Kuehn, Philip Randall Streeter

Materials Engineering

Polymer concrete is a composite material used to replace cast iron and steel in wafer grinding machines for vibration damping. During the grinding and lapping processes of manufacturing silicon wafers, excessive vibrations may cause subsurface damage which requires additional polishing and reduces yield. Nine compositions containing various levels of granulated rubber and glass fibers were manufactured. CRM WRF-10 granulated rubber was examined at 0%, 5%, and 10% and Corning Cem-Fil glass fibers were added at 0%, 0.5%, and 1% by weight. Smooth-On EpoxAcast 690 epoxy resin was held constant at 16% for each composition. Crushed granite aggregate from Martin Marietta, …

Barker Bird Animatronic Senior Project Report, Marcus Monroe, Nolan Clapp, Ishan Jandaur, Jonathan Ogden

Mechanical Engineering

This document describes how our F71 Senior Design Project team developed a 3D printed, electronic bird that mimics Disneyland’s first animatronic, the Barker Bird. An animatronic is a mechanical puppet that replicates real life movement with robotic parts. Disney’s Barker Bird is a well-known animatronic that replicates a talking macaw with multiple moving systems. The final prototype completed by our team serves as a teaching tool for CAPED (Cal Poly Amusement Park Engineers and Designers) club members that are interested in the field of animated robots.

Wave Goodbye To Salt, Andy Wu, Amanda Olla, Solie Grantham, Charlie Sinclair

Mechanical Engineering

Our team of Cal Poly Mechanical Engineers ideated, designed, built, and tested a system to help combat the growing problem of widespread drought in coastal and island communities. We developed a proof-of-concept model of a wave powered, mechanical system to desalinate ocean water using a reverse osmosis process. From topical research, it was found that there are many ways to harness a portion of the huge amount of energy that the ocean provides. While large scale ocean water desalination plants are already in operation, smaller scale desalination units powered by ocean waves are largely underdeveloped. Our relatively small and inexpensive …

Heating Lanyard To Warm Body Core, Cole Bunker, Spencer Alonge, Tyler Elsom, Matthew Hyland

Mechanical Engineering

Calculated Industries, a company that specializes in construction products headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, has sponsored the Heating Lanyard to Warm Body Core senior project. The objective of the project was to design and manufacture a body core heating device that will be used by construction workers to keep warm in cold environments. The goal is to create a device that is safe, comfortable, and temperature controllable. Our team consists of four mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Research was performed to analyze current products in the market, analyze how to best provide heat to …

Insulated Solar Electric Cooker With Phase Change Materials, Weijun Zhao, Jake Lung, Owen Chu, Sarah Melzer

Mechanical Engineering

This Senior Project Report documents the development and design process of the Insulated Solar Electric Cooker with a Phase Change Material (ISEC w/ PCM). In this project, we developed a PCM assembly that can be integrated into an existing ISEC system which utilizes two 100 W solar panels. This report details the use of a nitrate salt solution of 60% NaNO3 and 40% KNO3 and demonstrates its potential as a viable form of thermal storage solution for cooking. We found that only 1kg of PCM is able to retain its heat for around 5 hours after power removal and believe …

Insulated Solar Electric Cooker With Solid Thermal Storage, Eric M. Cortes, Andy M. Mccombs, Dominick Trageser, Nami Suzuki

Mechanical Engineering

This Senior Project report outlines the design for our senior project under the Mechanical Engineering department of California Polytechnic State University. Insulated solar electric cookers (ISEC) are a relatively novel and exciting solution to the ethical, environmental, and medical issues associated with the conventional cooking methods - burning of biomass and charcoal - practiced in nonindustrial countries around the world. ISECs use solar energy input from a solar panel to cook food within an insulated chamber and have been researched and developed by Dr. Peter Schartz and his research group over the past several years. However, our target users expressed …

Shallow-Water Wind Turbine Foundation, Andrew Walker, Nico Nani, James Cusanelli, Zachary Dunkelberger

Mechanical Engineering

Over the 2021-2022 academic year, we, the Shallow Water Wind Turbine Foundation senior project team, designed, manufactured, and tested a fixed bottom, sand mounted turbine foundation for the Cal Poly Wind Power Club’s Collegiate Wind Competition turbine. The foundation was restricted to certain material, installation, and geometric constraints outlined in this report, and needed to support the turbine under operating conditions including 22 m/s wind speeds. The design was analyzed using primarily a bearing capacity geotechnical analysis to determine final geometry and weight. The foundation was then manufactured using welded, custom carbon steel parts.

The foundation was inspected for geometric …

Brush Clearing Trimming Device: Drivetrain, Dallas Russell, Nathan Small, Alex Imbery, Jordan Aguana

Mechanical Engineering

We, the “DT Inc.” team, have been tasked with the redesign of the drivetrain of an electric brush clearing tool created for trail and roadside use. We started the design process by doing research on the currently available products and determining their strengths and shortcomings. We also tested the prototype given to us by our sponsor, and listened to our sponsor about what he liked about his design and what he wanted changed. We resolved from this research that the most important improvements that we needed to make were to improve the traction, reduce the speed and increase the torque, …

Baker/Koob Final Report: Solar Solution For Mini Mars Rover, Jonathan Cederquist, Cole Korchek, Derick Louie, Michaella Ochotorena, Collin Petersen

Mechanical Engineering

This project focused 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 …

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 …

Flowunsteady: An Interactional Aerodynamics Solver For Multirotor Aircraft And Wind Energy, Eduardo Alvarez, Judd Mehr, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

The ability to accurately and rapidly assess unsteady interactional aerodynamics is a shortcoming and bottleneck in the design of various next-generation aerospace systems: from electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to airborne wind energy (AWE) and wind farms. In this study, we present a meshless CFD framework based on the reformulated vortex particle method (rVPM) for the analysis of complex interactional aerodynamics. The rVPM is a large eddy simulation (LES) solving the Navier-Stokes equations in their vorticity form. It uses a meshless Lagrangian scheme, which not only avoids the hurdles of mesh generation, but it also conserves the vortical …

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.

Model Predictive Controller Design For Internal Combustion Engines Based On The Second Law Of Thermodynamics, Muataz Abotabik

Dissertations

Energy resources depletion and worldwide strict emissions policies pose challenges that automotive manufacturers try to overcome through researching advanced powertrain technologies such as lean-burn gasoline, direct injection, homogeneous charge compression ignition engines, powertrain electrification, etc. Most of these developments have been focused on conventional internal combustion engines (ICE) emissions and performance enhancements. Most ICE control strategies are built based on the First Law of Thermodynamics (FLT) i.e., to deliver a specific load requirement, enhancing thermal efficiency, etc. The FLT doesn’t account for in-cylinder high temperature thermodynamics process irreversibilities that cause losses in the work potential; up to 25% of the …

The Role Of Regional Connections In Planning For Future Power System Operations Under Climate Extremes, Ana Dyreson, N. Devineni, S. W.D. Turner, T. De Silva M, A. Miara, N. Voisin, S. Cohen, J. Macknick

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Identifying the sensitivity of future power systems to climate extremes must consider the concurrent effects of changing climate and evolving power systems. We investigated the sensitivity of a Western U.S. power system to isolated and combined heat and drought when it has low (5%) and moderate (31%) variable renewable energy shares, representing historic and future systems. We used an electricity operational model combined with a model of historically extreme drought (for hydropower and freshwater-reliant thermoelectric generators) over the Western U.S. and a synthetic, regionally extreme heat event in Southern California (for thermoelectric generators and electricity load). We found that the …

Poly (5-Carboxyindole)–Β-Cyclodextrin Composite Material For Enhanced Formaldehyde Gas Sensing, John N. Hodul, Nikhil F. Carneiro, Allison K. Murray, Wilson Lee, Kelly M. Brayton, Xinping He, Carsten Flores-Hansen, Dimitry Zemlyanov, George T.-C. Chiu, James E. Braun, Bryan W. Boudouris, Jeffrey F. Rhoads

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Formaldehyde, a compound commonly employed in many construction materials, paints, and plastics, has been linked to deleterious health effects. Thus, monitoring the presence of formaldehyde in interior locations is increasingly important when it comes to public health. Currently, there is a crucial need for a low-cost, small-scale, selective, and sensitive indoor sensor capable of real-time formaldehyde detection. To meet these performance metrics, materials need to be incorporated onto existing gas sensor platforms to act as chemically selective recognition layers. A main challenge when addressing this issue is creating a material that can remain easily processable, can be easily synthesized, and …

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, …

San Francisco Space Saving Bike Rack, Silas Viskovich, James Mertke, Webster Mertke, Evan Josa

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Large cities like San Francisco can experience congested streets and crowded sidewalks. Increasing bike ridership has been shown to alleviate some of these pains, but they are currently being undersupported. In order to properly account for the growing cyclist population, more efficient bike storage solutions need to be made available. Current bike racks take up too much space, are not reasonably theft resistant, and are not adaptable to a variety of both indoor and outdoor spaces. In this paper, we designed and constructed a bike rack to take advantage of vertical space in order to reduce the footprint that storing …

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 …

Latam Intelligent Filter For Education (Life), Andrew Lemus, Jonathan Woo, Edison Yang, Cinthya Jauregui, Daniel Mccann-Sayles

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The LIFE system is designed to inspire primary-aged students in Latin American schools to pursue higher education in STEM related fields. We hope the students educate others in their community about the public health implications stemming from the lack of clean water and grow to bring about more lasting solutions to the water crisis. Many family’s lives are stymied by the inability to access clean drinking water, with many students ending up spending hours carrying water or spending time recovering water themselves in lieu of attending school. The LIFE team created a tabletop water filter and pump system accompanied by …

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 …