Applied Mechanics Commons^™

Deep Ocean Vehicle Applications And Modifications, Nichole "Nikki" T. Arm

Master's Theses

This project had two primary goals: (1) to explore opportunities to further a deep-ocean vehicle’s reach using alternative pressure spheres, and (2) to implement an existing deep-ocean vehicle (lander) in active scientific research.

I gained a greater understanding of the limitations and design choices made for existing pressure spheres using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). My simplified FEA model predicted sphere failure for the existing 30% Fiber Glass 70% Nylon injection molded spheres at an external pressure of 3,954psi or 2,690m ocean-depth (only a 7.38% error compared to the tested minimum failure depth), so I determined it a valid model. I …

Robotic Origami Worm, Carter Josef, Michael Freeman, Mohammad Hasan

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Soft robotics can solve many unique engineering problems. The ancient art of origami has inspired design for a new breed of robots. In this research, a novel fold design was created which has high linear stiffness, high bending stiffness, and the ability to deform omnidirectionally in order to turn. The robot is operated using a DC motor to expand and contract and electromagnets to control friction. The robot moves very quickly compared with many other origami robots in the literature. Other interesting ways to control friction were explored including expansion mechanisms. An origami design was created and tested that expands …

Headlamp/Bike Light Damping System, Ethan Reece Clark, Alec Stonehouse, Omeed Ostry, Mitchel Anderson

Mechanical Engineering

The task for this project is to design a headlamp and/or bike light that absorbs the impact shocks from the user’s actions. The user that the system is being designed for may be riding a bike or running on a trail in the evening or early in the morning where the light needs to be stabilized and their path must be illuminated. This report presents the final design chosen after months of prototyping and design iteration. It encompasses the system design, design verification through testing, implementation, future recommendations, and lessons learned throughout the process. The chosen design utilizes a fully …

Programmable Vibration Table Retrofit With Eagle Medical, Jonathan Ilagan, Madhav Asok, Max Lewter

Biomedical Engineering

This project aimed to repair and upgrade a vibration table used for package testing for the sponsor, Eagle Medical - a medical packaging and sterilization company based in Paso Robles, California. The current vibration table is not programmable and lacks circuit diagrams, making it difficult to repair. In addition, it is not functional due to internal circuitry issues and power requirements. To address these issues, the team will implement several upgrades to improve the product and allow for better random cyclic vibration testing. A full assessment of the existing vibration table will be conducted to ensure the viability of these …

Novelty Ice Cream Assembly Prototype, Mason Sylvester, Logan Williamson, Alvaro Martinez, Adin Gilman-Cohen

Mechanical Engineering

Cool Beans USA is a novelty ice cream startup company founded by Keith Zachow. In the winter of 2022, our team began working with Mr. Zachow to develop a machine to automate parts of the production process for his product. This product consists of two hemispherical ice-cream cone shell halves filled with soft serve ice cream and pressed together. The assembled pods are around the size and shape of a small walnut and are intended to be sold in stores as a frozen finger food. At the time of project inception, this product was in its early stages and was …

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 …

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.

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 …

Configurable Seat Track Latching Mechanism, Emily Sun, Kai Quizon, Rick Hall, Daniel Turn, Nicholas Holman, Alexander Kuznik, Jacob Winkler, Audrey Trejo, Phoebe Zeiss, Steven Kam

Mechanical Engineering

The reconfigurable seating system is a flexible seating solution for transit vehicles that allows operators to change the configuration of the floor plan in a timely manner in order to accommodate change in needs. This project consists of three senior project teams each working on a component of the design: system, track & latch, and articulation. Descriptions of the responsibilities of each team will be discussed below.

Cnc Feed Drive Control, Ryan J. Funchess, Caleb P. O'Gorman, Nick J. Desimone, Juan M. Majano, Samuel K. Wong

Mechanical Engineering

This document serves as the Final Design Report (FDR) for a senior project developed by our team: four senior Mechanical Engineering students and one computer engineering student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). While the project was completed for, and sponsored by, Professor Simon Xing of Cal Poly, the remainder of the university’s controls professors will be indirectly benefited from this project. Our goal was to design and implement a functional CNC Feed Drive to be used for educational demonstrations and data collection. This document discusses our early product research and benchmark goals, which established constraints …

F34 Beekeeper Assist, Kyle Ladtkow, Javier Guerra, Jose Velazquez, Ryan Heryford

Mechanical Engineering

Alejandro Jauregui is a veteran who now works as a commercial beekeeper. He lost both of his legs during his service. While his current prostheses allow him to fully complete his work, he has found that inspection of the bee boxes causes him severe hip and back pain. Bee box inspection is a critical task for beekeeping, especially since he maintains about 200 hives every day. Our senior project team was tasked with designing and building a device that would help him move the top bee box out of the way to allow for inspection. We performed preliminary research into …

Enduro Campers, Ryan J. Shomsky, Alexander W. Horst, Kevin S. Pickering, Jackson L. Aplanalp, Luke Arana, Will Firestone

Mechanical Engineering

The Enduro Campers senior project team (Formerly known as Lobo Campers senior project team) was recruited by Mr. Leif Stein to assist in the design, manufacturing, and testing of the materials and components of his company’s expedition box camper. The two main focuses of the project, divided into two sub-teams, were on the testing and manufacturing process of the materials used in the camper, and on the design and analysis of the camper’s access door, step box, and other subsystems.

The focus of the materials analysis and manufacturing team was based around the design parameter to use composite sandwich panels …

Half-Barrel Planter Mover, Mihir Shah, Natalie Lewis, Mason James Hughes

Mechanical Engineering

A device for transporting heavy barrel planters is needed. Barrel planters are wooden wine barrels that have been cut in half along the circumference. They are used to store and grow a variety of plants. As such, they can contain more than 300 pounds of soil. The products currently on the market are not designed for such heavy planters, are cost prohibitive, and do not take advantage of the tapered design of a wine barrel half. A solution is needed that is durable, easy to use, and low cost. This final design report will show the steps used to find …

A Single-Stage Passive Vibration Isolation System For Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, Toan T. Le

Master's Theses

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) uses quantum tunneling effect to study the surfaces of materials on an atomic scale. Since the probe of the microscope is on the order of nanometers away from the surface, the device is prone to noises due to vibrations from the surroundings. To minimize the random noises and floor vibrations, passive vibration isolation is a commonly used technique due to its low cost and simpler design compared to active vibration isolation, especially when the entire vibration isolation system (VIS) stays inside an Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) environment. This research aims to analyze and build a single-stage …

Final Design Review Report: The Underdogs, Parker Johnson, Jack Montgomery, Katherine Thomas

Mechanical Engineering

Aspen is a three-legged dog with mobility issues from Berkeley, California. She was hit by a car and her rear left leg was amputated at the hip. Robin Swanson, Aspen's owner, and her friend, Audrey Beil, are the sponsors for this project. Jack Montgomery, Katherine Thomas, and Parker Johnson, “The Underdogs”, are tasked with helping Aspen regain some of her mobility and the ability to go on walks. Research was done into the problem by talking with the sponsors and looking into existing products, designs, and patents. This document, the Final Design Review Report, outlines the background information, problem specification, …

2 Degree Of Freedom Robotic Leg, Oded Tzori, Henry Terrell, Adan Martinez

Mechanical Engineering

Professor Xing, an assistant professor at Cal Poly, proposed the 2 DOF Robotic Leg project for this quarter’s senior project class. The project is to build a robotic leg attached at the hip to a stand, which will be used as a teaching tool and eventually help develop Cal Poly’s very own robotic quadruped. Since this project has multiple uses after its completion, there are multiple customers that it must perform well for: the Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department, the ME Lab instructors, and the students. The Scope of Work (Sections 2 & 3) is composed of 2 main …

Spring Loaded Camming Device, Jared S. Christner, Kaitlin O. Deherrera, Ryan W. Edwards, John S. Hickey

Mechanical Engineering

Spring loaded camming devices or “cams” are used in traditional rock climbing as a means of active fall protection. Climbers place cams in cracks and fissures in the rock wall. The cam’s lobes press against the walls, locking it in place, anchoring the climber in case of a fall. Currently, there is a lack of large cams on the market. Only two small companies produce cams that are usable in cracks 6.5 inches wide and larger, however their designs are either too heavy and/or lack features to be comfortable. We are a group of mechanical engineering students at Cal Poly …

Design Of Structural Stand For High-Precision Optics Microscopy, Sara T. Novell

Master's Theses

Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) is home to the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world’s largest and most energetic laser. Each of the 192 beamlines contains dozens of large optics, which require offline damage inspection using large, raster-scanning microscopes. The primary microscope used to measure and characterize the optical damage sites has a precision level of 1 µm. Mounted in a class 100 clean room with a raised tile floor, the microscope is supported by a steel stand that structurally connects the microscope to the concrete ground. Due to ambient vibrations experienced in the system, the microscope is only able …

Cal Poly Supermileage Dynamometer, Jacob Randall, Nate Deffenbaugh, Kyle Milgram

Mechanical Engineering

Our senior project involves designing a chassis dynamometer capable of simulating variable loads for the Cal Poly Supermileage Vehicle (SMV) team. The chassis dynamometer we are developing uses an alternator to develop additional resistance that the vehicle will have to overcome while testing. To implement a control system for the variable load, we use an Arduino Nano paired with multiple sensors and drivers. This control system allows the user to select different levels of resistance that correlate with different road grades. We designed a custom Printed Circuit Board (PCB) that will contain all the electrical components needed for the control …

Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge - The Incompressibles - Final Design Report, Nicholas Gholdoian, Russell Posin, David Vitt, Alex Knickerbocker, Kyle Franck, Julian Rodkiewicz

Mechanical Engineering

This report provides a comprehensive description of the research, analysis and design work that The Incompressibles have completed thus far in the senior project process. This document includes all the work that The Incompressibles have completed for the team’s Preliminary Design Review (PDR), Critical Design Review (CDR), the work leading up to the 2019 FPVC competiton and the competition results. This report includes the initial research that the team completed for the fluid power competition, first iterations of designs, final iterations of designs, manufacturing results and processes, and finally testing and results from competition. With a new design for the …

Fracture Control Modeling With The Finite Element Method, Jorge A. Pluma Reyes

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates the feasibility and usability of the finite element method approach in the design of crack arresting devices. Current design and manufacturing practices are improving structures' susceptibility to fracture, in particular brittle fracture; however, cracks in structures are still observed within their lifespans due to severe unexpected service conditions, poor designs, or faulty manufacturing. Crack arrester systems can be added during service to prolong the longevity of structures with sub-critical or critical flaws. Fracture properties of different specific structures under specific services can be obtained experimentally, however, experiments are expensive and of high complexity. Alternatively, the finite element …

Final Design Report For Human Powered Vehicle Drivetrain Project, Derek Fromm, Luke Opitz, Michael Juri, Olivier Côté

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Human Powered Vehicle Club is building a bike to surpass 61.3 mph in 2019. The club and their mentor, George Leone, have proposed a senior project to design, build, and test the drivetrain for this year’s human powered vehicle. Research into human powered vehicles and their drivetrains has shown that the power that a rider can output and the efficiency at which the rider can pedal depend extensively on the design of the drivetrain. Despite the existence of standard bicycle drivetrain designs, the senior project team has found that the best design to meet the club’s requirements …

Reinventing The Wheel, Esther K. Unti, Ahmed Z. Shorab, Patrick B. Kragen, Adam M. Menashe

Mechanical Engineering

Reinventing the Wheel selected tires and designed wheels for the 2018 Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Formula SAE combustion vehicle. Available tire options were evaluated for steady-state and transient performance as well as vehicle integration. A single-piece composite wheel with hollow spokes was designed to meet stiffness, strength, and tolerance requirements. A detailed study of wheel loading and geometric structural efficiency was performed. Finite element analysis was used to iterate the geometry and laminate. A two-piece male mold was designed and machined to manufacture the wheel. Removable silicone inserts were used to create the hollow spokes.

Daimscale — 1:14th Tractor-Trailer For Testing Driver Assistance Technology, Christopher Marrale, Jase Sasaki, Devin Bodmer

Mechanical Engineering

Active driver assistance systems are becoming increasingly wide-spread throughout the automotive industry due to their potential for safer roads and decreased costs of transportation, but testing these systems on real trucks can be time consuming, dangerous, and costly. Testing these systems on a small-scale tractor-trailer combination will lead to faster and more efficient development of driver assistance systems and can be used by both engineers and students, leading to a larger field of experienced developers to improve these systems.

Our goal will be to design, manufacture, and build a scale 6x2 model of the tractor portion of a Daimler semi-truck …

Cal Poly Rotor Recovered Rocket, Melissa Woodard

Mechanical Engineering

Statement of Confidentiality: The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsor. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time.

Universal Studios Hollywood Vip Trolley - Roller Frame, Jeffrey Ploss, Chase Montague, Lincoln Treanor

Mechanical Engineering

Statement of Confidentiality: The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsor. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time.

Dyno-Mite Redesign, Brandon Joseph Miller, Daniel Robert Hoffman, Richard Demedici Young

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Mechanical Control Systems Laboratory currently employs an outdated device, known as the Motomatic, to teach students about various motor characteristics and control methods. These include open-loop vs. closed-loop control, speed vs. position control, and DC motor response curves. The current device does not function properly and produces unreliable data due to overwhelming non-linear effects such as stiction and shaft misalignment. Our team was tasked with designing a replacement device that retains many of the same educational goals as the original lab procedure, while also adding new educational goals pertaining to the device system dynamics. The new apparatus, …

Usa Boccia Ball Ramp For Athletes With Quadriplegia, Alissa A. Koukourikos, Matthew Lee, Nathan Bernards

Mechanical Engineering

In this report, the design process in creating an assistive device for Boccia Classification 3 (BC3) players is outlined. The initial research steps, including research into the rules of the game, capabilities of the players, and existing products is documented to show where ideas for the product stemmed from. This transitions into requirements that the sponsor requested, and preliminary designs and ideas for the product. Finally, this report explains the details of the final design, which has been analyzed for safety, ease of use, and ability to function under different conditions. The processes of manufacturing and testing will also be …

3-Axis Automated Probe Traverse For Aerodynamic Testing, Tananant Boonya-Ananta, Ricky Wai, Zander Oostman, Teyvon Brooks

Mechanical Engineering

Our primary objective is to design, build, and test an automated traverse to hold measurement probes in Cal Poly’s low speed wind tunnel. The device should cause minimal flow disturbance. It’s movements must be able to cover eighty percent of the three-dimensional test section. The device should have a mounting point for interchangeable probes. The assembly is to be integrated with the current frame structure on the wind tunnel test section, and should allow very minimal deflection of the measurement probe. The user should be able to control the motion of the traverse via a computer interface which supports automatic …

Experimental Building Demonstration Model With Viscous Fluid Dampers, Blake Thomas Reeve, Brianna Jean Kufa, Aden Malek Stepanians, Sophie Carmion Ratkovich

Architectural Engineering

The Architectural Engineering major places a heavy emphasis on structural dynamics and the role of wind and seismic loading in building analysis and design. Buildings of high importance that are critical to community function, such as hospitals, often utilize supplemental damping devices like supplemental viscous fluid dampers or base isolators to reduce the overall demands on the structural system. The design and analysis of these dampers are typically not taught at the undergraduate level, and is frequently performed by mechanical engineers, in lieu of structural engineers.

To better understand and research building behavior with supplemental damping devices, our multi-disciplinary team …