Computer-Aided Engineering and Design Commons^™

Portable Ice Cube Maker, Ayden Ziegler, Emiliano Hansen, Wyatt Engdahl, Dane Hansen

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Report outlines the senior design project undertaken by a team of mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, for the development of a portable backpacking ice cube maker. The project aims to design, build, and test a lightweight, compact device that produces ice cubes for backpackers in remote outdoor environments. The goal is to create a functional prototype that is durable, user-friendly, and suitable for backcountry use. This document details background research, project objectives, and project plan, and current design status.

Automation And Habitat Development For A Space Based Marine Life Environment, Logan Trimmer, Alexander Hang

Harrisburg University Other Works

This project was a cross-collaboration between the Environmental Sciences and Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics programs for the company Monolith Space.

The goal of this project was to design an autonomous system to be able to track qualities of water in an aquaculture system designed to be sent to space.

Wind Tunnel Instrumentation And Testing, Nicholas Marek, Abraham Mezera, Laura Jin, Hayden Smith, Curtis Cook

Student Scholar Symposium

The Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering was contacted by an automotive engineering firm seeking to use the college’s wind tunnel for gathering data on the aerodynamic performance of a proprietary prototype automotive door. Specifically, the client requested the quantification of the drag coefficient of the model at extreme wind speeds. The drag coefficient, a dimensionless number that quantifies the resistance of a specific geometric shape to airflow, will be a valuable datapoint for the client’s design iteration. Due to the sensitive nature of their work, the client has wished to remain anonymous. RBJCOE professors tasked a senior design team …

Semi-Autonomous Trash Bot, Ben Leon, Ethan Mashburn, Connor Olivera, Dillon Michael Wood

ATU Scholars Symposium

Title: Semi-Autonomous Trash Robot

Authors: Benjamin Leon, Ethan Mashburn, Connor Olivera, Dillon Wood

Abstract: Environmental pollution is becoming more worrying every day as megatons of human waste persist in vast amounts in our ecosystems. The existing waste collection methodologies, with the labor, time, and cost components combined, make the process cumbersome. A potential solution could be an automated waste collection robot that incorporates AI into a cheap system that autonomously detects trash. This report proposes a machine that may be manufactured to adequate standards in terms of size and cost and deployed in various environments, with the ultimate goal of …

Design And Development Of A Low-Cost Educational Robot: A Scalable And Affordable Software Learning Platform, Diana Refaat Henry Jacob, Mohamed Tarek Elawa, Ashraf Mohamed Hafez

Journal of Engineering Research

This study presents the design and development of a low-cost educational robot to enhance learning experiences in robotics and programming. The system integrates robust software development, ensuring seamless interaction between sensors, actuators, and a custom-designed graphical user interface (GUI). The robot is equipped with various sensors and actuators to support a broad range of experiments and educational applications. The software architecture is detailed, focusing on its modularity and ease of use, enabling students to intuitively program and interact with the robot. Additionally, a series of experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the sensors and actuators, providing insights into …

Impact Force Helmet Device For Concussion Monitoring, Patrice Mulligan, Karina Mealey, Zack Borthwick, Benjamin Fick

General Engineering

To track head trauma in football, our device is placed inside a football helmet to measure both linear and gyroscopic (rotational) accelerations. These measurements are taken using an ADXL375 linear accelerometer and an LSM6DSOX accelerometer and gyroscope. The data from these sensors is processed and transmitted wirelessly by a SparkFun Thing Plus microcontroller to another SparkFun Thing Plus microcontroller connected to a laptop on the sidelines. Our program on the laptop stores the acceleration impact data into a .csv file for each player. If a likely concussive impact is detected, the program displays a popup warning. Testing results were promising …

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 …

Implementation Of Static Rfid Landmarks In Slam For Planogram Compliance, Brennan L. Drake

Honors College Theses

Autonomous robotic systems are becoming increasingly prevalent in everyday life and exhibit robust solutions in a wide range of applications. They face many obstacles with the foremost of which being SLAM, or Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, that encompasses both creation of the map of an unknown environment and localization of the robot in said environment. In this experiment, researchers propose the use of RFID tags in a semi-dynamic commercial environment to provide concrete landmarks for localization and mapping in pursuit of increased locational certainty. With this obtained, the ultimate goal of the research is to construct a robotics platform for …

Design And Fabrication Of A Force-Displacement Control Mechanism For Bone-Surgical Tool Testing, Kenneth Nwagu

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This project focuses on the design and fabrication of an experimental setup for orthopedic-tool testing, tailored for a surgical instrumentation company. The multifaceted project encompasses a literature review, conceptual design, prototyping, and rigorous testing, resulting in a versatile control system capable of assessing various orthopedic tools, including bone drills, saws, burrs, and power handpieces.

Orthopedic surgical procedures (which include cutting and/or drilling into bone) often need to be performed on bones for faster recovery. The drilling and cutting process can cause an increase in temperature at the cutting site which can cause bone necrosis. The tools also need to be …

28 Ghz Patch Antenna Array With Reduced Mutual Coupling For 5g Communications Systems, Rahabu F. Mwang’Amba, Hashimu Uledi Iddi

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

A 28 GHz patch antenna array with reduced mutual coupling for 5G communication systems is presented in this paper. Two elements antenna array was simulated with a periodic boundary to represent an infinity array. The antenna array is attached with a pair of the coupled directional coupler with a coupling value of -3.47 dB, and transmission lengths of 3.40 mm and 7.62 mm depending on the antenna array's magnitude and phase coefficient were designed and simulated. A reduced mutual coupling of -31.86 dB compared to -10.75 dB for an array without a decoupling network was observed. The wide scanning angle …

An Iot Based Worker Safety Helmet Using Cloud Computing Technology, Yuthriya Iddi Khamis, Mahmoud Alawi, Waheed Muhammad Sanya

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Miner safety and security is a major challenge around the world due to the exposure to toxic gases that are frequently released in underground mines. Miners' health is adversely affected primarily by toxic gases, which endanger the workers' lives. Furthermore, human sensory abilities do not detect these dangerous gases. As a result, this paper proposes a safety monitoring system that includes a temperature sensor, humidity sensor, and gas sensors to detect harmful gases and alert miners to those harmful gases using the smart helmet they wear. These gases are transmitted to the control station via the cloud using Internet of …

Real-Time Data Analytics For Monitoring Electricity Consumption Using Iot Technology, Waheed Muhammad Sanya, Gaurav Bajpai, Omar Haji Kombo, Evariste Twahirwa

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Rising electricity bills as a result of climate variability and new home electrical and electronic appliances are becoming a major source of concern for most end users. Consumers are typically unaware of their household electricity consumption patterns and the costs associated with them, making proper planning and budgeting difficult. Monitoring and controlling energy consumption on appliances can reduce energy costs for end-users. The Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to provide remote monitoring and control of devices via automated monitoring and control. In this study, we propose an IoT-enabled system for monitoring and controlling energy consumption in homes to …

Group-Based Data Offloading Techniques Assisted By D2d Communication In 5g Mobile Network, Juma S Ally

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Machine type communication devices proposed as one of the substantial data collections in the 5G of wireless networks. However, the existing mobile communication network is not designed to handle massive access from the MTC devices instead of human type communication. In this context, we propose the device-to-device communication assisted a mobile terminal (smartphone) on data computing, focusing on data generated from a correlated source of machine type communication devices. We consider the scenario that the MTC devices after collecting the data will transmit to a smartphone for computing. With the limitation of computing resources at the smartphone, some data are …

8 Dof Quadrupedal Hopping Robot, Clayton T. Elwell, John Bennett, Tyler Mccue, Daniel Munic

Mechanical Engineering

The goal of our senior project was to fabricate an eight degree of freedom (DOF) prototypical quadrupedal robot, develop a controller than commands the quadruped to repeatedly jump 10 cm in the air, and fabricate a modular test stand to safely deploy our controller on the quadruped. The creation of a functional quadruped will bring attention to Dr. Siyuan Xing and Charlie Refvem’s research group, Cal Poly Legged Robots, and will give future Cal Poly undergraduate and graduate students a learning tool to explore dynamic control of biomimetic robotic systems.

Over the course of our senior project, we successfully manufactured …

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 …

Real-Time Complex Hand Gestures Recognition Based On Multi- Dimensional Features, Isack Bulugu

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Gesture recognition is broadly utilized within the field of sensing. There are basically three gesture recognition methods based on computer vision, depth sensor and motion sensor. Motion sensor-based gesture recognition has few input data, fast speed, and direct access to three- dimensional information of the hand. The advantages of traditional motion sensor-based gesture recognition have gradually become a current research hotspot. The essence of traditional motion sensor-based gesture recognition is a pattern recognition problem, and its accuracy depends heavily on the feature dataset extracted from prior experience. Unlike traditional pattern recognition methods, deep learning can be used to a large …

Complete Neighbourhood Search Heuristic Algorithm For Portfolio Optimization, Collether John

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

In portfolio optimization, the fundamental goal of an investor is to optimally allocate investments between different assets. Mean-variance optimization methods make unrealistic assumptions to solve the problem of optimal allocation. On the other hand, when realistic constraints like holding size and cardinality are introduced it leads to optimal asset allocation which differ from the mean variance optimization. The resulting optimization problem become quite complex as it exhibits multiple local extrema and discontinuities. Heuristic algorithms work well for the complex problem. Therefore, a heuristic algorithm is developed which is based on hill climbing complete (HC-C). It is utilized to solve the …

Printed Circuit Board Design And Layout For Hobbyists, Engineers, And Students, Michael A. Derrenbacher

Master's Theses

Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are a ubiquitous element of virtually every electronic system manufactured world-wide. It is not a stretch of the imagination to say that if it’s electronic, there is a PCB in it. PCBs are necessary tools for electronics work, and tools need to have instructions. For better or worse, PCB knowledge is a deep and wide ocean. There is much to cover for even a surface level understanding, and there are deep areas rich in technical expertise. Navigating the ocean of knowledge is treacherous; common knowledge of yore can be downright dubious now. PCB manufacturing and electronics …

Socio-Technical Perspective For Electronic Tax Information System In Tanzania, Lucas Ngowi, Ellen Kalinga

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Socio-technical systems theory has rarely been used by system architects in setting up computing systems. However, the role of socio-technical concepts in computing, which is becoming social in nature, has made the concepts more relevant and commercial. Tax information systems are examples of such systems because they are influenced by external variables such as the political environment, technological trends, and social environment, introducing complexity in their deployment and determining the type of e-services and their delivery to a diverse group of people. It was observed that in Tanzania there is resistance, reluctance and minimal use of electronic tax system because …

Husky Hand: A Low-Cost Electro-Mechanical Prosthetic Arm For The Underprivileged, Adam Robert

Thinking Matters Symposium

A continuation of a low-cost prosthetic upper limb prototype design which was investigated in EGN 301. The prosthetic is specifically designed for the needs and requirements of under privileged individuals in the Dominican Republic with upper limb amputations. The project focuses on the creation of an open-source computer aided prosthetic hand/arm model. The design allows consumer-grade fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3-D printers to be used. The improved design allows for the integration of the PQ-12 linear actuator for grasp and finger control. This simplifies the assembly, while, also reducing the size and mass of the whole unit. Producing a low-cost …

Project Blipper, Peter Jacobs, Preston Delaware, Ryan Foster

Senior Design Project For Engineers

This project was sponsored by Clorox to design and create an automatic bottle-unscrambling system for possible implementation at their bottling plant in Chile. The objective was to use a robotic arm to unscramble bottles from an incoming conveyor belt and place them upright on an outbound conveyor belt. Throughout the research, design, and testing of solutions for this project, several design alternatives were found for each discipline, and will be presented to Clorox so that they can make an informed decision for how and if they want to move forward with implementation of this project.

The project was split into …

Kennesaw State University And United Alloy Corporation Robotic Pick And Place Project, Kathryn Bharadwaj, Logan Spencer, Tharkun Hudlow

Senior Design Project For Engineers

United Alloy Corporation (UAC), a company specializing in unique aluminum parts for aeronautics, needed a fix to their error prone, labor-intensive billet press operation. The process has a problem of adding the wrong size or wrong alloy billet to the induction oven, which results in a waste of raw materials. The billets range from ten to thirty-seven inches in length and weigh up to three hundred pounds. Currently, an operator uses a gantry crane to check and lift the billets from a rack onto the magazine of an induction oven. The magazine can hold up to three billets safely and …

Door Barricade, Alex Cerino

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

My senior capstone project will be a door barricade. The main idea for the use of the door barricade is for schools in the case of an intruder. The barricade that I will be designing is a solution to the inefficient barricades that I saw at my high school. It could also be used at businesses and homes. My design would be easy to use and have a fail-safe option. The two areas of mechanical engineering technology that my capstone project will focus on are stress analysis and electronics. Every part for my door barricade is drawn in SolidWorks. All …

User-Centred Scalable Big Data Visualizer For Power Consumption Data In The Electrical Secondary Distribution Network, Ellen Kalinga

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Establishment of Smart Grids for electrical power has been practised worldwide for the purpose of bringing reliability, security, and efficient management of electrical power networks for enhancing quality service to the society. Apart from the potential aim, smart grid has been a challenge to developing countries, including Tanzania from cost and technology point of view. Due to the use of many smart equipment involved in smart grids like Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) equipped with smart meters and sensors, handling and managing big data has been a challenge. Among the challenges is the issue of visualizing the Big Data due to …

Dartmouth Formula Racing: Full Electric Battery System Design, Matt Gardner, Jacob Hagler, Ruthie Nordhoff, Otto Salmi

ENGS 89/90 Reports

Dartmouth Formula Racing (DFR) lacked an electrical energy storage system that was Formula Hybrid rules-compliant, optimized for FH events, safe, reliable, and integrated with the rest of their vehicle. Additionally, the team lacked the academic and professional resources required to bring a thorough, analytical approach to the design, testing, and documentation of the new storage system. Our team designed and built a Lithium-Ion battery pack (accumulator) containing energy storage, active cooling, battery management and temperature monitoring systems, and control circuitry compatible with DFR’s vehicle. Collaboration throughout design, fabrication, assembly and testing processes ensured effective knowledge transfer to the DFR team.

Rc Mini Baja Car - Suspension And Chassis, Collin Mckenzie

All Undergraduate Projects

Two students have developed a unique design of the RC Baja Car to optimize functionality and performance. A Baja car is a remote controlled 1/10 scale car that is used for recreation or competition, usually meant for competing in the ASME Baja car competition versus various schools. The competition focuses on the best time achieved in different courses that utilize speed, turns, and jumps. The objective for the project was to create a unique suspension from previous individual’s projects by creating a four-link suspension in which allows more travel in the suspension of the car and maintains functionality with the …

The Potentials Of Faecal Sludge Treatment Using Local Conditioners In Tanzania: A Review, Doglas Benjamin1

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Worldwide, every day human beings generate millions of tons of Faecal Sludge (FS), which is rich in water, nutrients, energy, and organic compounds. Yet FS is not being managed in a way that permits us to derive value from its reuse, while at the same time, millions of farmers struggle with depleted soils and lack of water. In most of the developing countries, energy for cooking is mainly derived from cutting of trees, either as wood or charcoal. Resource recovery and reuse from FS can create livelihoods, enhance food security, support green economies, reduce waste and contribute to cost recovery …

Development Of A Rapid Fatigue Life Testing Method For Reliability Assessment Of Flip-Chip Solder Interconnects, Cody Jackson Marbut

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The underlying physics of failure are critical in assessing the long term reliability of power packages in their intended field applications, yet traditional reliability determination methods are largely inadequate when considering thermomechanical failures. With current reliability determination methods, long test durations, high costs, and a conglomerate of concurrent reliability degrading threat factors make effective understanding of device reliability difficult and expensive. In this work, an alternative reliability testing apparatus and associated protocol was developed to address these concerns; targeting rapid testing times with minimal cost while preserving fatigue life prediction accuracy. Two test stands were fabricated to evaluate device reliability …

Transcribing Braille Code: Learning Equations Across Platforms, Deegan Atha, Courtney Balogh

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Deegan Atha, a graduating senior in electrical engineering and a future engineer, is interested in human-centered design and developing technology that helps students engage and be successful in STEM.

Courtney Balogh, a junior in mechanical engineering, is interested in human-centered design and the importance it plays in product development. Deegan and Courtney are members of the Purdue EPICS project, Learning Equations Across Platforms (LEAP). They partnered with the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI) to develop a braille transcription device and web application that converts braille to print in real time.

High Dynamic Range Optical Devices And Applications., Elijah Robert Jensen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much of what we know about fundamental physical law and the universe derives from observations and measurements using optical methods. The passive use of the electromagnetic spectrum can be the best way of studying physical phenomenon in general with minimal disturbance of the system in the process. While for many applications ambient visible light is sufficient, light outside of the visible range may convey more information. The signals of interest are also often a small fraction of the background, and their changes occur on time scales so quickly that they are visually imperceptible. This thesis reports techniques and technologies developed …