Electro-Mechanical Systems Commons^™

Dynamic Pressure Sensing For The Flight Test Data System, Marc Y. Goupil

Master's Theses

This thesis describes the design, assembly, and test of the FTDS-K, a new device in the Boundary Layer Data System (BLDS) family of flight data acquisition systems. The FTDS-K provides high-frequency, high-gain data acquisition capability for up to two pressure sensors and an additional three low-frequency pressure sensors. Development of the FTDS-K was separated into a core module, specialized analog subsystem, and practical testing of the FTDS-K in a flow measurement mission. The core module combines an nRF52840-based microcontroller module, switching regulator, microSD card, real-time clock, temperature sensor, and trio of pressure sensors to provide the same capabilities as previous-generation …

E.M.B.E.R. Home Protection, Kylie Fernandez, Daniel Santoro, Ryan Kissinger, Christopher Slezak

Mechanical Engineering

Despite the increased danger of wildfires in states such as California and Colorado, there is yet to exist a product that can autonomously extinguish the spot fires that ignite from windblown embers. This device could reduce countless civilian casualties and prevent millions of dollars in property damage. This is not to mention allowing homeowners to evacuate with a greater peace of mind. Mass ownership of this product would be analogous to the “herd immunity” of vaccines, where neighbors ultimately protect each other and save money through self-insurance.

There are products on the market, generally in the commercial domain, that can …

A Rotating Aperture Mask For Small Telescopes, Edward L. Foley

Master's Theses

Observing the dynamic interaction between stars and their close stellar neighbors is key to establishing the stars’ orbits, masses, and other properties. Our ability to visually discriminate nearby stars is limited by the power of our telescopes, posing a challenge to astronomers at small observatories that contribute to binary star surveys. Masks placed at the telescope aperture promise to augment the resolving power of telescopes of all sizes, but many of these masks must be manually and repetitively reoriented about the optical axis to achieve their full benefits. This paper introduces a design concept for a mask rotation mechanism that …

Heat: Hydraulic And Electric Animation Team, Tyler J. Couvrette, Michael J. Cain, Sara T. Novell, Dexter K. Yanagisawa

Mechanical Engineering

Each New Years’ Day, the Cal Poly Rose Float presents a flower-covered float to the world at the Tournament of Roses parade. This floral display, paired with moving mechanical animations, shows off Cal Poly to the world. This project strove to keep Cal Poly on the cutting edge of technology both in parade floats, and in engineering, by creating a completely electric-powered animation system.

To accomplish this, a group of students set out to make the fully electric animation system that can power both the hydraulic and electric mechanisms on the Float. This was accomplished through months of planning and …

Cal Poly Satellite Positioning Systems: "Thrust Or Bust!", Josh W. Neiman, Milena A. Milich, Gerardo Ramirez, Joshua A. Tran

Mechanical Engineering

Satellites need a way to make precise corrections to their orbit and positioning. The purpose of this project is to design a gimbal mechanism for Astranis that orients an ion thruster along a requested vector. The gimbal must produce any vector within a 2.5° cone in a thirty-minute window. Current systems are expensive and not well suited to this application. The design must be operable in a space environment and optimize mass, size, and reliability. Our design toggles between four discrete positions to achieve an average thrust vector. The gimbal accomplishes this using four solenoids that tilt a plate about …

Nano Fab Lab 63, Brian K. Deemer, Josh Clemons, Nick Brodine, Delaney Fitzsimmons

Mechanical Engineering

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL) has several steps in the production process for ceramic nanofiber tubes that they would like to improve - electrospinning, cutting, rolling, sealing and heat treating. We undertook the challenge to deliver LLNL with a semi-automated process that efficiently integrates the steps of cutting, rolling, and sealing to save time and improve control over end dimensions. In this document, we discuss the technical background of the manufacturing steps currently followed to create nanofiber tubes, identify which steps are incorporated in our prototype and explain how they will interface with one another, define the design requirements, present …

A Numerical Simulation Optimizing Droplet Motion Driven By Electrowetting, Jake M. Lesinski

Master's Theses

A numerical simulation of electrowetting on a dielectric was performed in COMSOL to grant insight on various parameters that play a critical role in system performance. The specific system being simulated was the Open Drop experiment and the parameters being investigated were the applied voltage, contact angle at the advancing triple point, and droplet overlap onto neighboring actuated electrodes. These parameters were investigated with respect to their effect on droplet locomotion performance. This performance was quantified by the droplets velocity and the dielectrophortic (DEP) force’s magnitude; the DEP force was calculated from integration of the Maxwell Stress Tensor, however, the …

Commercial Vehicle Research Buggy For Active Driver Assistance Systems, Fernando Mondragon-Cardenas, Nathaniel Mccutcheon Furbeyre, Ricardo Steven Lickiss Tan Iv

Mechanical Engineering

This is the Final Design Report for Daimtronics, a senior project team sponsored by Professor Charles Birdsong of Cal Poly and by Daimler Trucks North America. This team integrated mechatronic systems into a scale semi-truck chassis using existing mechanical and software systems from three separate Cal Poly senior projects over the recent years: Daimscale, MicroLaren, and ProgreSSIV. The goal was to have a user-friendly platform capable of executing autonomous driving algorithms that are programmable at a high level in Simulink and Robotic Operating System (ROS). Advanced driver assistance and autonomous vehicle algorithms were not within the scope of this project, …

Compact Rake Boundary Layer Data System Module, Nathan Jeffry Hoyt

Master's Theses

This Thesis describes the design, assembly, programming, and evaluation of the BLDS-M-RAKE, the newest addition to the family of devices called the Boundary Layer Data System (BLDS). The BLDS-M-RAKE is a continuation of the BLDS-M series of devices, a modular approach with updated electronics for boundary layer measurements. The BLDS-M-RAKE records data from a number of sensors, intended to be routed to an array of probes, or rake. Through preliminary testing, a new flexible manifold design from molded silicone and the hardware used on the RFduino development boards from the BLDS-M proof-of-concept modules were validated for use in the final …

Duocel Metal Foam Display Cases, Kate Goldsworthy, Katherina Prodanov, Benjamin Swanson, Syed Hasan

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review (FDR) report outlines the senior design project that was conducted by a team of four mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo for ERG Materials and Aerospace Corporation. The goal of this project was to design displays that showcase the properties of ERG’s Duocel® foam at tradeshows and client meetings. To better understand the needs of our sponsor, the team researched Duocel®’s capabilities, related technologies, and relevant standards and regulations. With this information, we further defined the problem by creating a problem statement and a set of engineering specifications through a Quality Function …

Autonomous Vehicles Operating Collaboratively To Avoid Debris And Obstructions, Toan T. Le, Cole W. Oppenheim, James H. Gildart, Kyle M. Bybee

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate the safety and increased fuel efficiency of an automated collision avoidance system in collaborative vehicle platooning. This project was cosponsored by Daimler Trucks North America headquartered in Portland, Oregon, as well as Dr. Birdsong, and Dr. DeBruhl of Cal Poly. The mechanical engineering team consists of Cole Oppenheim, James Gildart, Toan Le, and Kyle Bybee who worked in coordination with a team of computer engineers. Vehicle platooning is a driving technique to increase the fuel efficiency of a group of vehicles by following a lead vehicle closely to reduce the drag experienced …

Adjustable Seating Systems, Grace Timken, Zachary Dworaczyk, Jasper Lewin, Eric Voss

Mechanical Engineering

The Adjustable Seating Systems team designed and prototyped a collapsible and nestable seat for use in transit vehicles to create more free space for more passengers and cargo. Our team is the second senior project group to have worked at solving this problem. The previous team established a unique seat folding method that is currently pending patent approval. Our team’s responsibility was to improve the ease of use and overall hardware design of the entire seating system. This document captures the efforts that our team has performed to organize an approach to completing a full design and working prototype this …

Danny’S Recumbent Bike Accessibility Device Final Design Report, Joseph J. Lee, Huy Nguyen, Jack Mcatee, John Kulick

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this document is to fully define our design solution and explain our manufacturing and testing results. Our project’s goal is to find a way to allow Danny Knutson, a retired Navy pilot and incomplete quadriplegic with limited use of his arms and an impaired sense of balance, to enter and exit his recumbent tricycle without any discomfort for him or his aide. We completed multiple interviews with Danny, patent research, existing product research, and other technical literature research in order to fully understand the problem. We synthesized this information to create a concrete list of customer wants …

Comparison Of Lqr And Lqr-Mrac For Linear Tractor-Trailer Model, Kevin Richard Gasik

Master's Theses

The United States trucking industry is immense. Employing over three million drivers and traveling to every city in the country. Semi-Trucks travel millions of miles each week and encompass roads that civilians travel on. These vehicles should be safe and allow efficient travel for all. Autonomous vehicles have been discussed in controls for many decades. Now fleets of autonomous vehicles are beginning their integration into society. The ability to create an autonomous system requires domain and system specific knowledge. Approaches to implement a fully autonomous vehicle have been developed using different techniques in control systems such as Kalman Filters, Neural …

Cal Poly Supermileage Electric Vehicle Drivetrain And Motor Control Design, Clarisa Joy Howe, Christopher Joseph Mclaughlin, Erik Alvarado, Enyi Liang

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Supermileage Vehicle team is a multidisciplinary club that designs and builds high efficiency vehicles to compete internationally at Shell Eco-Marathon (SEM). Cal Poly Supermileage Club has been competing in the internal combustion engine (ICE) category of the competition since 2007. The club has decided it is time to expand their competition goals and enter their first battery electric prototype vehicle. To this end, a yearlong senior design project was presented to this team of engineers giving us the opportunity to design an electric powertrain with a custom motor controller. This system has been integrated into Ventus, the …

Furnace System Improvements, Kenji K. Anzai, Ethan Fedor, Patrick Zailaa

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review (FDR) documents the work done by the group to manufacture the system to deliver improvements to the furnace in the Cal Poly microfabrication laboratory (better known as the cleanroom). The document describes the material covered in the Scope of Work (SOW), including background research, customer needfinding, and the problem statement, material associated with concept development and selection for Preliminary Design Review (PDR), material detailing the design and manufacturing plan of the system for Critical Design Review (CDR), and new material detailing the manufacture of the system for FDR.

Research done for the SOW resulted in a …

Water Fun At Exploration Station Final Design Report, Brandon Dean Puccini, Sarah Rose Means, Natasha Tamlin O'Connell-Mackay

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

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 …

Wheelie King Trainer And Controller, Michael C. Uytingco, Paul E. Hubner, Dmitriy Petrovykh

Mechanical Engineering

The ``wheelie'' is a popular, classic bicycle trick which novice bicyclists often attempt as an introduction to advanced bike tricks. However, many are hesitant to try due to the risks and safety hazards associated with performing one. The purpose of this project is to create an on-board system which will assist a user in maintaining a wheelie after achieving the required position while incorporating safety mechanisms to prevent the user from injuring themselves or others. Additional requirements of the system are non-obstructive features and seamless transitioning between wheelie conditions.

Upon researching the state of wheelie technology, existing products, such as …

Verification Of Brand Authentication Technology Using Infrared Light And Image Processing, Thomas Fenner, Kevin Whalen, Josh Oliver

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.

Laser Triangulation Sensor, Jake Finelt, Kian Gruszczynski, Greg Mclorg

Mechanical Engineering

Statement of Disclaimer: Since this project is a result of a class assignment, it has been graded and accepted as fulfillment of the course requirements. Acceptance does not imply technical accuracy or reliability. Any use of information in this report is done at the risk of the user. These risks may include catastrophic failure of the device or infringement of patent or copyright laws. California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo and its staff cannot be held liable for any use or misuse of the project.

3-Dimensional Automated Heat Flux Calibration Device, Victor Raul Chacon, David Madison Morrisset, Alex Michael Schnorr, Kevin Scott

Mechanical Engineering

This document aims to describe the problems in current radiant heat source heat flux calibration techniques and the approach our team took to solve them through automation. The following sections outline the basic premise of the problem we addressed and who our end product benefited. The proceeding sections addresses the research that we have performed regarding heat flux measurements and automation. This research includes current solutions – mostly partial solutions for problems that are similar but not exactly like ours. Following the background research, we define objectives, with specific details that outline how we evaluated different possible solutions, and how …

Bicycle Power Meter, Andrew Mcguan

Computer Engineering

A power meter is a cycling training tool used to record the power a rider is outputting. This is very useful to athletes who regularly do bike workouts, because the power output is a consistent measure of the rider’s effort level, and is not affected by outside factors such as wind or road gradient. If a cyclist does a workout with the intent to carry a certain speed for a certain amount of time, a strong headwind will slow them down and make them work harder to maintain the same speed, defeating the goal of the workout. When a power …

Farmbot Trackless Redesign, Cole Thomas, Cailey Kamm, Clayton Alderson, Otto Akerstrom

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

For this project the team PLANT3D worked along with Rory Aronson and FarmBot to generate a cheaper more user-friendly design for the FarmBot Genesis 1.3. Working with Rory and FarmBot, we as a team generated a list of design requirements and engineering specifications for the project. These requirements centered around creating a more accessible FarmBot model for the average person to be able to purchase and set up with ease. Much of this required taking the existing system and eliminating the most common problem areas. These were the track system, built using 1.5 meter aluminum extrusions and the complex interchangeable …

Dynamics Simulation And Optimal Control Of A Multiple-Input And Multiple-Output Balancing Cube, Felix K. Haimerl

Master's Theses

This thesis document outlines the development of a multibody dynamics simulation of an actively stabilized multiple-input, multiple-output, coupled, balancing cube and the process of verifying the results by implementing the control algorithm in hardware. A non-linear simulation of the system was created in Simscape and used to develop a Linear Quadratic Gaussian control algorithm. To implement this algorithm in actual hardware, the system was first designed, manufactured, and assembled. The structure of the cube and the reaction wheels were milled from aluminum. DC brushless motors were installed into the mechanical system. In terms of electronics, a processor, orientation sensor, motor …

Flexible Custom Electric Skateboard, Caleb Adam Kelsay

Electrical Engineering

At Cal Poly traveling long distances only accessible by foot such as across campus or from the car park to class can be tiring and time-consuming. While not physically demanding, the trek consumes time in our tight college life schedule. To improve our time efficiency this project provides a relatively lightweight, powered solution to quickly and effectively travel long distances while maintaining full control and safety even on hills, a current limitation of traditional skateboards.

This electric skateboard includes the battery capacity to travel all around campus on a single charge with a compact and flexible skateboard design that provides …

Museum Wave Tank Design, David James Streng, Lisa Michelle Dischinger, John Frederick Niemoller

Mechanical Engineering

The Santa Maria Discovery Museum would like to add a tsunami wave tank to be one of their demonstrations. The wave tank needs to draw the attention of their young crowd and be educationally informative about the shapes and effects of waves. As this is a museum demonstration for children, the structure, user interface, and wave making mechanism must be durable.

We are a senior project team from California Polytechnic State University that worked on this project with Allan Hancock College and Stanford University. We created waves by rapidly moving a plunger vertically in the water column. This project allows …

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, …

Poly Spotlight Control, Ryan P. O'Neill, C. Oleg Frandle, Anthony T. Lombardi

Mechanical Engineering

When this project began, The Cambria Center for the Arts Theater used a manually-operated spotlight. The sound created by the fans, along with the sheer size of the spotlight, required that it be housed in an attic room above the theater and shined through a closed window. This trapped a lot of heat in the room and involved some risk with climbing into and out of the attic room. This project sought to remedy those issues by mounting a pair of newer LED spotlights inside the theater. Doing this required a method for remotely controlling and actuating the angular position …

Guided Target Control System Final Design Report, John Barry, Zachary Eagan, Ryan Mackintosh

Mechanical Engineering

Daimler Automotive, the parent company of Mercedes-benz requires improved methods for testing their Autonomous Emergency Braking Systems. To this end they have presented a series of four senior projects to California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. One of the Projects is to build a facsimile of a human crossing the street. The other three projects of which this is a part; are to produce an autonomous car facsimile. These projects are intended for use in testing new Autonomous Emergency Braking Systems and may serve as the basis for future senior projects.