Sample AbstractsBelow are some sample abstracts from projects our undergraduates have reseached through the Kuehler Undergraduate Engineering Research Program. 2006 AbstractsProfessor: Silvia Figueira The students developed a simulator and performed experiments to compare different communication structures used for overlay networks of mobile sensors. Faculty: Christopher Kitts The field of multi-robot systems is an exciting and cutting edge area of inquiry and consists of a vision of clusters of tightly interacting mobile robotic devices that perform tasks in cost-effective and potentially revolutionary ways. Applications that can benefit from such capabilities include environmental monitoring (both in situ and remote sensing), search and rescue/disaster response operations, manufacturing/construction operations, etc. For this project, a low-cost testbed was developed in order to promote research and design projects involving the coordinated control of mobile multi-robot systems. The testbed consisted of two, simple, low-cost robots that wirelessly communicate with an off-board control computer that served as a control and monitoring interface for a remote human operator. Demonstrated capabilities included automated control of the robots, obstacle avoidance, and sonar-based mapping and display of the environment using a 3-D VRML graphical interface.
2007 AbstractsProfessor: Silvia Figueira The students adapted Linux mini-ITX boxes to car-bots and deployed an overlay network (developed on Linux sockets/WiFi) to enable the bots to communicate with one another and with the base station, from which they are controlled wirelessly with a joystick. Faculty: Christopher Kitts Online education is a burgeoning field with great advantages for providing cost-effective, flexible and convenient educational experiences for a wide range of students, from working professionals to students in schools/areas with limited academic resources. For engineering education, more than 100 postsecondary programs offer online courses. Largely nonexistent in these programs, however, is the online use of laboratory equipment to illustrate key principles and to conduct experiments; such experiments are key curricular components for programs certified by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). Leveraging internet-based robotic control hardware/software innovations developed as part of our field robotics program, we will enable remote programming of a simple microcontroller via an internet connection; we note that this is more challenging than simple remote operation of a device due to timing and other constraints involved in programming a target embedded system. Given its widespread use at SCU and its incredible ease of use, we plan on using a BASIC Stamp as the target microcontroller; in addition to programming, we plan to implement a two-way text-based debug communication capability and to provide visual feedback of the laboratory equipment via a webcam. With one or more programming implementation in place, if resources permit, we will prototype one or more simple educational exercises that could be hosted by this system. These will be iterated based on feedback from students using the exercise. We plan to submit a publication to an ASEE conference based on the work performed as part of this program.
Student: Jeffrey Seago, Mechanical Engineering Topic: Casting System for Bulk Metallic Glasses Jeffrey Seago, a junior in Mechanical Engineering, worked with Professor Wright on projects related to the construction of a casting system for bulk metallic glasses. Bulk metallic glasses are multi-component amorphous metallic materials that display unique mechanical behavior including high strengths, large elastic strains, and limited ductility. The molten metal must be cooled rapidly from the melt in order to produce a fully amorphous structure. Jeff created drawings for various components and for samples for compression testing of metallic glasses. Jeff continues to work with Professor Wright, preparing metallic glass samples and creating CAD drawings for finite element analysis. |
