For the week of 2/9/15 – 2/13/15 we successfully had the engine start and run on starter fluid! This was a huge milestone because we had been doing maintenance, research, and professional consulting to ensure the generator set was safe to run for several weeks prior. Through the week we established our measurement parameters and are currently working out the …
UAV Test Flight Success
About 3 weeks ago when we first flew our plane it crashed about 8 seconds after takeoff. This was due to a hardware problem since the receiver we were using went out of range. The plane has two major structural components, the wing and the spine. Those two are fused together by melting two 3d printed parts. When the plane …
Getting the Crash Head Dummy Ready for Impact
This week, we received the ATD head from Humanetics! The ATD head is internally equipped with six accelerometers. Three of the accelerometers are piezoresistive, meaning they gain a charge when accelerated, and the magnitude of the charge is a function of the acceleration. The other three are DTS angular rate sensors. In order to support the ATD head and neck …
Onions and Fuel Cells?
Onion processor is in the process of creating energy through fuel cell technology and onions. At first, one of the largest onion processors in the world disposed over one million pounds of onion waste every year. This process cost them about $400,000 every year. In addition to the high cost of disposal, the company also faced escalating electricity bills. The …
Experimenting with Dielectrophoresis
This past week, I finally finished creating the designs for the electrodes. Since my device relies on the phenomenon of dielectrophoresis (DEP), I designed electrodes that would produce a strong non-uniform electric field. Two designs were created to observe which would produce a better result. Each of the designs had different shaped electrode fingers, one was rectangular and the other …
Teamwork at UGV
Of all the teams making up UGV, Beta team is the most hard-working, admirable, and good-looking of the bunch. Meet Adi Peesapati, fearless team leader. He works through day and night (okay, mostly day) to control the wildly creative bunch. Our goal for this quarter is to build a search and rescue plane that can not only fly for three …
Managing Tasks on Trello
Trello is up and running for the various teams. Trello is used to keep track of individual progress and to record how many hours were allocated onto a certain task. On the board there are five tabs: to do, in progress, finished, blocked, and not happening. The leaders of the project add new tasks which consist of the goal, priority …
What Do Powdered Donuts and Spacecraft Thermal Systems Have in Common?
The temperature of the satellite is controlled using a color changing (electrochromic) film coating on the radiator panel. As a voltage is applied, the film changes color – light to dark – to increase the emissivity of the radiator panel. With this control, the spacecraft can change the amount of heat absorbed or expelled to maintain its operating temperature. The …
High Speed Soccer Ball Launches
This week, we received confirmation from our lessee that the Anthropomorphic Test Dummy (ATD) would be arriving on the 12th of February. While exciting news, it means that we have a hard deadline that is quickly approaching. Our remaining tasks are to create a mount for the ATD head and neck assembly, create a mount for our radar gun, to …
2014 Fall Design Review
The 2014 Fall Design Review was held on December 12 in the Engineering Gateway. The on-and-off rain did not damper the spirits of the students as they came full force to exhibit their projects. There were over 27 projects on display ranging from design competitions, research studies, industry products, and student inspired projects. Some projects are beginning to take form …