MAE

The UC Irvine Intelligent Ground Vehicle is a project in order to implement skills learned in university courses by designing and testing a self-automated ground vehicle that can navigate an obstacle course autonomously. The purpose of the project is to be able to develop a vehicle that utilizes multiple sensors to self navigate while carrying a payload. 

UAV Forge is an interdisciplinary team that competes in the Student Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition (SUAS) hosted by the AUVSI. This competition involves teams programming and designing both an unmanned ground and aerial vehicle to undergo missions laid out by the rules. The Guidance Navigation and Control subteam researches alternative methods to land the ground vehicle as well as program it to navigate to given waypoints. 

Thermal Vacuum and Control of Spacecraft Variable Emissivity Devices (VED’s) is an engineering design team focused on designing a vacuum chamber with capabilities such as, thermal conduction and thermal radiation generation, detection, and testing within a moderate to high-vacuum regime. In addition, the team will also design, integrate, and test a control system capable of thermal flux detection and data extraction under both standard atmosphere and moderate to high-vacuum conditions. Successful integration and operation of the designs will enable a cost-effective means of conducting ground-based space validation testing for small-scale spacecraft subsystems. Specifically, testing will be conducted on contending alternative variable emissivity devices, such as an electrochromic cell, Smart Window technology, and an electrophoretic display (EPD). Each of the three components are currently being researched by the teams affiliated research project, Spacecraft Thermal Management Systems.  

The wearable sensing team is creating smartwatch and smartphone applications that interact sensors within a smartwatch to analyze stroke patient rehabilitation. The aim is to provide patient high levels of motivation and understanding of their exercises during the rehabilitation process, all while giving physcial assistants, trainers, and doctors useful data that they can use to monitor their patient at any time. Patients deserve a feeling of independence and easily interpreted data visualizers that encourage continuation of rehabilitation. In time, the project is wanting to expand to more patient populations and release a product available to consumers accross the globe.

Background:

UAV Forge is a senior design project hosted by UCI that aims to build an Automated Flying Vehicle, and compete in the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Student Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition (AUVSI SUAS). The goal of the competition is to have your vehicle follow a route while avoiding obstacles, arriving at waypoints, and delivering an unmanned ground vehicle to a designated point.

The project aims to use a team of mobile robots equipped with a passive RFID system to devise an all-weather, wide-area asset detection and localization system for stationary RFID tagged ground targets that may be behind obstacles or obstructions. The applications include locating and recovery of incapacitated firefighters and other first responders in challenging environments such as wildfires, inventory management, and equipment tracking.

Background:

Our design basis is to make modifications in the previous’ teams design in an effort to make the automated assay more reliable and user-friendly. The general concept of the automated assay is to create a device which autonomously or semi-autonomously administers a malaria test using reagents to a similar extent to a high-priced biometric assay. The assay has to give appropriate responses to an assortment of reagent based test. While also reporting the test results to its test users through a convenient smartphone application. 

BACKGROUND:

Anteater Formula Racing builds an open-wheel, internal-combustion race car inspired by Formula 1 and IndyCar racing to compete at Formula SAE California, a world-renowned collegiate vehicle design competition. It challenges project engineers to maximize vehicle performance, validate their design choices and methods, and develop professional presentation skills. Forty-five engineering students participate in the design, manufacturing and testing phases to gain the engineering skills needed for industry in a highly-technical, fast-paced and competitive environment. The team collectively spends over 10,000 man-hours each year developing the car and its subsystems alongside engineering coursework.

UC Irvine Solar Airplane aims to optimize a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for which flight time will be extended, powered by solar panels, by 30 minutes after battery-life . The UAV's main goal is to aid with disaster relief efforts using a GPS and a camera to relay constant feedback to the operators during the duration of the flight. UC Irvine Solar Airplane is a team of currently 37 diverse members from various majors and ages.

UCI Solar Car is a team of currently 29 diverse members from various majors and ages working together through a spectrum of subsystems and skillsets in order to reach the goal of competing in the American Solar Challenge (ASC) rate. Our group communicates through a common interest of environment-friendly solutions and compete in race car tournaments in which battery powered cars built by students from various colleges come together and put their finalized work to the test. 

The Hoag Bone Plate Fixation Project is a design project sponsored by Hoag Orthopedics consisting of MAE/BME/MSE students that are tasked to identify geometry and material for orthopedic plates that provides imporved fracture fixation. By improving the frictional interface of the bone-plate surface, the re-designed plates hope to reduce shearing and micromotion of plates, and in term decrease the cases of failed fracture fixations in patients. 

Goals & Objectives:

The goal of this project to design, build, and test a steerable mechanical walker.

Requirements:  (i) one drive motor and one steering motor, (ii) RC control to define forward and backward movement and left and right turn to steer, (iii) four or six-legged design, though six-legged is preferred.  (iv) a demonstration of its movement around a circle or in figure-eight in both directions.

Contact Infomation:

Myis Dickens, Project Manager, Fall 2020 - 

UCI Cargo Plane participates in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Aero Design West Competition. This competition provides engineering students exposure to real-life engineering challenges in the aerospace industry. The goal is to create a bush plane design that can operate from short runways while carrying outsized cargo. Students are expected to perform trade studies to find a design solution that will optimally meet the mission requirements. The types of payload these aircraft are required to hold are soccer balls and steel plates. During the competition, teams are expected to load and unload soccer balls and steel plates in under a minute. For this reason, the design should account for easy loading accessibility. These design factors test the team’s ability to exercise time management, stay within budget, and ultimately build a plane to meet the goals of the competition.

Introduction

Aeronautics, Dynamics, and Control Laboratory (ADCL) is an  interdisciplinary lab focusing on the modeling and analysis using the rigorous mathematical tools of both Geometric Control Theory and Unsteady Aerodynamics to develop non-intuitive new engineering applications. ADCL developed new control algorithm which enables the airplane to achieve high rolling maneuverability in stall. This new rolling algorithm will solve a challenging problem in the aerospace industry, where Airplanes lose the rolling controllability in stall.

The focus of this project is to design and build a robotics kit that introduces and is inclusive to students typically underrepresented in STEM to engineering.
To achieve this, students will design a cost-effective robotics kit that incorporates many introductory level features and an evidence-based curriculum that a middle/high schooler can safely construct with assistance.

Sustainability is an increasingly important consideration for engineers throughout the world. With the increases in global temperature, engineers are looking at renewable energy generation to combat climate change. California has already enacted the SB-100 Renewables Portfolio Standard Program, which is attempting to transition 100% of California’s electricity to renewable sources by 2045 (SB100).  Solar and Wind Energy are essential components in this fight against climate change. Current utility based renewable energy production demands vast investment in land and capital while inducing irreversible damage to the ecosystem. On the other hand, The Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) aims to reduce land use while it addresses the growing demand in renewable energy.

The purpose of ReTouch is to create a device that assists post-stroke patients to regain their sense of touch. The device contains two modules, where one module moves the patients’ index, middle, and ring fingers on their paralyzed hand and the other contains buttons allowing them to use their healthy hand to press and match the fingers that are being pushed. The device additionally contains a musical game corresponding to activity done on the modules to improve patients’ sense of touch over time.  

HydroCube is a electrolysis device that can be connected to a residential solar pannel system in order to convert and store any excess electricity in the form of hydrogen. Currently when a homes battery is full the rest of the electricity produced by the photovoltaic cells is not stored and therefore is wasted. With stored hydrogen we could begin to explore the posibility of using hydrogen in a residential setting or to power a generator to feed back to the battery when there is low sun coverage. 

Background

New forms of renewable energy have surfaced in the past years.Hydrogen fuel cells are a form of renewable energy that is easily accessible since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, and do not cause pollution or danger to our environment as they do not release greenhouse gases as opposed to burning fossil fuels.The fuel cell drone project uses a fuel cell battery as a source of power for a flying robot that can be remotely controlled or fly autonomously through software-controlled flight. 

The UC Irvine Rocket Project aims to push the boundaries of collegiate rocketry and the development of liquid propellant rockets. Our project strives to prepare students for successful careers in the aerospace and defense industry. In 2017, Base 11 became a partner of the UCI Rocket Project. Their gracious donation enabled the construction of our rocket lab. During the Fall quarter of 2019, the team has scheduled and completed a successful static test fire to experimentally verify our first engine design. An experimental combustion test is a critical first step in designing a full rocket system as well more efficient, higher performance engines.

Anteater Electric Racing is an Engineering Design Project consisting of Mechanical, Aerospace, Electrical and Computer Engineers tasked to design, build and test a Formula SAE Electric Racecar. The team of 60 Engineers will enter their 2020 Ampeater Racecar into the Formula SAE California  at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana this June againt 110 other universities. At the Winter Design Review, the team will display their built Racecar for review and will be excited to present the specifications of this year's build. 

Background

Spacecraft Thermal Management Systems (STMS) is an undergraduate, interdisciplinary research/design project that works to develop an electrochromic cell for space applications for Cube and Nano Satellites. This device will act as a method of controlling heat from going into and out of the satellite through a color change, which affects how much heat is being let in. Such spacecraft are not exposed to a constant heat flux from the sun as a result of low Earth orbit. This device is special since the amount of color change can be modified to let in the proper amount of heat necessary for the spacecraft to operate.

The device works through a redox reaction pairing of nickel oxide and tungsten trioxide based films. When electrons are removed from each film, the nickel oxide will color to a dark brown and the tungsten trioxide will bleach to a clear coloration. Similarly, when electrons are added to each film, the nickel oxide will bleach to a clear coloration and the tungsten trioxide will darken to a blue coloration. When these thin films are combined, both pairs will either darken or bleach at the same time, forming the device.

The primary objective of the High Heat Flux project is to design, develop, and fabricate a thermal management
system capable of producing and dissipating high heat fluxes/loads exceeding 500 W/ cm^2. University of California, Irvine, Mechanical and Aerospace undergraduate students are tasked to designing and building a thermal system capable of generating and dissipating high heat fluxes. Currently, our system consists of a copper rod, a vacuum chamber, thermocouples, LN2, and a cooling system we are in the process of designing.

The Flight Simulation Chair is a robotic project with the objective of simulating the experience of flying a fighter jet. The project is controlled by one Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller, two pneumatic pistons constantly supplied at 50 psi of compressed air, and moves in two degrees of freedom (roll and pitch). The unique feature of this project is its option of playstyle: Remote Control (RC) and Virtual Reality (VR). For more information, please see the full description on the project page.

Background

Since 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was implemented to set regulations on GHG emissions through Carbon Credits. As a result, we are tasked with the reduction of CO2 emissions and creating an algorithm to find the best possible solution.

As part of the UC Irvine Intelligent Ground Vehicle team, students will be in charge of designing and testing a vehicle that will be able to autonomously navigate through an obstacle course for participation in the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC).

The IGVC is a competition that sets an automated vehicle through an obstacle course to reach the final destination utilizing obstacle avoidance sensors, algorithms, and mechanical assembly. The competition challenges engineers and strengthens their skills by being able to build a self-automated vehicle that can complete the course. The Intelligent Ground Vehicle encompasses the very latest technologies impacting industrial development including intelligent transportation systems, military applications, and manufacturing. 

Transferring data wirelessly is never fully secured and creating a hardwire connection is the best manner to preventing that data from being intercepted. The Autonomous Systems: Data Transfer Buoy offers an innovative method in establishing a secure data hub while out at sea. Rather than sending unmanned vessels back to land each time they are done with a mission they are able to save time by instead traveling to the nearest data buoy hub. Here they can exchange all necessary data through a hardwired connection making it a secure method that saves both time and money.

The Proprioception Trainer Team is focused on developing a device that can be used to retrain finger proprioception post-stroke. For the fall quarter, the team focused on animating the existing robot by focusing on the “brain” of the device. The team developed the programming of the device to control the actuators. Additionally, the team worked on the implementation of a game that motivates the user to continue using the device. The current device was already developed, therefore the team only focused on writing the programming on Python to be implemented on the Raspberry Pi. The device moves the user’s middle and index fingers and the user has to determine when they cross by strictly using proprioception.