MAE

Background

Members of the project team would design, write, and test control software for Blue Planet’s (www.blueplanetsystems.com) Carbon Capture and Mineralization process that captures CO2 from an industrial flue gas source and converts the gas into calcium carbonate aggregates for use in the built environment. The process is currently being constructed at San Francisco Bay Aggregates (SFBA, www.sfbayaggregates.com) Blue Planet’s affiliate site in Pittsburg, CA. The project team will be expected to use Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams to understand where controls are being implemented and then write code for a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) for the full process which would then be installed at SFBA. 
 

Goals and Objectives 

The project aims to teach students:
•    The chemical and mechanical principles underlying the Blue Planet process for carbon capture and mineralization.
•    The use of a Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID) in the design of...

This project encompasses one of many alternative solutions to a transition into clean and renewable energy sources. Wind turbines, when designed and constructed properly, can yield and store a substantial amount of electricity all from wind energy. To keep up with the high power demands of local electrical grids, most modern day turbines need to be immensely large in size, sometimes up to 500 ft tall, in order to generate enough electricity. Recently, more thought is being put into harnessing the efficiency of traditional turbines but on a smaller scale to satify more domestic electrical needs. The Small-Scale Wind Turbine projects here at UCI is involved with Collegiate Wind Competition and focuses on this small scale optomization of modern day giants.

For the Winter 2023 quarter, the Steerable Mechanical Walker project focuses on creating a robot that can move and turn without human interaction. This iteration of the walker will use four legs which will allow for movement around its environment. This version of the walker is inspired by the GNK power droids from the Star Wars franchise. The design of the mechanical walker will have a Gonk droid theme which will give it "personality". The ultimate goal of the Gonk Walker is to be capable of steering autonomously in preparation for the day it is tested against the MAE 106 robots.

Executive Summary

FUSION's Engineering Project provide students with the opportunity to design and manufacture a robot from scratch and learn the basics of automated controls, motions/distance sensors, and programming. 

The goal is to design and manufacture an autonomous robot capable of picking up small amounts of dirt and debris from the ground simultaneously avoiding any obstacles in the way.

Competition: 

Each team will begin with their robot in a square 5 by 5 feet field with small pieces of dirt and obstacles randomly scattered around. The objective for the robot is to pick up the pieces of dirt while simultaneously avoiding the obstacles present in the way. Each team will be scored based on their performance during the 2 minute period. Each piece of ‘dirt’ picked up by the robot is +1 point and each time the robot hits an obstacle is -1 point. The final score in the end will represent the team’s score and will be used to determine the winner.

Background

Due to COVID-19, the medical industry has received an increase in demand for rapid covid tests, as well a need for contactless interactions between humans. The increase in traffic for hospital visits has strained the current logistics network and increased delivery times. CONCEPT VTOL plans to mitigate the risk for contamination and decrease delivery times by designing a novel VTOL drone that will deliver prescriptions and rapid covid tests from the UCI Student Health Center to UCI students within a 5-mile radius. 

Goals and Objectives

Our main goal for this project is to design a novel vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drone for prescription drug medication and rapid covid test delivery. 

The following are the team’s objectives:

• Research pre-existing VTOL designs and compare the pros and cons

• Create a complete preliminary design and bill of materials

• Create conceptual designs and selections for each individual

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We are a group of UCI engineering students with the goal to design, build, and fly a solar-assisted aircraft. Our project's aim is twofold: to prove the viability of solar power in airplanes/drones, and create a device that can assist in humanitarian aid missions caused by climate change. 

Research Mission: The goal of Spacecraft Thermal Management Systems (STMS) is to be developing several Variable Emissivity Device prototypes, or VEDs, one of which is to be applied as payload to a CubeSat and launched into Low-Earth Orbit. This VED will mitigate thermal loads from the sun and internal satellite electronics and offers a low-cost thermal control solution to absorb or reject heat from spacecraft. We work closely with the UCI CubeSat project to coordinate the VED and satellite operations. 

Team Structure and Divisions: The research team is split into two division: the Mechanical + Aerospace Division and the Chemical + Materials Division. 

The Chemical + Materials Division works to develop the electrochromic VED, which uses an oxidation-reduction reaction with Tungsten trioxide and Nickel oxide ions to induce coloration when voltage is applied. The subteams in this division are:

• Tungsten Subteam: manufactures the Tungsten thin film deposition procedures and slides
• Nickel
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We are a team of undergraduate Engineering students that are working towards the common goal of improving people's quality of life. Our team's objective is to design and build a portable shoulder exercise device that is capable of rehabilitating the patient's shoulder muscle. Ultimately, we want the patients to be able to perform tasks that require overhead movement and extension of the elbow. Our device will be used by patients and physical therapists at the UCI Medical Center. We hope our device aids the needs of those with impaired shoulders and potentially improves the healing process and the long-term mobility of their arms.

This project aims to create a compact, lightweight, and highly reliable antenna deployment mechanism that will be attached to an Orbital 2U CubeSat satellite. It must survive launch and orbital conditions and allow data to be relayed from the CubeSat to the ground station at UCI. We must ensure that we design a working mechanism that fits within the limited space provided to us on the 2U CubeSat. The antenna has to be the correct length for the material used to provide the needed frequency. We work alongside UC Irvine’s Cubesat team to verify design requirements and ensure that our designed mechanism will be compatible with the team’s CubeSat which will be launched onboard a third-party launch provider when complete. 

Goal and Objectives

This open-ended project involves creating a robot, utilizing all steps of the engineering design process, to autonomously navigate around obstacles while following the shortest path. This project will be in conjunction with UCI graduate students developing a physics-inspired pathfinding algorithm, which we will utilize in our design in order to navigate an obstacle course. Our goal is to design and build a robot capable of: tracking a preplanned collision-free path in a 2D environment containing circular obstacles with a maximum error of 10% at any point, be able to pass through any two closely spaced obstacles and perform turn maneuvers without drifting off-course, when the path planner commands it to, and be self-contained and self-sufficient (no plug ins) and capable of running for at least 30 mins without recharge. As students in achieving the design project goal, we would have practiced all phases of the design process,...

  According to many route planning methods in the available literature, the Robot that we are going to create will follow the path precisely  while avoiding probable obstacles. We must discover strategies for finite-dimensional optimizations, in which the ideal path is formed by discrete optimal points. Using the calculus of variations, the Path Follower we will create directly builds the perfect path with the fewest steps. Additionally, it will be able to implement the essential control inputs that the pathfinder scheme specifies. As a proof of concept, an obstacle-oriented map of the environment is first constructed in this offline phase. Control inputs are then transmitted to the robot so that the Path Follower can carry out the command precisely.

The purpose of this project is to give the UCI Rocket Project Team a new consistent CO2 Ejection System for the recovery of the rocket that will be used for the Preliminary Test Rocket (PTR).  Students will be able to manufacture and develop the system “in-house” and can easily be manufactured to align with the project guidelines. From past designs of the recovery systems and the familiarity of the current rocket, students will be able to pursue more knowledge among higher altitudes with a CO2 Ejection Systems and implement more efficient and cleaner solutions to initiate the recovery process. With ongoing experimentations, students have the opportunity to integrate and improve their knowledge from the future systems of CO2 Ejection to reach higher altitudes in the near future.

The goal of the Fall 2022 Steerable Mechanical Walker project is to design and build a walking machine with an advanced leg system, a single drive motor for movement, and a single servo motor for steering. The design will be remotely controlled, and should allow the walker to move 1.5 ft/s and follow a circle of 6ft diameter. The team has to provide digital and physical models of two prototypes with test data and demonstration videos with it.

From the time a creature is first born, food is the number one priority for its survival. Locating and capturing its food effectively is crucial, and in robotics this process is called foraging. Our goal is to develop the smallest functional aquatic autonomous robot capable of finding a power source to recharge. Remorus must swim autonomously in water and return back to its charging station before the battery runs out of charge. Potential applications of such technology include swarms of such robots performing various tasks. Several colleges and universities have designed their own micro Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), like MIT’s Blue Bot and Harvard’s RoboBees which demonstrate the capabilities of robot swarms. The project may act as a proof of concept for future aquatic micro-robots and demonstrate the possibility of using AUV swarms to detect water contaminants and enter the human body to perform procedures.

Background:

The Solar Panel Deployment project aims to design a functional deployment mechanism for the solar panels on the 2U satellite from the UCI CubeSat team. The goal is to design, manufacture, and test a prototype version of the deployment device to be used on the CubeSat team's satellite. 

Objectives:​

• Ensure that the mechanism consistently deploys 
• Confirm the power draw matches the existing satellite's needs
• Design can be manufactured during the fall '22 quarter
• Design conforms to the weight and size of the existing satellite

Milestones:

• Research objectives regarding specific model aspects

• Establish requirements and design attributes for test design

• Create a CAD/3D model of a preliminary design for a deployable solar panel unit

• Accurately test manufacture the agreed upon design

• Verify that manufactured good meets and successfully produces the teams’ goal

Team Member Contact Information:...

UAV Forge is a multidisciplinary engineering design team that focuses on the design, manufacturing, programming and testing of autonomous aerial vehicles. The design aims to fulfill the constraints that allows the team to participate in the AUVSI SUAS 2021-2022 competition season. The AUVSI competition requires that the system’s UAV have autonomous flight capabilities, ability to perform object avoidance of stationary and dynamic objects, the ability to do object detection, localization, and classification. The system must also perform an airdrop task wherein UAV Forge will be manufacturing an assembly that will allow the UAV to drop payloads that safely land on designated targets. Though the emphasis for this year’s team is to perform well in the competition setting, the primary objective is to ensure the undergraduate students participating in the project apply their engineering skills to a compelling real-world problem.

This team is responsible for the design of an affordable and efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system appropriate for an Accessory Dwelling Unit in a low-income neighborhood of Orange County. In addition to HVAC, the team is to determine if a thermal storage system is feasible given project requirements and constraints. This engineering subteam is part of the larger UCI and Orange Coast College partnership team competing in the Orange County Sustainability Decathlon. 

The CubeSat team at UCI is a student-led effort to launch a 2U nanosatellite into orbit to test two UCI research payloads. The satellite operates with five subsystems (Power/Payload, Communications, Avionics, Structures/Thermal, and Systems Engineering), in addition to housing two payloads. 

BACKGROUND:

The first payload is a variable emissivity device (VED) that will be tested as a thermal regulator, and our job is to test its performance in various degrees of solar exposure and at varying adjustable emissivity values. Similar materials to the sample are hoped to be used as a cheap method of thermal management on future spacecraft. The second payload is in collaboration with the ASPIN lab at UCI. The satellite will carry a transceiver meant to function as a transmitter of a “signal of opportunity”, helpful in researching novel navigation methods in the absence of or in place of a traditional GPS signal.

OBJECTIVES:

• Ensure that payload requirements
...

The intention of this project is to design affordable water recycling, saving, and bioremediation systems to increase the economic efficiency of water use, and to educate people who live in several ADUs about certain positive habits for saving water. We are not considering the complicated structure to merely elevate the purity of recycled water as much as we can, but to develop a comprehensive plan to save the cost of water from recycling and education. The team is focusing on several fields to accomplish the common goal. The bioremediation system uses a physical filtration device to purify the water to a certain level that meets California Legal standards for two primary purposes, toilet flushing and irrigation. The smart system detects and further filtrates the grey water. And to help the people who live in the ADU develop good habits of using water, physical barriers to wasting water are vital. These physical barriers will not lower the quality of life for these people, but help them to develop good habits. Our intention is to decrease the cost and generate a humanized system to help people and maybe help the world with the decreasing freshwater source condition in the future.

With the deplenishing supply of fossil fuels, worsening consequences of pollution, and rising need demand for energy, engineers have sought for alternative means of sustaining our modern lifestyle. Wind turbines have proven to be a valuable source of renewable energy across the world as they can harness natural forces while minimizing the negative effects on the environment. We seek to apply this technology on a local scale by designing and planning the manufacture of minature wind turbines for use by campers. Our goal is to create a convenient portable vertical wind turbine that is small enough to be carried in a backpack, assemblable by few people in the wilderness, and capable of charging multiple electronic devices overnight.

AIAA Design, Build, Fly is a national competition held annually for colleges to design and build a remote control aircraft. The theme for this year’s competition is electronic warfare, where our design team, named the UCI Aerial Anteaters, will maximize the transportation range of an electronics payload and antenna. Until competition day in April, our team will design the aircraft to ensure each mission is successful while maximizing the number of points received. This year's missions include carrying an electronic payload for an endurance run, as well as attaching an antenna to the end of the aircraft’s wing to simulate a jamming antenna. This team consists of students from all year levels working to design and fabricate an aircraft for this competition.

Our project is centered around an electro-permanent magnet(EPM), that ultimately can be implemented into two main iterations. The function of an EPM is to have a switchable magnet, within a nonswitchable magnet, that can have the direction of its magnetic field be switched by the input of a set current. In a larger scale application, this EPM can be incorporated with a bellow and thus when the magnetic field is switched a resulting pull force or push force of a spring would insinuate. The goal is to have the on setting of the switchable magnet induce an outward push force from a spring, and thus create force/motion just by supplying current. With the bellow, this EPM could be incorporated with artificial movement. 

Background

Domestic Hot Water for a Sustainable ADU is an undergraduate design project for Sustainability Decathlon (OCSD23) which is a collegiate design-and-build competition held in Orange County focused on sustainable housing. It challenges university teams to design and build model solar-powered homes that address climate change and California’s housing needs.

As the name suggests, our team is designing a domestic hot water heating system that is ultra-efficient, reduce overall household water usage and is affordable. The designed system will then be placed in an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) in a low-income neighbourhood in Orange County.

Goals

• System should be appropriate for an ADU
• System should be smart and connected
• Combining off-the-shelf components is preffered 
• Innovative designs can be considered if they are simple, affordable and low-maintaince

Team Name

Our team name is Hydro-Sol which is self explanatory and is applicable to our project because we are using solar energy to heat water.

Team Contact...

The elderly commonly rely on canes and walkers for balance and gait support. Similarly, crutches are commonly used after injury. All of these devices are cumbersome, force unnatural gait patterns, and greatly limit their arms. Several exoskeleton designs have been proposed in research, but they tend to be heavy and actively controlled (i.e. with motors). They also are difficult to don and doff, which does not make them very user friendly. The goal of this project is to design a passive semi-rigid assistive device that will provide moderate stability to gait and assist walking activities, while not restricting arm use.

Integrating renewable energy sources into everyday life is of paramount importance to a self-sustainable world. The Fall 2022 Small Scale Wind Turbine (SCWT) is a project that will design a portable wind turbine that harnesses wind as a natural resource to power devices. Prioritizing portability and efficiency, our turbine is designed to power camping appliances with a single overnight charge. Our design will be lightweight, cost-efficient, and easily accessible to display its practicality in camping situations. The SCWT project consists of designing and manufacturing processes to produce a turbine designed to meet engineering standards. 

The project's aim is to test and validate XFOIL, a numerical analysis tool that calculates the lift and drag forces experienced by 2D airfoil shapes. The goal of this team is to design and execute an experimental campaign to acquire reliable data for the validation of XFOIL's numerical prediction method.  The campaign involves a set of carefully coordinated wind tunnel experiments and numerical calculations to document methods and results.  With the application of the acquired data, XFOIL’s predictability is assessed through the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) framework adapted to assess modeling and simulation methods.

The Horizontal Stepping Robot is a rehabilitation tool that will allow researchers to study epidural electrical stimulation (EES), with the aim of allowing patients with spinal cord injury to regain the ability to walk. The robot will be rolled up to the patient's bed, allowing for training while the patient is still hospitalized, and support the weight of their legs to allow an “air stepping” motion. It will record the patient leg motion and allow for tracking of the patient's progress through rehabilitation. The current approach is to use pulleys, springs, and cables to design a passive system that hangs patients' legs and assists leg motion while using the microprocessor, Arduino, to collect data and attract the motion of patients' legs.

Our name comes from the e-Human Powered Vehicle Competition (HPVC), hosted by the national organization American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) which we are participating in. We want to establish this new UCI senior design project as a recurring project that anyone can join. In addition, we are partnered with ASME at UCI to help get lower-classmen involved in the process so they can gain some hands-on experience necessary for succeeding in their engineering careers.

ASME hosts an endurance race that runs for 2.5 hours with many obstacles such as tight turns, uneven terrain, and inclines. HPVC at UCI will design and manufacture a recumbent, tadpole bike with a sufficient rollover protection system to keep the driver safe in case of an accident during the endurance race. The bike consists of 5 major systems: braking system, drive system, steering system, rollover protection system, and electrical system. The team has been split into three subteams: statics which consists of the bike frame, rollover protection system and seat; dynamics which consists of steering, braking, and driving; electrical which consists of the battery, electrical box and electric motor. Overall, the team aims to produce a bike that is ergonomic, safe, and easy to handle.

Renewable energy remains to be a sustainable source, exhibiting benefits such as low environmental impact and ability to be naturally replenished. SCWT Design sets out to reintroduce the utilization of wind energy by creating a small-scale portable wind turbine that demonstrates practicality for camping applications. The focuses, placed on portability and functionality, draw to a design which demonstrate capabilities for providing electrity for ordinary charging portable appliances in a camping setting (2 cell phones, camera battery charger, flashlight, backup battery bank). SCWT Design, consisting of 5 members, plans to utilize the engineering process to produce a design feasible to meet the forementioned capabilities.

UCI Cargo Plane is an undergraduate design project based on the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Aero Design West Competition. The goal of this project is to design, manufacture, and test an electric RC aircraft with Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) capabilities.