MAE

This is the payload subteam of the AIAA Design Build Fly Team at UCI. Our subteam is in charge of designing the fuselage to hold vaccine syringes and the drop mechanism to release the syringes. Our goal is to release syringes carefully and quickly to deliver as many syringes as possible without compromising the integrity.

Our team’s goal is to design and build a bomber style aircraft that will instead be used to release vaccine syringes. The payload subteam will be in charge of designing the fuselage to hold syringes and a drop mechanism to individually release syringes. We will strive to release the vaccine syringes as quickly and as safely as possible.

Maintaining lines of communication is vital in emergency situations. One major concern for those living in rural areas is being cut off from the electrical grid during natural disasters. The small-scale wind turbine project aims to design a scaled down wind turbine sized for a single household's personal use, in case of an emergency. The wind turbine should be capable of powering household devices needed in emergency situations, such as radios, lightbulbs and cellphones.This project encompasses the designing,  optimization and a fully developed manufacturing plan for the assembly of the wind turbine, as well as each of its constituent components.

Background

Students that are a part of the UC Irvine Intelligent Ground Vehicle Team will design and test an autonomous ground vehicle that is able to navigate through an obstacle course. The technologies used in IGV encompass a wide range of applications in engineering including military mobility, intelligent transport systems, and manufacturing. 

Goals and Objectives 

The goal for students in IGV is to implement skills gained in classes while designing the vehicle and developing a method to allow it to navigate through the obstacle course. This includes usage of Finite State Machines, Ultrasonic and GPS Sensors, and microcontrollers. 

Currently, the project is in the optimization stage. The chassis has been built and the obstacle detection code, GPS, and navigation systems are nearly complete. The next steps are to reconstruct the chassis using a more flexible material as the plexiglass was very unwieldy. Furthermore, we plan to optimize the lane detection...

The CanSat competition is a design-build-fly competition that provides teams with an opportunity to experience the design life-cycle of an aerospace system. The CanSat competition is designed to reflect a typical aerospace program on a small scale and includes all aspects of an aerospace program from the preliminary design review to post mission review. The mission and its requirements are designed to reflect various aspects of real world missions including telemetry requirements, communications, and autonomous operations. Each team is scored throughout the competition on real-world deliverables such as schedules, design review presentations, and demonstration flights.

As indicated by the title “Design, Build, Fly”, this project involves the design of an aircraft for the purpose of completing three air missions and one ground mission, building components of the aircraft that are not commercially available, and testing and flying the aircraft. The design of the aircraft is optimized solely to complete the missions. The missions are as follows: For mission 1 (deployment flight), the aircraft must complete 3 laps within a 5 minute flight window without a payload and complete a successful landing; For mission 2 (Staging Flight), the aircraft must complete 3 laps within a 5 minute flight window with a payload of at least 10 syringes; For mission 3 (Vaccine Delivery Flight), the aircraft has 10 minutes to  complete as many ‘vaccine package’ deployments as possible; Finally, ground mission is a timed mission with the aircraft in the flight configuration in the “mission box” with Mission 2 and 3 payloads. The assembly crew must demonstrate the functionality of the aircraft by deploying all payloads. The design of the aircraft will focus on the requirements of the third mission where the aircraft must be able to complete a flight course within a time window while carrying a payload and making several takeoffs and landings. The wings, fuselage, empennage, will be drawn and built by the team. Components such as the battery, propellers, motors, wheels will be carefully selected to meet the aircraft performance requirements. The team is divided into sub teams that focus on aircraft performance, propulsion, CAD, payload and the like. 

Background:

The UCI Anteater Baja Racing SAE team competes yearly in the Baja SAE West Collegiate Design Competition hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Each year the team develops a brand-new single-seat off-road vehicle for the competition based on research into the dynamics of off-road vehicles and a critical analysis of the previous year’s car. The yearly competition hosts 100 collegiate teams from across the world and consists of a series of static and dynamic events culminating in the 4-hour, 100 car wheel-to-wheel endurance event. 

Goal and Objectives:

The objective of the 2021-2022 UCI Baja SAE team is to develop a reliable, competitive single-seat off road vehicle to place among the top 20 teams in the upcoming 2022 Baja SAE West competition. In order to accomplish this, the 2022 competition vehicle, named Vandal II, must be the lightest, fastest, best performing, and most reliable vehicle that the team...

Background

Thermal management systems, involving the use of technology to control and maintain temperature within a certain range, have applications across many industries. With the continuing advancements in electronics and other high power density producing systems such as spacecraft, the power they generate is expected to increase. These systems are projected to exceed a power generation of 1400 W/cm^2. The absence of efficient cooling systems and power dissipation, however, will lead to the degradation of the system and short term use of components. The Air Force Research Laboratory is actively researching thermal management solutions and have partnered with universities for research and development. The High Heat Flux Project hopes to collaborate with AFRL in the future by relaying data.

Goal and Objectives

The overall goal of the project is to design and manufacture a test bed that will demonstrate a controlled production and dissipation of heat flux. This is...

This project hopes to explore renewable energy on a personal scale. The Power Blades team is working on developing a small scale wind turbine suitable for camping applications. The wind turbine will be compact enough to fit a hiking backpack and should be easily deployed and assembled. It will be able to reliably provide enough electricity overnight to charge common camping appliances(cell phones, flashlights, camera battery, ...). The project consists of 2 teams, mechanical and electrical, that will practice the design process in order to plan and design the manufacturing of the small scale wind turbine. The actual manufacturing of this product will not be conducted.

LiDAR Vision is a senior design project aimed to design and fabricate a 2D-localization LiDAR equipped device. In order for robots to perform independently and autonomously, they need to be aware of the environment around them. The sensors built into the robots can function as their “eyes” to detect surroundings and provide feedback to the unit to adjust their movements accordingly. LiDAR sensors, using light detection and ranging to locate, are very cost-effective in the markets and accurate while detecting and ranging obstacles. Our team is designing and fabricating a standalone 2D-localization LiDAR equipped device that can operate functionally indoors.

Background 

The Autonomous Underwater vehicle project is a student-led group of Mechanical Engineering students working with Professor Camilo Velez to study and manufacture a swarm of small scale robots. Our inspiration for this project stems from the idea that nano robots can work together to detect, isolate and remove a single cell in the human body. In an effort to work towards this idea, our team is set to construct a number of small-scale robots that can autonomously navigate in a swimming pool to detect and attach magnetically to a specified item. 

Goal and Objectives

• Team Organization and Project Definition (Week 2)
• Break down the functions of the robot into smaller individual tasks and find the optimal parts and sensors for our robot’s functions. (Week 3-4)
• Create a virtual prototype of the robot with every required component and optimize how those components will work together. (Week 5)
...

Background:

The goal of this project is to test the compressor of a ventilator, that is used in the medical field, and to experimentally gather data and determine the best possible design by comparing different criteria. There are two design iterations that will be finalized for 3D printed and experimental testing. Once completed students will begin to build a test bench for running tests to find the compressor maps for the compressors which will show the projected map contours. Compressor maps will show RPM-Pressure-flow rate, Efficiency-Pressure-flow rate, Power-Pressure-flow rate, and Noise-Pressure-flow rate. Interfacing with sensored brushless DC motor, flow sensor, and pressure sensors will be done on Labview. Different compressors will be compared and the most efficient design configuration will be selected.

In this project, we are working for Laguna Tools to redesign the upper and lower bandsaw blade guides on the 14-Twelve bandsaw. Bandsaw's blades are supported by the guides in three directions: the two sides and the back side. The current design features a rail system where the guides are able to slide and be locked in place with a screw. Currently the lower guide's adjustment knobs are obstructed by the bandsaw table and other components making it difficult to properly adjust the guide. The objective of this project is to design the guides such that they are user friendly, have precise and accurate adjustments, and be easy to manufacture.

Background

The UC Irvine Rocket Project (UCIRP) is an undergraduate led team of students looking to design and fabricate a liquid-fueled rocket. With faculty advisor Professor Mark Walter the team is competing in the Friends of Amateur Dollar Per Foot Challenge, a competition between universities to create a single stage liquid propellant rocket with a $1 per foot of altitude above the end of the launch rail reward for teams that can complete this challenge. So far the team has been able to reach a point where they can run static test fires for their Preliminary Test Engine (P.T.E.) using a test stand. The team is currently looking to redefine the rocket's subsystems to be able to better optimize the launch vehicle's mass. The main rocket team has found issues with the mass of the current bleed valves and are looking for this team to create a Bleed Valve Actuation...

UCI Bike Frame is a senior engineering project devoted to the design and manufacturing of bicycle frames. In the past, the project has functioned as a UROP grant-funded club and later a mechanical engineering senior project "UCI Bike Builders" (MAE 189).  The senior project is focused on developing an additively manufactured weldless bike that will utilize multiple materials. This bike is experimental in nature and allows for greater customization while also reducing assembly time. The bike will utilize off-the-shelf carbon tubes which will be connected using custom additively manufactured titanium lugs. The carbon tubes will be fixed to the lugs using a two-part epoxy and fishing wire will be wrapped around the ends of each tube to ensure concentricity at the mating surface. Tolerancing will be extremely important in determining the strength of the joint. The 3D-printed lugs will have to be post-processed in the machine shop to ensure accurate tolerancing.

Background:

The UAV Forge team has a competition and requires a means of measuring drone thrust in relation to battery drain under various load conditions and varying configurations, such as quad-, hexa-, and octocopers. Previous attempts by the Forge team to measure drone thrust had been proven inefficient and unreliable. The Forge team requested a dedicated team to design and manufacture a safe and reliable means of measuring and recording drone thrust. This stand is unique as it measures the thrust of the drone as a whole assembly whereas other methods measure the thrust using only a single propeller and motor.

Background:

UAV forge needs a new tailsitter drone design that is capable of completing a range of tasks required in Association for the Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Student Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition. The drone will need to take-off and land vertically (VTOL) and transition between hover and horizontal flight like a traditional fixed wing aircraft.

“VTOL tailsitters deliver usability and reliability that is hard to match. Simple and light construction reduces the potential for human error and mechanical failure, ensuring a faster, more reliable, and safer drone survey mission.” - Wingtra

Goals and Objectives:

In the 2 quarter time frame, we as a team aim to achieve to:

• Have a functional prototype capable of vertical take-off, hovering, and transitioning to horizontal flight like a fixwing aircraft.
• Have a maximum altitude of 10 feet and a flight time of approximately 10 minutes.
• Test flights on a specified path to fulfill competition requirements.
...

Background: 

With wifi being so prevelent it is easy to forget that it is not as commonplace as we think. In search and rescue scenarios many first responders often get trapped or injured while on duty with virtually no way to locate them. There are countless factors to take into account that make it impossible to prepare for with traditional tracking software. However, by using a passive RFID tag we can circumvent all the hassles and worries of a lost signal or power source to focus on retrieving lost or injured personnel. 

Goal and Objectives:

The goal of this project is to research Radio Frequency Identification and the possible applications it can have with a focus in search and rescue scenarios. Using passive RFID tags that require no power this will allow for countless applications regardless of the area or lack of a signal. This quarter will create an algorithm that allows a robot to locate the said...

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 interface the UAV with a descent and autonomous ground vehicle. The ground vehicle,once landed, will autonomously drive to its’ set destination to complete payload delivery. 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.

We are UC Irvine’s Electric Racing Team, a senior design project in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering. Founded in 2011, our mission is to help students grow as engineering professionals by creating a space where they can apply their engineering knowledge to a hands-on project. In addition to strengthening the students’ skills, this venture helps foster team-building, communication, and leadership expertise. The final goal for this project, along with allowing the students to build an electric race car from scratch, is to compete in the student FSAE competition.

How to Join Anteater Formula Racing

If you're a UCI student and interested in joining our team, feel free to contact electric.antearracing@gmail.com for more information.

Members will enroll in MAE 189 or MAE 93 for credit.

Team Contacts

Fiona Chu, Project Manager chufl@uci.edu

Joseph Chen, Chief Mechanical Engineer

Timothy Teng, Chief Electrical Engineer

Background

The goal of this project is to design, build and evaluate the performance of a six-legged walking machine that uses one drive motor for locomotion and a second drive motor for steering.  An RC transmitter and receiver will be used to provide user control of the drive and steering motors.  The walker should be constructed from parts that are readily available for on-line purchase or can be manufactured remotely using UCI facilities. Assembly should require tools available to the hobbyist. It should be sized so that it is portable, and can move at approximately 1.5 fps.

Background information is available at the YouTube site:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ZQHc5wBkzqhG5TpsZYGwg

Deliverables: A demonstration of the six-legged walking machine moving through a set of obstacles under RC control.

Goal and Objectives

The goal of this project is to design, construct, and demonstrate a six-legged steerable mechanical walker. The walker will be minimally actuated with 2-4...

Client-focused project to develop prosthetic opposable thumb that allows for grasping objects with that hand. Work with an individual who retains portions of fingers on right hand, and has left arm and both feet amputated.

Project Team will interview client to assess and analyze needs, and obtain a 3D scan of residual hand. Team will then brainstorm design concepts before creating a CAD model of the prosthetic thumb prototype. Team members will perform calculations to determine degrees of freedom and force requirements. Appropriate adjustments will be made to the CAD design before first prosthetic thumb prototype is 3D printed. After testing the prototype with client to perfect the prototype, over several iterations, the design will be finalized and fabricated.

Our project was focused on exploring the resources available in the public knowledge space for creating advanced robotics. We specifically focused on the open source technology and guidance that would allow a small team or individual to create a versatile, efficient, and low cost robot that could be customized to act intelligently and effectively in as many different situations and environments as possible.

The result of the past 9 months of work is a robot dog in the sub $250 range that is both cute, powerful, and intelligent in how it receives and carries out commands. Given more time, we know our robot could acheive even more and we are excited to see how far it goes in the future.

This project was to make a robotic quadruped in the form of a dog.  It should be able to be voice-controlled using recognized commands to move via servo-controlled leg joints as well as perform speech output.  To achieve this, we utilized 3-D printed material for the chassis and legs as well as bearings for structural support.  These parts hold a “Raspberry Pi 4” connected to a servo hat that leads to 12 different servos, three for each leg.  As far as software, we imported a voice recognition library, taking advantage of Google’s voice recognition taking input from a USB microphone and outputting from a speaker.

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Background:

Drones (often referred to as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)) are unpiloted aircraft or spacecraft that can be autonomously or remotely controlled. They are used for a wide variety of applications such as the military, space exploration, and for commercial use, which allow ordinary people and companies to fly these vehicles for all sorts of purposes. Drones usually run on lithium polymer batteries (lipo Batteries) but hydrogen fuel cells can also be incorporated. 

Hydrogen fuel cells are renewable energy systems that have the following key characteristics:

• The fuel they run on, hydrogen, is easily accessible since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe.
• Do not cause pollution or danger to our environment as they do not release greenhouse gases as opposed to burning fossil fuels.
• When it comes to drones, they help maximize productivity and longer flight time in a single drone flight.

The Long-Range Drone project incorporates a hydrogen...

Background:

FUSION's year-long engineering project serves as an introduction for our club members on how engineering projects are handled in both school and the real world. This year each team researched, designed, and built an affordable, voice-controlled quadruped robot pupper. Students had the creative freedom to explore different sensors, materials, and designs to complete their goal, which includes CAD designs/drawings and finished paperwork documenting the process, materials, and tools used. The project culminated with each team showcasing their creations in a dog show competition that tested their pupper's speed and abilities through some creative doggo tricks. 

Goals & Objectives:

• Develop an affordable, voice-controlled quadruped
• Fall Quarter: Gantt chart, UROP Proposal application, brainstorm designs
• Winter Quarter: Finalize design, software application, frame construction
• Spring Quarter: Quality assurance, optimization, video, presentation

Requirements:

• $1,500 budget for each team
• Must be reminiscent of a dog (head, eyes, or tail)
• Must be able to receive input from voice
...

Background: 

Under high stress, the axle in SUPER73 e-bikes grind into the dropout, and deform, ultimately leading to failure over long term usage. The goal of this project is to redesign the axle or dropout to be able to handle the impact loads and torque regularly experienced, so as to not fail.

The team researched existing vehicle axles, and used that as a baseline to brainstorm new ideas. Calculations of the load cases and use cases of the original design created a standard by which the team compared the viability of new designs. In addtion, the team visited the company site to gain real life engineering experience during pandemic. 

After narrowing the brainstormed ideas down to 3 final designs, FEA analysis in CAD software showed us that a torque arm design, a collet gear axle design, and a full floating axle design are all reasonable alternatives to the current axle...

UCI Zephyr project plans to bring electrical power to the great outdoors. Taking inspiration from global climate change and large wind turbines, our team is developing a wind turbine small enough to fit inside a hiking bag and capable of charging multiple devices overnight in 10 m/s winds. The project will challenge the team to utilize the skills learned throughout our undergraduate careers to develop an efficient and affordable power source. UCI Zephyr project is composed of two teams, mechanical and electrical, working together with our sponsor. The Spring 2021 team will create the design plans needed for manufacturing during the 2021-2022 school year.

UCI Bike Builders is a senior project devoted to the design and manufacturing of bicycle frames. The frame being developed for 189 will be constructed using carbon fiber tubes and metal 3D printed lugs, bonded together with a high strength two part epoxy. The project is also manufacturing a more traditional steel frame using oxy acetylene brazing. In order to achieve this, a modular welding jig was designed and machined in house.