2005

Suspect: Universal Network Controller

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 16:59:53 +0000

Suspect: Universal Network Controller Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/30/2016 - 10:59

Team members:

Joe Chmura
Garrett Earnshaw
Mieszko Krugen
Yoni Mekuria

Imagine sitting with your laptop in your home. From the convenience of your couch you can control the stereo, turn on the lights, and start the coffee maker all with minimum effort and info-structure. This will be the control center of your entire smart house or peripheral device network. We propose to create a black box control unit that will be remotely controlled through direct communication from a computer. The controller will be connected to a network of modules that can control a number of devices in a home, office, or other work environment.

A computer with an RS232 connection will initially control the black box module. The paradigm of the black box is simple: control everything else with a Controller Area Network (CAN). On the other side of the CAN network will be controller modules that can be customized per application. Half of the controller board will be universally designed to communicate with the CAN network. The other half of the controller could be a sensor or controller of power, other communication protocols or simple one-way controllers such as infrared. Doing so reduces cabling and complexity of the network by issuing simple 8 bit commands to individual controller modules. In essence, making a controller theoretically infinitely expandable and incredibly versatile.

Off

Traditional

White

SAFE: System for Accident Free Environment

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 16:58:27 +0000

SAFE: System for Accident Free Environment Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/30/2016 - 10:58

Team members:

Anders Fornberg
Sean Groves
Alex Henriquez
Shannon Lahr
Aaron Lyons

Numerous car accidents occur every day that could easily be avoided. The purpose of our project is to develop a prototype system that will minimize these accidents and could eventually be expanded for commercial applications.

Description: Modified RC car that can sense oncoming accidents and take corrective action.

Objectives:

Develop sensor array that
- Senses objects from multiple directions
- Detects relative speed of approaching objects
Provide warning feedback to user when accidents are imminent
Develop a system that overrides manual control from the user in order to prevent accidents that include
- Head on collision
- Merging into blind spots
- Backing into stationary objects

Extended features:

Detecting surface road conditions and taking corrective action

Off

Traditional

White

RFNT: Technology Rover

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 16:56:11 +0000

RFNT: Technology Rover Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/30/2016 - 10:56

Team members:

Josh Bingaman
Ryan Hitchler
John Maitin
Matt Sharp

We propose to use high-frequency RF signaling to control a vehicle via a remote transmitter. This vehicle will track down a subject carrying said transmitter. One practical application of this system can be motorizing and controlling pull carts on the golf course. The project is quite scalable. In the most elementary design the vehicle will simply locate the subject. We can scale up by mobilizing the target, adding proximity sensors so the vehicle can circumnavigate obstacles, or perhaps by implementing system control via a cell phone. Additional onboard capabilities may be added as well.

Base Requirements:

Vehicle mobility
RF transmission and signal strength indication
Directional targeting
Vehicle seeks target

Possibilities for scalability

Obstacle detection & circumnavigation (sonar?)
Cellular Phone control
Additional RF-controlled functions

Off

Traditional

White

LuGER: Laser Listener

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 16:55:07 +0000

LuGER: Laser Listener Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/30/2016 - 10:55

Team members:

Jeremiah Anderson
Ryan Schnell
Michael Weimer
Mike Wong

For the senior design project we will be building a device that will be capable of "listening" to vibrations on a flexible medium by means of a reflected laser signal, such as a window driven by pressure variations due to sound. The device will operate using the same principal as Alexander Graham Bell's "Photophone", in which sunlight reflected off of a Mylar diaphragm to send a voice over a beam of light. The major difference is that we will provide the light source, and thereby be able to control many more factors. Also, this project will incorporate a very scalable modular design that allows for:

Analog filtering of incoming laser signal
Digital filtering of incoming laser signal
Analog Storage of processed signal
Digital Storage of processed signal
Analog Playback of real-time or stored data

Using the reflective properties of either a mirror, or a glass window, we hope to reflect a laser from a source, and receive a reflection from the window. By measuring minute variations in the window, we hope to reconstruct the pressure difference (i.e., sound) that caused such tremors on the window, thereby being able to "listen" to what is going on near the window.

Off

Traditional

White

Lazer: Laser Tracking System

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 16:47:05 +0000

Lazer: Laser Tracking System Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/30/2016 - 10:47

Team members:

Matt Aamold
Jassim Alshamali
Aja Armstrong
Son Nguyen

Team Lazer's design objectives are to design and build a laser tracking system. This system will use an analog camera focusing on a laser against a plain white (or possibly some other colored) background. The background color will give easy differentiation for seeing the laser.

The system will have two different modes; dynamic tracking and acquire to shoot. Dynamic tracking will provide ability for the system to follow a moving laser target and keep the laser in the specified "hot-spot" of the video feed. Acquire to shoot mode will target the statically positioned laser and once acquired, will shoot a simple projectile at the laser target.

Initial proposals state that a PC will only be used for displaying the digitized feed and the rest of the calculations for tracking and motor control will all be done with the Spartan-3 Series FPGA by Xilinx.

Off

Traditional

White

Lit

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 16:45:44 +0000

Lit Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/30/2016 - 10:45

Team members:

Scott Butler
Kristin Haeusler
Michael Hatt
Brock Smith

Our group is going to take the LED boards developed by Tom Churchill and create a pattern controller for these boards with the capability to simultaneously drive and control in excess of 3000 LEDs. The controller for this board will have three different modes. The first mode, called Manual, will display preset patterns and have the ability to light each LED individually. The second mode will take data from a VGA interface. The last mode will take information from an A/D to converter and use this information to create a pattern for the LEDs. There will be an LCD to display the current mode and touchpad input mode and manual pattern numbers.

Off

Traditional

White

The Player Guitar

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 16:39:42 +0000

The Player Guitar Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/30/2016 - 10:39

Team members:

Rick Denney
Dan Forrester
Lucas Gilbride
Randall Hood

This capstone project will actually be a proof of concept for a player guitar. We plan to build a mechanical device that will play songs on a guitar. Due to financial and time limitations, the guitar player will only use the last four frets on the guitar to play the melodies (which will somewhat restrict the song selections).

The player guitar will have two main mechanical features. First, the "fingers" near the base of the guitar will pluck the strings using small mounted motors. On the neck of the guitar, solenoids will be used to press down the strings in order to play the desired note.

Ideally, we will be able to download midi files from the internet, encode the files into information that the device will understand, and then play the song on the guitar. As noted before, this project is only a proof of the concept that we could design a complete player guitar given the necessary time and money. We believe a device like this would be highly marketable and fun to watch and listen to.

Off

Traditional

White

EGD: Electronic Guidance Device

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 16:38:19 +0000

EGD: Electronic Guidance Device Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/30/2016 - 10:38

Team members:

Abdulkarim Al-Shanfari
Robert Bornhijm
Stephen Harris
Bradford Smethie

The project in question is the electronic cane, which will be used as a navigational aid for the blind and vision impaired. The cane will meet the following criteria:

Will be able to determine if there is an object or a drop-off approximately ten feet in front of the user.
Upon request of the user, the cane will be able to give the user his or her orientation through the use of a digital compass.
All feedback will be provided through a voice chip (and possibly through a vibrational mode)

The project will incorporate the following parts:

microprocessor
two ultrasonic (or more) range finder units
one digital compass
one voice chip

We hope this project will be a technological advancement available for use by the blind and vision impaired. Currently there are few such products available on the market.

Off

Traditional

White

Deathstar: Loran C Receiver

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 16:16:08 +0000

Deathstar: Loran C Receiver Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/30/2016 - 10:16

Team members:

Matt Anderson
Chris Birschback
Christy Corner
Matt Hayman
Erin Mowbray

Our group will design a receiver that will be able to capture and decode the Loran-C signal maintained by the United States Coast Guard. Our system will consist of three main parts: the antenna/receiver, processing unit and personal computer.

The antenna/receiver will consist of a loop antenna with a Butterworth filter to capture the fundamental signal received by the antenna. This segment of the project serves the main purpose of capturing the Loran-C signal with minimal noise and preparing it for processing.

The processing unit will consist of an analog-to-digital converter, a 68K processor, memory, FPGA, LCD and input & output channels. After the signal has been converted to a digital signal, the processor will store it in memory. The FPGA uses the previously stored signals, and performs subtraction in order to determine the Loran Time Delays. The FPGA also has the interrupt controller that determines when the analog-to-digital controller sends the data to memory. The calculated Loran Time Delay will then be sent to the LCD as well as the PC (via serial port) for display and further processing. The PC will perform intensive calculations and convert the Loran Time Delays into latitude and longitude coordinates. These coordinates will then be displayed on the PC.

Off

Traditional

White

Darsi: Data-Acquisition Real-time System Integration

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 16:14:12 +0000

Darsi: Data-Acquisition Real-time System Integration Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/30/2016 - 10:14

Team members:

Matt Hulse
Marc Kessler
Andy Lin
Chris Lites
Preston Schipper

Initial Design Objectives: To design and construct a telemetric data acquisition system for automotive applications with a focus on the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ FSAE race car.

Our design will collect data through independent sensors designed to be used in the ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ FSAE race car chassis. Data consists of dynamic car statistics, such as wheel speed, shock position and motor monitoring sensors. The design will be modular, allowing future expansion of new telemetric sensors. The central component will be a processing board that communicates with all the modular sensors and stores collected data for future analysis. It will also have the capability to process the collected data for future control systems throughout the car.

The system will provide a useful tool for race engineering and also provide a strong platform for the development of new safety systems for the general public. Newer safety systems utilizing data acquisition help to create control systems for the consumer market. Some of these control systems include traction control, anti-lock brakes, skid-control assist, and intelligent air-bag systems. All systems requiring fast acting controls rely upon precise data acquisition systems.

Off

Traditional

White