CAPSTONE Project Ideas Daniel Sullivan, PhD Sept. 26, 2012

SAE Formula Hybrid

SAE Formula Hybrid Goal of current program is to have a vehicle to

enter into the 2014 competition Design can be either

true hybrid using a specified IC engine Complete electric powertrain

Capstone teams must be willing to interface with Riverhawk racing club

Capstone proposals must be informed by the specific requirements of the SAE Competition Rules http://www.formula-hybrid.org/pdf/Formula-Hybrid-

2013-Rules.pdf

Project Ideas… Design and test of electric power train Investigation of hybrid power train Design and test of battery management

system Aerodynamic design and modeling of

vehicle design Mechanical design of vehicle body Design and test of possible suspension

systems

Interconnected… No Capstone team can work in a

vacuum – teams must be willing to work together

Highly encourage teams to solicit a team member(s) from your colleagues in electrical engineering

Lego Part Sorter

Lego Sorter System for the k-12 classroom Lego building systems are widely used in

k-12 STEM curriculums. Challenge: Valuable class time is lost

handing out and collecting Lego part kits Goal: Design a system that can be built as

a kit from COTS parts to make the use of Legos a more efficient hand on teaching tool

Concept Used Legos can be dumped into a hopper

where they are sorted and deposited into individual part bins

Teacher can use predefined parts list to “program” picker to prepare required number of part kits for each individual lesson.

Children then pick up bins with the required parts for the lesson and immediately begin working. At very end of class, students dump their Legos back into used Lego hopper

Microprocessor controlled motion actuator testbed

ME’s typically don’t know enough about motor control… Design and build an interactive test bed

that allows for instruction on how to implement and control DC motors AC motors Servo Motors Stepper Motors Brushless DC motors Linear actuators

Control using multiple microcontroller platforms Arduino Parallax .NET Gadgeteer

User Friendly System should be designed such that it

can be produced by other users Produce and disseminate instructions on

how to construct and program system Produce informative documentation so

that the system “teaches” users how to implement these motion control devices.

Additional and/or follow on idea is to incorporate a suite of common sensors.

High Pressure microwave plasma test reactor

Previous work has focused on systems designed for EP applications

Goal: create a general purpose test bed Base cavity is available Power system needs to be built –

based on existing designs Gas flow control system (Labview

based) needs to be designed and built that allows for primary and secondary gas flows

Implement a stepper motor based system for cavity tuning

Collect data on plasma formation under varied conditions

Test for ability of system to destroy chemical compounds.

Interested? Prof. Dan Sullivan

Perry 330 X2959 daniel_sullivan@uml.edu

Presentation is available from my website

that can be accessed from my faculty profile on ME site.