ME Senior Design 2022

The objective of this project is to help stop human trafficking with technology and the use of our engineering knowledge. Human trafficking is forcing a person to perform an act of labor against their will—also known as modern slavery. This industry is worth $150 billion and devastates victims across the world. For the purpose of our project, we are focusing on helping victims in Florida. Traffickers often move and sell their victims in major Florida cities such as Tallahassee, Tampa, Orlando, Miami and Jacksonville. The aggressors violate, abuse and may kill their victims. Something must change to rescue these victims from a lifetime of slavery.

Our design allows for young adults being trafficked or abused to alert the police and get help. Apart from rescuing lives, this project intends to spread awareness about human trafficking in Florida’s panhandle to inform the public of the severity of this issue. 

This design has two distinct units that work to identify and rescue victims. A hidden vending machine allows victims to alert the police discreetly when in danger. The vending machine takes the consent of the victim by having them use a fingerprint scanner to start the machine. Once the device has been activated, a disguised GPS tracker will be dispensed, and the police will be alerted. 

The second part of our project is a digital poster with a camera to aid in identifying the user. This camera uses artificial intelligence to recognize the face of the user. Fingerprinting and facial recognition work together to build the profile of the user. This profile includes information about the date, time, and name of the user. This project aims to rescue trafficking and abuse victims from a lifetime of human trafficking.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s an … asteroid! NASA scientists believe that the asteroid Psyche may be remnant core material from a planetesimal.

Launching in 2022 and arriving in 2026, a NASA orbiter will get a closer look at Psyche and gather information. Scientists are hopeful that this asteroid could provide useful information about the formation of the solar system and the cores of rocky planets like Earth. And potentially, many more proposals for future mission teams landing a spacecraft on Psyche.

We were tasked with designing a spacecraft landing system capable of landing on the hypothesized surfaces of the Psyche asteroid, an M-Type asteroid. Unlike other solar system bodies visited before, the surface of the asteroid is unknown but thought to be uneven, with a mix of rock and metal. The proposed landing attachment will be able to land a spacecraft on the asteroid’s hypothesized surfaces. Our design uses three legs to support the spacecraft. Each leg features a shock absorber to take the impact force of landing.The shock absorber is a piston-like assembly with an aluminum honeycomb-filled cylinder that deforms on impact. To stabilize the spacecraft, each leg adjusts its height independently for a leveled position. At the bottom of the leg is a pin screen foot, modeled after the popular children’s toy. The pin screen toy is known for being able to form to the shape of any three-dimensional relief it is placed on. We believe our landing system that can successfully put a spacecraft on Psyche’s range of suspected surfaces.

Corning produces brittle, cylindrical ceramic filters for vehicles with internal combustion engines to filter exhaust air. They discovered that these ceramic filters are often damaged when moved from one manufacturing stage to another, typically occurring when the filter’s skin is crushed, making the filters unusable. We were tasked with providing a solution for handling ceramic filters without introducing damage during the production process. Our design prevents visible damage at the location where the production handler contacts the filter’s outer walls.

Our handler design has three fingers that approach the filter’s surface in separate places around the its circumference. The design is adjustable depending on the size of the filter it is handling. There is compliant padding attached to the design that contacts the filter’s surface to lessen the contact forces applied on the filter. Force sensors indicate when the handler should stop applying pressure, allowing for part movement. This procedure is quick and consistent with the use of motors and a computer, making it usable in a lean manufacturing system. The linear motion of the padded three-finger design also allows the handler to pick and place various sizes of these ceramic filters with a controlled motion.

We valuated the handler performance with sample filters provided by Corning. A successful test resulted in the handler not causing damage to the ceramic parts after contact by regulating the forces applied by the handler, adding cushioning to the interface, and increasing the contact area.

Compressors are parts of air-conditioners that compress a liquid to cool down and draw moisture from the air. Each one must work in the weather where it will be used. Our goal was to design an air control system that attaches to a plastic chamber to test compressors at different temperatures and humidity levels. The main issues when testing are air leaks and heat loss through the testing cell. Our design addresses this problem by putting the air control unit right next to the chamber. This reduces the amount of duct needed, which lessens air leaks and heat transfer. All cracks and holes seal tightly to create a closed volume of air, as well. These choices allow for accurate control of inner conditions within 15 minutes. The design also stops condensed water from building up by collecting and returning it to the humidifier.

We improved an existing design by increasing the range of cooling, humidity and mobility, decreasing heat loss to the surrounding air. Our design has a more powerful air chiller, humidifier and two more heaters. Ducts attach to the chamber’s sidewalls and are easily removable. Installing the unit on the floor instead of a wall is another improvement. Sensors check the inner temperature and humidity levels, allowing adjustment to the user’s desired values. This design achieves hands-free testing in harsh and mild weather, allowing the user to discover its abilities before selling or using it. In many ways our project has wide applications across many industries.

The Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion focuses on aerospace and aviation research and technology. FCAAP continually seeks to improve current technology by providing testing and evaluation services to this industry. Because FCAAP has identified the benefits of finless missiles, we looked into new methods of flight control without using fins, specifically a missile with a rotating and deflecting nose.

Missile technologies often use fins to control the missile. Removing the fins allows for more usable space within the design, allowing for increased storage of items such as fuel or electronics. The nose of the missile shows promise when used as a tool for improving mobility. Compared to fins, a rotating nose needs less power to move at high speeds. This means the motors will need less space in the missile. Adjusting the nose is an ideal choice for improving missile control.

We tested the model in the lab to understand the benefit of the rotating nose for control. To control the nose, internal motors connect to a controller outside the tunnel. This controller enables the nose to move during testing. Using existing software and coding, the influence of the rotating nose on the missile control can be seen using advanced testing techniques. Our tests show a picture of how the air moves near the missile nose to better understand the changes caused by the nose rotating. Our results allow for the comparison between the effectiveness of the moving nose compared to the rotated fins.