Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Transcription

1 Worcester Polytechnic Institute Aerospace Engineering Program Project Presentation Day Program April 21, 2016 Aerospace Engineering Program Higgins Laboratories, Room Institute Road Worcester, MA

2 Judge Panel Frank Dick Associate Teaching Professor, Physics Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA Michael Judd Aerospace Engineering Group MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Ret.) Lexington, MA N. Albert Moussa President, BlazeTech Corporation Woburn, MA Charles Wilson Aerospace Engineering Group MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Ret.) Lexington, MA Heterogeneous Network of Autonomous Vehicles Binxin Liu, David Moore, Dylan Shields Co-Advisor: Professor Michael Demetriou This project involves the design and implementation of a feedback control system to enable a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to detect and track the motion of a terrestrial wheeled mobile robot. The detection of the terrestrial robot is enabled by a camera carried onboard by the UAV, in conjunction with unique identification marks placed on the terrestrial robot. Raw camera data is processed by an algorithm developed using the open source software library OpenCV, which is executed a Raspberry Pi embedded computer carried onboard by the UAV. To correct errors in the vision-based measurement of the position of the terrestrial robot, a Kalman filter is developed, which is also to be executed by the Raspberry Pi computer. Preliminary test results are reported. Page 8

3 Worcester Polytechnic Institute Page 7 Plume Detection Using a Gas-Sensing Mobile Robot Nicholas Christie, John Colfer Advisor: Professor Michael Demetriou The goal of this project was to design an experiment to detect a plume of carbon dioxide in a controlled environment using a gas-sensing mobile robot. Research was conducted in the areas of differential-drive robotics, navigation, estimation, and structural analysis. The Khepera IV robot was equipped with four gas concentration sensors and a wind velocity sensor for plume detection and robot guidance. An experimental mount was designed and built to hold the concentration and wind sensors with specifications given from plume estimation simulations. A navigation program was developed using an Extended Kalman Filter to estimate the state of the robot during the plume detection experiment. Testing was conducted on each subsystem to confirm that the experiment was feasible for plume detection. Program 8:20-8:30 Opening Remarks Professor Nikolaos Gatsonis, Director, Aerospace Engineering Program 8:30-8:50 Design of an Unsteady Wind Tunnel Thomas Cieslewski, Jackson Gillenwaters, Andrej Samardzic Advisor: Professor Seong-kyun Im 8:50-9:10 Design of a Two-Kite Rotary Power Cycle for the WPI Kite-Powered Water Pump Michael Gagliano, Daniel Long, Justin Marsh Advisor: Professor David Olinger 9:10-9:30 Micro-Aerial Vehicle Design and Optimization Michelle Acevedo, Benjamin Andrews, Casey Brown, Christopher Cahill, Ruxandra Duca, Emily Dunham, Mitchell Lentz, Edson Novinyo, Luis Diego Paredes, Emily Perry, Miles Schuler, Ashley Smith, Daniel Thiesse Advisor: Professor Anthony Linn Co-Advisors: Professor Seong-kyun Im, Professor Nikhil Karanjgaokar 9:30-9:50 Autonomous Quadrotor Navigation and Guidance Jonathan Blythe, Krzysztof Borowicz, Alyssa Hollander 9:50-10:00 Break 10:00-10:20 Design and Test of a Radio-Frequency Electrothermal Thruster Abigail Cervelloni, Jared Kepron, Ian Limon, Christian Zelaya Advisor: Professor John Blandino 10:20-10:40 Design and Integration of an Indoor Plume Experimental Setup Michael Barney, Stephanie Rivard Advisor: Professor Nikolaos Gatsonis 10:40-11:00 Plume Detection Using a Gas-Sensing Mobile Robot Nicholas Christie, John Colfer Advisor: Professor Michael Demetriou 11:00-11:20 Heterogeneous Network of Autonomous Vehicles Binxin Liu, David Moore, Dylan Shields Co-Advisor: Professor Michael Demetriou 11:20-12:30 Judges convene, students complete surveys, lunch 12:30 Award Ceremony

4 Worcester Polytechnic Institute Page 1 Page 6 Design of an Unsteady Wind Tunnel Design and Integration of an Indoor Plume Experimental Setup Thomas Cieslewski, Jackson Gillenwaters, Andrej Samardzic Advisor: Professor Seong-kyun Im An unsteady wind tunnel was designed and built for the study of unsteady aerodynamics. The wind tunnel was designed as an open-loop configuration, and an active flow control system was designed as a series of horizontally aligned shutters placed in front of the test section which can block oncoming airflow to create time-varying shear flows in the test section. The wind tunnel was constructed using primarily acrylic and plywood and was run by an axial fan. The active flow control system was composed of four shutters that were held in position and rotated using steel rods and actuators located just outside the shutter frame. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used throughout the design processes, ensuring the generation of unsteady flows in the test section. Michael Barney, Stephanie Rivard Advisor: Professor Nikolaos Gatsonis This project involves the design and integration of a carbon dioxide plume generation system, a plume detection system, and a data acquisitions system for indoor plume experiments. The design of these systems is aided by 3d simulations of carbon dioxide plumes from a stationary source and a known release rate. The plume generation system is designed using SolidWorks and consists of a stand with a pressurized tank, a regulator, a solenoid valve, a mass flow controller and a nozzle. The plume detection system is designed with SolidWorks and consists of carbon dioxide sensors and wind speed sensors placed on a horizontal arm that can be repositioned vertically on a stand. The systems are controlled using LabVIEW implemented on a data acquisition computer stand.

5 Worcester Polytechnic Institute Page 5 Page 2 Design and Test of a Radio-Frequency Electrothermal Thruster Abigail Cervelloni, Jared Kepron, Ian Limon, Christian Zelaya Advisor: Professor John Blandino The goal of this project was to design, build, and test a radio-frequency electrothermal thruster (RFET) to operate on argon over a power range of W at a frequency of MHz. The RFET was designed for testing in a vacuum chamber operating in the millitorr range. The RFET required a complete redesign from a previously fabricated model. An impedance matching network was designed and constructed to maximize the power delivered to the discharge. The matching network, installed in the vacuum chamber, was designed to allow tuning by use of a motor-driven variable capacitor. A stand was designed and constructed to secure the RFET and matching network within the vacuum chamber. This paper reports on the design, fabrication, assembly, and test of the RFET and matching network. Design of a Two-Kite Rotary Power Cycle for the WPI Kite-Powered Water Pump Michael Gagliano, Daniel Long, Justin Marsh Advisor: Professor David Olinger This project continued the development of the WPI Rotary Kite Powered Water Pump to be used in developing regions. The water pump operates with Rokkaku kites that extend/retract two tether lines to spin a bike wheel, gear mechanism, and water pump axle. Improvements to the water pump include: design, fabrication, and testing of an on-board Arduino based system to vary the angle of attack of the kite, implementing a dual kite system for non-manual tether line retraction, and allowing for easier mechanical disassembly of the pump. Field testing was conducted on the new system for the first time, and water pumping rates of 1000 liters/hour were achieved. These pumping rates were much larger than those achieved by a previous WPI Kite-Powered Water Pump based on a rocking arm concept.

6 Worcester Polytechnic Institute Page 3 Page 4 Micro-Aerial Vehicle Design and Optimization Autonomous Quadrotor Navigation and Guidance Michelle Acevedo, Benjamin Andrews, Casey Brown, Christopher Cahill, Ruxandra Duca, Emily Dunham, Mitchell Lentz, Edson Novinyo, Luis Diego Paredes, Emily Perry, Miles Schuler, Ashley Smith, Daniel Thiesse Advisor: Professor Anthony Linn Co-Advisors: Professor Seong-kyun Im, Professor Nikhil Karanjgaokar Abstract: AIAA s 2016 Design/Build/Fly Competition required the construction of two separate systems optimized to complete distributive manufacturing missions. The team had to develop a production aircraft to carry a specified payload and a manufacturing support aircraft which could carry the production aircraft internally. To meet the design requirements, four subgroups were created: aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, and design. The aircraft designs were finalized using merit analyses and iterative optimization techniques to make quantitative decisions. The team selected a flying wing design for the production aircraft nested inside the wing of a conventional design manufacturing support aircraft as final configurations.. Jonathan Blythe, Krzysztof Borowicz, Alyssa Hollander This project involves the design of a vision-based navigation and guidance system for a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), to enable the UAV to follow a planned route specified by navigational markers, such as brightly colored squares, on the ground. A commercially available UAV is modified by attaching a camera and an embedded computer called Raspberry Pi. An image processing algorithm is designed using the open-source software library OpenCV to capture streaming video data from the camera and recognize the navigational markers. A guidance algorithm, also executed by the Raspberry Pi, is designed to command with the UAV autopilot to move from the currently recognized marker to the next marker. Laboratory bench tests and flight tests are performed to validate the designs.