The cooling system of an electric vehicle adopts an electric water pump. Since the lifespan of the battery is very sensitive to a very narrow temperature band, the cooling system provides key solutions. The electric water pump is a core component of the cooling system which satisfies performance and durability criteria. Since, a local hot spot of motor casing results in the degradation of motor lifespan, it is necessary to design the motor casing for effective heat rejection. In this study, two different motor casing designs are applied to reject the joule heating of the motor efficiently. The temperature distribution of each casing is investigated with an IR camera. The IR camera was used to identify the local hot spot where the heat was most generated in the pump. Since the joule heating is proportional to pump power, it is necessary to understand the operating characteristics of the electric water pump. The experimental apparatus includes a water reservoir, a bypass valve, pressure and temperature sensors, DAQ, and IR camera. The operating temperature is ranged from atmospheric temperature to 50°C. When the pump is operated with 25°C coolant, each experiment takes 1 hour for the steady-state conditions and maximum temperature up to 55 °C. Three different pump performance are investigated with two different pump casing. The coolant temperature is also changed from 25 °C to 50 °C. As a result, the local hot spot is strongly dependent to pump load and it is mainly observed near the cable connector. Since temperature distribution on the casing surface is also affected by local hot spots, it is necessary to optimize heat rejection by extended surface.

Health condition monitoring in wind turbine motor plays an extremely important role, as these devices are highly in demand in the energy sector, especially in renewable energy and are vulnerable to both mechanical and electrical failures, more often. As such, timely identification of internal faults in these electrical devices goes a long way in productive operations by reducing the maintenance time and costs, i.e. such internal faults, if identified at an early stage, repaired or replaced timely will aid in reliable renewable energy supply. Taking this into consideration, automated continuous monitoring of wind turbine machine is a key to making this process more effective. A web application is built in the proposed research enabling quick monitoring of faults in wind turbine motor from a remote access workstation, like a control room. An experimental setup of wind turbine motor is made and data set of stator currents from both healthy and faulty conditions as well as the power spectral density from the motors were used for condition monitoring with a web interface application. Insulation failure in stator winding is a most commonly occurring electrical failure in machines. As such in the current research stator current features from the experimental machine are used for requirement analysis under both healthy and faulty operating conditions. Among the stator insulation failure most commonly occurring stator turn-to-turn faults are taken into consideration in the current research with percentage of insulation failure varying between 25% to 75%. Fault identification is done with the help of wavelet based artificial neural network analysis at the back end and the interface displays the details in the form of dashboards, with the program mainly featuring three dashboards for the unit, stator, rotor, and components in total. Using interactive visualizations, the user will be able to obtain more in-depth knowledge about the suspected faults in the system and its components, and help to take the necessary action. i.e. whether the wind turbine motor needed to be repaired or replaced depending on the vulnerability of the fault. The application also has been experimented with handheld devices by hosting the application on local host and tunneling it over the web. Interactive visualization also includes information about the working conditions of the electrical machine, such as balanced, unbalanced, and failure conditions. Thus internal electrical fault in a wind turbine induction machine can be remotely analyzed, checked and cure can be suggested with a proper online health condition monitoring system.

The world population is aging. Age-related disorders such as stroke and spinal cord injury are increasing rapidly, and such patients often suffer from mobility impairments. Wearable robotic exoskeletons are developed that serve as rehabilitation devices for these patients. An assistive knee brace is a simple wearable exoskeleton which is used to help people with mobility issues. This device provides partial assistance to the user and also helps in providing locomotion. Many exoskeletons are currently available in the market that have different functions and use. It is believed that, to date, no voice-controlled knee brace exists in an orthotic application, and that this project debuts a unique approach. This project presents the design of an assistive bionic knee joint with a motor-based actuator. The new exoskeletal mechanism uses the serial elastic actuator concept and mainly consists of a stepper motor, a ball screw, a set of spur gears, and a set of linear springs. The ball screw provides a linear movement to mimic the stretching and retracting action of a human knee. To create a proof-of-concept of the design, 3D printing is used. A voice recognition system has been developed in-house to control the exoskeleton using very simple voice commands. The motor is controlled using a motor driver and powered using an external power source. The 3D printed prototype with integrated voice-control module is tested for its essential functions. The test setup is loaded on the leg of a mannequin and tested under both no-load and full-load operation. The concept is proven to be successful in providing assistance to the human knee. However, the 3D printed material is observed to be bending, causing disruptions in the device’s operation. The reaction times are expected to be significantly larger compared to the theoretically calculated values.

Patients with SMID (severe motor and intellectual disabilities) have severe limb disorders and severe mental disabilities. More than half of their deaths are due to respiratory disorders. Therefore, respiratory rehabilitation is important. The effect of respiratory rehabilitation is generally determined by measuring respiratory volume and rate with an expired gas analyzer. However, the equipment is expensive and requires direct contact, making it difficult to use. The purpose of this research is to develop a non-contact measurement system for respiratory function to assess the effect of respiratory rehabilitation in patients with SMID. The proposed method detects respiration by depth change of the abdomen measured using a three-dimensional camera designed to identify body tremor /motion and respiration based on respiratory parameters and individually adapted parameters. Finally, we verify the rehabilitation effect of an RTX respirator on patients with SMID and the effectiveness of the proposed method in an experiment.

The newly designed 3-dimensional catching robot consists of three revolute joints where the forward linkage is a parallelogram mechanism for keeping the catching end-effector parallel to the picking manipulator’s base. A virtual apple field of 505 apples, designed to test the picking abilities of 7 DOF arm, was used to determine the capabilities of this new catching arm design. The target catching efficiency was 90% for the provided virtual apple field with a maximum drop height of 30 cm. The target coordinates for each virtual apple were found by computer simulation in MATLAB. Geometric parameters were selected such that the catching manipulator could reach every possible drop position in the picking manipulator’s workspace. The design was completed, fabricated, and validated, utilizing the elegant mechanical linkage design. The workspace analysis showed that it had an acceptable 93% catching efficiency, and as the drop height increased, the efficiency approaches 100%. Definitive inverse-kinematics provided exact joint angles required to catch all catchable apples inside of the workspace. Using these angles, the general equation of motion, using Lagrangian mechanics, yielded the required torque outputs of each of the three motors on the arm. Validation of these torques through laboratory experimentation was considered adequate.

In this paper, edge coils are added to the commutation algorithm of the coil array. In order to reduce the theoretical modeling error of the edge coil force, a method of edge coil force fitting based on radial basis function (RBF) network is proposed. The obtained attenuation function of edge force can replace the weighting function in the switching algorithm, so it can effectively reduce the current density of the central coils and the heat loss power of the coil array. On this basis, a non-iterative current optimal commutation algorithm is proposed. The algorithm takes the weighted sum of the 2-norm of the coil current and the 2-norm of the difference between the coil current and the saturation current as the optimization objective, and obtains the analytical expression of the instantaneous current by solving the Karush Kuhn Tucker (KKT) equation. The results of simulation show that, compared with the direct decoupling algorithm with weighting function, the proposed commutation algorithm can reduce the heat loss power of the coil array and allow the translator to provide greater acceleration under the same maximum current limitation.

Theoretical knowledge is important in all disciplines, but practical knowledge is of utmost importance in many of them, such is the case in engineering, medicine, and architecture. In most of these majors’ instructors focus more on the theoretical area and set aside the practical one. That is why it is important to develop educational tools to improve students’ practice. Medical students at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México were our case of study since we noticed a lack of practical knowledge during their second year at University. In this paper, we present a design methodology of a toy for the students of medicine to exercise and improve their manual precise movements and motor sequencing skills, in order to improve their practical abilities by using it. This methodology emphasizes the importance of specific movements that surgeons do while they perform basic surgical procedures, intending to imitate them when they use the toy. Therefore, procedures like cutting, suturing, exposure, among others were performed by a surgeon, recorded, and analyzed. As a result, it was observed that some movements were repeated in most of the procedures. Based on this, a device was designed so that the user may be able to repeat the movements following a series of audiovisual instructions as a game. To validate its efficiency manual precision tests were used to compare the individual students’ improvement before and after using it. Once the device was built as a toy, 12 second-year medical students took the precision tests, the measured variable was the time they used to complete both tests. Furthermore, they practiced with the toy for 10 days, 6 minutes per day. On the last day, after using it, each student performed the precision tests once again to obtain a quantitative value of their improvement. The time spent by each student to perform the first precision tests were compared to the last after using the toy. The results showed that the execution time was reduced by an average of 53.75 seconds in the first precision test and 45 seconds in the second. This indicates that the use of the toy allows students to improve their manual precision skills, affecting the execution time of tasks that require accurate manual precision. Also, it was observed that the methodology developed could be applied and extrapolated to other disciplines such as engineering, in order to develop similar toys or devices that could enhance manual skills.

A quadcopter is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with 4 propellers providing required force for motion. It has four equally spaced rotors, typically arranged at the corners of a central body. With four independent rotors, the need for a swashplate mechanism like that in a regular helicopter is alleviated. Due to the rotation of the propellers attached to a quadcopter an upward thrust is generated. The maneuverability of a quadcopter is primarily controlled by adjusting the speed of each propeller attached to a rotor which in turn creates different lifting forces for maneuvering. The objective of this work is to design a 2-axes rotation mechanism for a shaft while its propeller rotates about its own (the 3 rd ) axis in a 1 m by 1 m quadcopter. Besides the spinning of a propeller axis, two other perpendicular axes in the mechanism are capable of pivoting in a flight which dynamically modifies the thrust vector direction and enhances the quadcopter’s maneuverability. The project was accomplished by performing several key tasks involving mechanism design using bevel gears, shafts, and motors, computational fluid dynamics analysis to determine aerodynamic thrusts and airflow pattern, rigid body dynamics analysis to evaluate forces and torques at different sections of the mechanism, and finite element analysis of mechanical components to optimize the stresses and fatigue as well as their corresponding safety factors. The final mechanism design provides mobility similar to a spherical joint capable of pivoting from −45 degrees to 45 degrees about 2 orthogonal axes for a small size drone. The results of rigid body dynamics analyses for a small size drone indicate that the minimum required motor torque is about 0.5 N-m, based on using a 40-mm driving nylon gear with gear ratio of 1:2 and an aluminum shaft with its propeller rotating at 2000 rad/sec, the nylon gear is good for 5 million cycles, the ABS plastic fixture is good for 10 million cycles and the shaft was designed for 1 billion cycles of fatigue life. Further study would be required in developing the control system for this quadcopter design and optimizing the entire structure of the drone, prototype verification of the mechanism design on flight maneuverability is also recommended. A parallel study using the layered composite design is currently undertaken. A comparison between metal and fiber composite shafts on weight reduction and performance of the mechanism would be revealed in our next paper.

With commercially available hardware and supporting software, different electrical potential brain waves are measured via a headset with a collection of electrodes. Out of the different types of brain signals, the proposed brain-computer interface (BCI) controller utilizes non-task related signals, i.e. squeezing left/right hand or tapping left/right foot, due to their responsive behavior and general signal feature similarity among patients. In addition, motor imagery related signals, such as imagining left/right foot or hand movement are also examined. The main goal of the paper is to demonstrate the performance of machine learning algorithms based on classification accuracy. The performances are evaluated on BCI dataset of three male subjects to extract the most significant features. Each subject undergoes a 30-minute session composed of four experiments: two non-task related signals and two motor imagery signals. Each experiment records fifteen trials of two classes (i.e. left/right hand movement). The raw data is then pre-processed using a MatLab plugin, EEGLAB, where standard processes of cleaning and epoching the signals is performed. The paper discusses machine learning for robotic application and the common flaws when validating machine learning methods in the context of BCI to provide a brief overview on biologically (using brain waves) controlled devices.

A pulley-based movable LED light apparatus is designed and implemented based on a request from the Biology Department of the Midwestern State University to provide a controllable environment for plant research. The proposed apparatus consists of a large aluminum structure with added pulleys, the movable LED light platform, a DC-motor-driven gearbox, and electronics for sensing and control. The proposed conceptual design has been fabricated, tested, and successfully implemented in the MSU greenhouse. Performance of the initial design is also demonstrated through mechanical efficiency, light intensity profile, and the ultrasonic sensor sensitivity. Finally, some propositions are introduced to improve upon the hardware, sensors, and the control logic, that could allow for a better performance and an increased overall life span of the apparatus.

People with disabilities often struggle with mobility issues, so there is a strong desire for devices such as powerchairs, which can provide more freedom. Currently, wheelchair demand in the US is increasing due to an upsurge in the elderly population. Often electric powerchairs suitable for outdoor use are extremely expensive, cannot be used indoors, and are not covered by medical insurance. In this project, these problems are addressed through the design of a chair which is suitable for both rough outdoor terrain and indoor use. This project is based on a request for a powerchair which our client’s son, who has cerebral palsy, can use on family trips in outdoor environments including grass, gravel, and sand. A photo of a previous nonfunctional prototype was provided to the team as a reference, and a full redesign was performed to resolve the problems identified. Before proceeding with the design, various sources were consulted to gain a thorough understanding of currently available technology and design methods. Many different adjustment methods and features were considered, including an adjustable frame, tracks, and a lifting system for curb mounting. The overall design selected is a welded sheet metal frame with wheels, and it was determined that the chair should have an adjustable wheelbase width to provide both outdoor stability and indoor maneuverability. Key considerations for the design include battery life, motor torque, maximum load, seat size, door width, and cost. The final specifications are based on the needs of the client, Kevin Sample, as well as an analysis of the wider consumer market. The width adjustment design uses an axle above the driving wheels, which are connected to it by sliding sleeves. Automatic adjustment is accomplished using a linear actuator. The drive wheels are large and run at low pressure to surmount obstacles and damp vibrations. Differential steering combined with rear caster wheels gives the chair a small turning radius, and its length is comparable to that of standard manual wheelchairs. The seat can be easily removed to access the battery and control system or to load the chair into a vehicle. A joystick is used to control the speed and direction of the chair, while a separate momentary switch is used for the linear actuator. Throughout the modeling process, stress analysis was performed using simulations in Inventor. Any necessary adjustments were made to ensure that none of the parts will fail, considering both failure theory and fatigue. Various grades of aluminum were selected for the majority of the manufactured parts, due to their corrosion resistance and light weight. The device is currently in the prototype manufacturing stage. If it is later marketed, a curb mounting device may also be included; this was decided against mainly due to cost and time restrictions. Space has also been left for a carrying basket, which will likely be added to the first prototype. The initial goal is to produce a single chair for our client, although the design may later be submitted for Medicare and ADA approval.

Mobile devices and laptops are the main ICT tools to exchange information among people in the world. All the applications are designed by following a specific interaction style based either touchscreen or mouse and keyboard, which can be performed only with detailed movements of hands and fingers. Traditional interaction becomes difficult for elderly who have diseases limiting the hand motor skills, such as arthritis and brain stroke. The use of simple air gestures can be adopted as alternative interaction style to interact with smartphones, tablets and laptops. The aim of this research work is the development of an application that allows text writing using air gestures for people with limited hand motor skills. The application embeds several computer vision algorithms and convolutional neural networks software modules to detect and drawn alphanumeric characters and recognizing them using both mobile devices and laptops. The preliminary results obtained show that the approach is robust, and it can easily detect the alphanumeric characters written with the movement of the wrist.

Modeling tendon tensions for applications of tendon-actuated continuum robots under significant loading is necessary for sizing motors, tendons, and other components to ensure that the robot can safely support its mass during operation. While models exist that express tendon tensions as a function of continuum robot configuration, previously proposed models do not consider the effects of gravity on tendon tensions. In this paper, we discuss the addition of gravity to a static model previously developed for low-mass tendon-actuated continuum robots. Using the Euler-Lagrange methodology, the potential energy due to gravity is incorporated into the formulation of the equations that describe tendon tensions as a function of robot configuration. Preliminary experimental results reveal the potential of this nonzero-gravity tendon-tension model.

Multiphysics finite element modeling process is derived to predict vibration and noise due to magnetic forces within a permanent-magnet brushless DC motor over a variable speed range under healthy and eccentric faulty conditions. Transient analysis for magnetic force in two-dimensional electromagnetic model is carried out over a variable speed range. To keep cyclic symmetry mesh and avoid numerical source of noise, the method of effective air gap layer is applied and manipulated with relative permeability derived for static and dynamic eccentric rotating condition depending on rotation angle and eccentric shift. Using discrete Fourier transformation and electromagnetic-structural one-way coupling schemes, magnetic harmonic forces for a range of rotation angular speed are imported and applied on stator’s inner surfaces. Vibration characteristics are calculated for a three-dimensional full finite element model of the motor in harmonic response analysis. Finally, surface velocities are imported and applied on acoustic domain using fluid-structure interaction (FSI) one-way coupling. Noise radiated from motor housing including front and end caps is evaluated. The waterfall diagram of equivalent radiation pressure level (ERPL) and sound pressure level (SPL) contour plotting in function of rotation angular speed and frequency is obtained in multiple RPM harmonic structural and acoustic analyses. The vibro-acoustic feature pattern could be utilized in faulty detection.

In order to realize a small-sized energy harvester with high output, this study prototypes a small motor-driven gyroscopic power generator. Supplying energy to sensors and devices is the biggest problem for Internet of Things (IoT) systems. One solution is gyroscopic power generators, which are a type of vibrational generator that amplify the inertia force of weights by rotating them at high speed, and in doing so can obtain greater output than conventional generators that use simple vibration for the same mass weight. This paper reports on a motor-driven type gyroscopic generator in which the flywheel is spun with an embedded motor, and which is superior in applicability to random vibration generators. The generators of this type that have been studied thus far are very large and have been primarily used for wave power generation in the ocean. However, when the shape of this gyroscopic power generator type is miniaturized proportionally, the output per volume decreases in proportion to the fifth power of the dimension. This makes it difficult to maintain the power output while miniaturizing the generator size. In this research, the structure of the gyroscopic power generator is thoroughly refined and miniaturization is realized by making full use of the available space. By using a motor with high design freedom, the spindle motor and flywheel are unified. From this accomplishment, not only is the required space reduced, the number of mechanical parts and the friction loss are decreased as well. The prototype generator has a size of about 150 mm on its long side. When a swinging vibration of 50 degrees in amplitude and 2 Hz in frequency is applied, a net output of 0.104 W is obtained. This output power is sufficient to drive sensors and low power wide area (LPWA) radio circuits.

Servo press is a manufacturing machine that usually works under impact loads. Flywheel battery is an energy storage device that has been widely studied in recent years. In this paper, a flywheel battery system for servo press energy compensation was put forward. In considering the efficiency and structure robustness, the flux switching permanent magnet (FSPM) motor is appropriate for flywheel battery as energy conversion device. In this study, the flywheel battery structure and working principle were first described. Then the motor characters were analyzed by FEM. After that, a simply initiative power control strategy was introduced for the flywheel battery. Finally, the prototype of flywheel battery with FSPM motor was made and connected to a servo press’s motor driver. The experiments were taken with and without the flywheel battery respectively. The experiment results proved that the flywheel battery could compensate a certain of DC link voltage loss during the press stamping process. That makes the servo press’s driven motor has a more stable power source and reduces the electrical shock to other equipment. In conclusion, the flywheel battery with FSPM motor is an effective energy storage system for servo press. It is believed that with the miniaturization and simplification of flywheel battery, the flywheel battery will be more general in impact load devices.

There is still a demand for novel laboratory equipment designs that are to be utilized in undergraduate level machine dynamics, mechanical vibrations, control theory and their related labs. Since the turn-key systems preferred in most undergraduate labs are expensive and require wide lab space, 3D printed portable, small scale and cost-effective vibrational lab equipment are designed to study the fundamentals of free and forced vibrations. Four laboratory equipment designs are proposed in this study to demonstrate the fundamentals of vibration such as free vibration, forced vibration, modeling, base excitation and vibration isolation. The first device is a vibration isolator and resonator mechanism incorporating large deflecting fixed-free flexible links and composed of primary and secondary masses and a linear actuator, the second mechanism is a compliant parallel arm consisted of flexible beams, mass and a support, third mechanism is a translational vibratory mechanism comprised of slider carts, 3D printed springs, rods and bearings and the final mechanism is the model of driver seat consisted of DC motor, driver and driven wheels and a mass. Main parts of each apparatus are built by 3D printing using either PLA or PETG filament. Learning outcomes and the methods of implementing each device to the course and their associated laboratories are provided.

Norway conducts operations on a variety of structures in the North Sea; e.g. oilrigs, monopole windmills, subsea trees. These structures often require subsea installation, observation, and maintenance. A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) can assist in these operations. Automation of intended motion is the desired goal. This paper researches the motion of an ROV induced by the motion of the robotic manipulators, motor torques, and added mass of fluid. This project builds upon a previous project that had one robotic arm; this time, there are two, but the method is unchanged. Furthermore, this work explores both the patterns in addressing such challenges, and an improved integration scheme. This research uses the Moving Frame Method (MFM) to carry out this project. In fact, this paper demonstrates the ease with which the MFM is extensible. Notable is that this work represents an international collaboration between an engineering school in Norway and one in the US. This work invites further research into improved numerical methods, solid/fluid interaction and the design of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV). AUVs beckon an era of Artificial Intelligence when machines think, communicate and learn. Rapidly deployable software implementations will be essential to this task.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software has become an essential modeling tool to study and validate flow problems in engineered systems. Many computer-aided engineering (CAE) programs for CFD are available with different capabilities, making it difficult to select the best program for a specific application. This problem compounds in fields with static and rotational regions due to varying approaches for developing the computational mesh and performing flow rotation operations. Three different CFD programs were reviewed and evaluated by analyzing a real-world problem: flow field analysis and power requirements of a spinning lawnmower blade. Simulations with SolidWorks, SimScale, and ANSYS Fluent were performed to study viscous and pressure forces on a lawnmower blade and compare quantitative and qualitative aspects of each software. The programs’ features, drawbacks, usability, and outputs were recorded and compared. Accuracy of the programs’ output torque was compared using torque data based on the differential power consumption of the electric lawn mower motor unloaded and loaded with the blade. The verification of methodology and results was approached with an analytical model based on drag relations around simplified geometry. Based on these analyses, Fluent provided more consistent solution accuracy with low computational costs and more versatile visualization capabilities.

A senior design team from the Milwaukee School of Engineering assisted the Milwaukee Harbor District with a trash collecting solution for the Kinnickinnic River. The design objectives were: the use of solar panels to generate charge for the continuous operation of the trash solution, an innovative and cost-efficient way to clear debris blockages from the conveyor, low cost, and a design that can operate as autonomously as possible to require the least amount of human intervention. The Kinnickinnic River experiences a reverse flow and a substantial rise in water level during and after storms. The need for a trash solution in the section of the river that passes underneath Becker St. in downtown Milwaukee is due to the extreme pollution that has collected over the years. The city of Milwaukee, through the Harbor District and other non-profit organizations, have made plans to beautify the areas that have suffered from the residual pollution and simultaneously launch a promotional campaign to raise environmental awareness. Through school programs and the reality of the team’s trash solution in the river, the Kinnickinnic River will once again flourish in both flora and fauna. The team has created a design that will fit the river’s needs taking into consideration the solar energy available and various flow simulations. A full design solution with design details and specifications for manufacturing will be submitted to the Harbor District of Milwaukee for their review. The current design makes use of a floating platform base, 24 solar panels, eight lead acid batteries, a DC motor to run a conveyor belt to pull trash out of the water and to run a rake system to aid in pushing trash onto the conveyor, a gearbox to produce the necessary torque, a boom and cable system to catch trash further in the river, and a dumpster located on a dock in front of the trash collector. Finite Element Analysis and Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations were run to test the designs developed for the conveyor mechanism and the raking system and to test the amount of force placed on the trash collector by the water and air velocities. Further simulations may be run to test more components of the trash collector as needed. A prototype of the conveyor and rake system was produced to simulate the functionality of the design. Additionally, the selected solar panels for the design were tested using a data collector and analyzed to ensure power to the design would be enough.