Project Goal: Create a portable system that can use existing radio frequency signals from local television stations, or signals of opportunity, to generate a two-dimensional map of the surrounding reflectors and transmitters.

Various airwave signals and transmissions radiate outward in every direction, bouncing off surfaces until they are either received and interpreted by an antenna or until they dissipate. The team used this property to image direct path and multipath radio frequency reflections from an opportunistic emitter. By determining the directions of incoming reflected signals, the system constructs a two-dimensional, birds’-eye view image of the large reflectors in the surrounding area.

A coherent software defined radio and a four-element antenna array mounted atop a vehicle are used to receive these radio frequency signals. Data are then transmitted to a single-board computer where a beamforming algorithm determines the angle of signal arrival. This information is combined with GPS and inertial measurement unit sensor data to determine the estimated latitude and longitude of the signal’s origin. The system then transmits this data to a laptop ground station that displays a two-dimensional image on a graphical user interface.

Project Goal: Develop an autonomous unmanned aircraft system, or UAS, that can precisely navigate a greenhouse facility without the use of GPS navigation.

An autonomous unmanned aircraft system that does not rely on GPS could provide an effective way to assess the health of the plants in a commercial greenhouse. The team performed engineering research into such a device and developed a guidance and navigation system for autonomous, non-GPS indoor use.

The team selected two wireless indoor positioning systems for further integration and testing: one from Pozyx and the other from Marvelmind Robotics. The final system navigates autonomously, avoids obstacles, takes clear pictures of plants along a preprogrammed flight path and sends image data to the analytics team for further analysis.

Project Goal: Provide the capability of designing and creating custom handwriting fonts that can be merged into a personalized message and written by a Robotic Writing Machine while updating current operating systems.

Handwritten communication has been proven to provide a powerful personal touch to a message, but providing this touch at scale can be a challenge. To address this, the team created a software application capable of font generation, font customization, message production, order delivery and pen control.

The Robotic Writing Machine, or RWM, system uses open source machine learning software to recognize characters from an individual's handwriting and compile them into an OpenType font. The system then allows the operator to customize each glyph in the font library.

Once the customized font has been completed, the operator uses a desktop application to access it and create a personalized message with embedded variables where consumer information can be mail-merged and parsed into work batches. These work batches are converted into a scalable vector graphic file to be delivered to and written by the RWM.

Project Goal: Create a user-defined optics laboratory to design and perform optical experiments and observe both geometrical and physical optics data within a 3D virtual reality environment.

The cost of common optical equipment and the time required to design and test optical systems demands an improved model to analyze such systems. Using an established communication link between Polaris-M and the Unity game engine, the team developed a realistic laboratory simulation intended for optics students to model and manipulate custom optical experiments in virtual reality, or VR.

The team members split the project into two components: Unity and Polaris-M development. Within Unity, the VR environment simulates an optics laboratory in which inputs are rendered and user-defined. Polaris-M retrieves data from these inputs to calculate and send optical results back to Unity, where these results are visually represented in 3D space.

Polaris-M VR enables a user to conduct geometrical and physical optics experiments in an interactive 3D environment through intuitive user interface controls. The user can construct experiments using emitters, mirrors, polarizers, retarders, lenses and detectors, each with characteristics that can be user-defined. Rendered results include ray tracing, polarization ellipses and spot size diagrams.

Project Goal: Design and develop a high-efficacy test fixture that enables verification and validation activities of Chronic Total Occlusion, or CTO, catheters to target and treat peripheral arterial disease.

Approximately 20,000 U.S. residents will be diagnosed with peripheral arterial disease chronic total occlusion in 2021,andabout 15,000 patients will receive a thrombectomy procedure. Thrombectomy devices, used to clear clots and occlusions, need to be tested to make sure they work correctly.

The team designed a Peripheral Arterial Disease Efficacy Test Setup, or PADTS, which enables verification and validation activities for medical device testing. It simulates an actual vascular system, including vascular tissue, occlusions formed during fluid flow and the ability to introduce IV catheters. The system allows the user to set, monitor and regulate the testing parameters for temperature, flow and pressure.

The PADTS has three major subsystems. The circulation model assembly simulates human vasculature as a closed loop control system. The mechanical assembly has a modular design, which allows the system to test various anatomical models. The software assembly provides a user interface to set and monitor the system parameters.

Project Goal: Develop an improved design for the dated polio leg brace.

People who have poliomyelitis, a virus-induced disease that causes muscle atrophy, rely on orthotic devices such as knee braces to compensate for muscle weakness. The most common devices are passive and provide limited support to users. The team redesigned the passive knee brace by adding a mechanical system to assist users with motions such as sitting down and standing up from a chair, walking up a set of steps, and navigating inclines. The main goal behind this design is to support body weight and assist users with knee joint extension and flexion by reducing the pressure on the joint.

The new knee brace system consists of a spring housing assembly, compression springs, galvanized steel wire, a latching mechanism and a radial moment arm. The radial moment arm is connected to the spring housing through the galvanized steel wire and operates with the hinge on an existing brace. The latching mechanism houses a latch and a stopper that lock the spring, allowing the user to freely flex and extend the knee.

The new brace weighs approximately 1.3 kg, offers an assistive moment of at least 480 pounds-per-inch, can support a weight up to 180 pounds and allows a minimum of 90 degrees of flexion relative to the user's thigh.

Project Goal: Design and build a prototype of an electronic continuously variable transmission, or E-CVT, to replace the current mechanical CVT on the Baja SAE race vehicle.

The Baja race car's mechanical CVT had two major issues that served as the primary reasons for undertaking this project. The first issue was the tedious and error-prone process of tuning the CVT. The second issue was the mechanical CVT not being properly sealed, which put the components inside at risk for dirt and water damage. The team designed and built a prototype E-CVT to solve these issues for the Society of Automotive Engineers, or SAE, Baja Competition.

The E-CVT design consists of two pulleys that connect the engine and gearbox and which change their diameter based on data collected from a telemetry systemin the engine. The E-CVT uses electric motors in conjunction with sensors and microcontrollers to algorithmically change the gear ratio between the engine and gearbox. The E-CVT's insulated wiring and protective casing at IP54 certification level ensures it is protected from water and dirt in the off-road racing environment.

The new system offers greater adjustability and increased reliability. Acceptance tests showed the E-CVT system was capable of handling overvoltage and overcurrent, as well as collecting and sending data to the central data collection microcontroller. The bench test of the completed E-CVT displayed the changing gears at the engine's peak power.

Project Goal: Create a prototype of a detachable motorized assist for standard manual wheelchairs.

Motorized wheelchairs provide users a labor-free way to move up to five miles per hour, but they can prohibitively cost up to $40,000. On the other hand, users of manual wheelchairs must continuously physically exert themselves to propel forward.

The team developed Momentous, a prototype wheelchair accessory that provides a motorized assist to a standard-sized manual wheelchair. This device can be attached to the back of a manual wheelchair and has drive-wheels that control the wheelchair based on user inputs from a joystick. Momentous is meant to last longer than similar wheelchair accessory products on the market

Project Goal: Update robotic writing technology that is capable of emulating human handwriting while emphasizing efficiency, scalability and reliability.

The repetitive nature of hand-copying messages for diverse groups of recipients and addressing different envelopes is tedious. This project presents anew type of a robotic writing machine, or RWM, which produces an efficient handwriting process and prints large quantities reliably and consistently.

The team updated the RWM technology which has been used since the 1970s by developing a new plotter that controls the movement of the pen and a paper. They also created atop-feeding method to replace the outdated bottom feed. The new feeder increased the loading capability from 200 envelopes to 500 with fewer paper jams. This reduces the time required to replenish the paper. Rollers move individual cards and envelopes from the stack to the writing surface. The message or address is then printed on the card or envelope, respectively.

The upgrade provides more writing space and less movement during the print. The Raspberry Pi allows the user to remotely send work batches to the RWM in the form of a SVG file, a significant upgrade from the previous process, which involved tinkering with the robot and provided limited input options.

Project Goal: Design and fabricate a remote-controlled mechanism for the removal of grasshoppers from agricultural fields.

Arizona is home to more than 300 species of grasshoppers that feed on plants, putting crops –specifically organic crops–at risk.

Grasshoppers naturally jump in the presence of danger. The Grasshopper Harvester III is a remote-controlled kart with a directive vacuum system that captures grasshoppers as they jump. As grasshoppers land in the capture mechanism, they are directed towards an air stream powered by the vacuum system, which pushes them into a removable storage bag. This storage bag can be easily removed and replaced by the operator.

The kart utilizes remote-controlled motors to maneuver through crop fields and efficiently collects 70% of the grasshoppers it encounters.