Project Goal: Improve the precision refrigerant charging station used for a portable medical refrigerator through the design and manufacture of an automated recharging station.

Refrigerant maintains the desired temperature of vaccines, food and living spaces. The less refrigerant a system requires, the more precision in refrigerant charging it requires. Providing an accurate quantity of refrigerant to any cooling system is critical. Most known methods of refrigerant delivery are done manually, introducing the potential for human error in the refrigerant delivery process. Improved methods of supplying refrigerant will ensure proper operation and efficiency.

The team designed a refrigerant recharging process system using electronically controlled pumps, valves and sensors. The system minimizes human involvement and maintains an accuracy of 40g ±0.10g of refrigerant during delivery. The monitoring system consists of load-cell-based weighing stations that continuously collect data on the mass of the refrigerant tanks and medical refrigerator. The system alerts operators of events, such as the need to switch out empty refrigerant tanks or full recovery tanks of excess refrigerant that are ready to be recycled.

This design improves refrigerant delivery accuracy by automating the refrigerant recharge process and monitoring refrigerant mass.

Project Goal: Create an interface for doctors to view and analyze metagenomic next-generation sequencing, or mNGS, data, allowing for rapid diagnosis and treatment of secondary infections for patients on ventilators.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many patients are being hospitalized and intubated. Intubation increases the risk of developing secondary infections, which can be fatal in patients who are already very ill. Currently, it takes several days to diagnose secondary infections in intubated patients.

Metagenomic next-generation sequencing, or mNGS, can identify infections more quickly than current methods. However, it is not widely used in clinical settings, largely because clinicians are not yet comfortable with the technology. This project strives to push mNGS technology from "bench to bedside" by making the technology accessible and convenient within current infrastructure.

To make mNGS more accessible, the team created an interface for doctors to view and evaluate data. Lab personnel can upload data to the RShiny-based web interface, and doctors can choose how they’d like to view the data from among several formats. One option is to view the data in a format similar to existing reports, which the doctors are already familiar with. In addition, the app contains several unique analytical tools, including some to monitor the relative size of multiple infections over time, which is not currently possible.

Project Goal: Prevent the formation of pressure ulcers in patients via an autonomous sense and response system.

Pressure ulcers, also known as bed sores, are a recurring problem for immobile patients and often lead to infection, necrosis and other complications, which are resource-and cost-intensive to address. This project aims to prevent the formation of bed sores.

A dynamic air pressure mattress system has an embedded sensing device that sends pressure data to a central computer. This computer reads the pressure data, identifies potential areas of risk and determines the appropriate redistribution in pressure for the bladders in the mattress. The computer sends these commands to a microcontroller, which distributes the signals to specific solenoid valves that control and distribute the pressure as commanded.

The system identifies high-pressure locations on the patient's body and actively redistributes the pressure before these locations cause pressure ulcers. There is an LCD screen with user controls to manually adjust certain bed parameters, monitor the state of the system and reset the air mattress system.

Project Goal: Improve upon current market-standard indwelling urinary catheters by using electric stimulus and attenuate bacteria to reduce infection risk.

Attenuating bacteria and, in turn, reducing the risk of catheter-associated urinary tract infections, or CAUTI, are the main focuses of the Bacteria Attenuating Catheter. Current catheters have sought to address CAUTI with strategies ranging from silver nanoparticle coatings to antibiotic coatings. However, these have drawbacks. Most significantly, current catheters lead to an increase in the antibiotic resistance of bacteria, which can ultimately result in CAUTI.

A new system uses micro-amperage electrical stimulation to attenuate bacteria. Adding this to current market standard catheters reduces the risk of CAUTI by halting the aggregation of planktonic bacteria into biofilm. Analysis and testing of bacterial accumulation on the surface of various test catheters and the media (human pooled urine) yielded the most effective design.

The Bacteria Attenuating Catheter could decrease medical costs of treating CAUTI, which can cost up to $13,000 per incident, and reduce use of the 1.5 million single-use catheters used daily in the United States. It can also address the patient's needs while functioning as expected.

Project Goal: Develop an alternative to GPS that images and identifies star patterns during the day and night in order to determine orientation with respect to the celestial reference frame.

The prevalence of GPS use in the defense and civilian sectors has made it the target of disruption efforts. An alternative to GPS for determining global positioning in celestial navigation via astrophotography must be able to operate day or night.

The team used star imaging and star pattern recognition to create a custom-designed algorithm to locate global position. Daytime imaging can occur by combining the custom-designed optical system with image stacking to improve signal-to-noise ratio. They also developed a radiometric model to optimize design decisions and predict how the optical system would perform. A unique single, dual-axis gyroscope provided data to determine possible random changes in angle between successive images. These changes were used to calculate the necessary pixel adjustments during the image stacking process.

These additions made the system more robust, which allowed it to determine its orientation under shaky or unstable conditions during both day and night.

Project Goal: To automate the process of preparing golf shaft tips for club assembly through the use of robotics and complementary equipment.

Sandblasting golf shaft tips in a high-volume manufacturing industrial environment is a menial task that could be improved and made less expensive through automation. Currently, shaft tip preparation involves a person unloading boxes of 50 shafts, inserting them into an automatic sandblaster and putting them back into boxes. This is time-consuming, tedious and costly.

To automate this process, the team implemented an integrated KUKA robot arm and mechanical shaft dispenser, which operate in tandem through EtherCAT technology. The robot arm is equipped with a custom shaft gripping mechanism that operates robotic fingers. A microcontroller and sensors operate the motor-driven shaft dispenser, which employs a linear actuator to push shafts of different lengths into an optimal pick-up position. A user operates the system’s program with the KUKA Robot Language on a teach pendant. Two industrial grade t-slot aluminum extrusion carts are used to mount the robot arm and shaft dispenser, as well as house the controllers for both units.

The Automated Shaft Tip Preparation project team created a fully functional system that requires minimal user interaction and optimizes the shaft preparation process so that it is consistent, efficient and a positive return on investment.

Project Goal: Design and build a market-ready walker featuring a mechanically lifting plate that the user can use to lift objects from the ground to waist height.

Patients who experience bending mobility issues may be unable to bend to pick up objects from the ground. Commercially available grab and reach devices are often difficult to use or are too flimsy to lift heavy objects for everyday household tasks.

The Tonee Lift is a patent-pending walker with a "vertical platform-type" plate that can lift various objects from the ground while the user is standing. The team created models using Arduino IDE and SolidWorks. They analyzed the design, size, weight and structural integrity for parts and subassemblies using SolidWorks. The algorithm for the lift was a hierarchy of checks from the system inputs and outputting the motor motion that controls the lift movement.

The product can lift up to25 pounds from ground level to waist height and can withstand at least 16,000 uses. The walker weighs less than 20 pounds and is rated for indoor use on solid level ground for up to 24 uses per charge.

Project Goal: Develop and design an instrument enclosure that protects and maintains operational parameters for the Infrared Channeled Spectro-Polarimeter, or IRCSP, which will be deployed on a high-altitude balloon flight.

Just recently, small and rapidly deployable instruments operating in long-wave infrared were not feasible due to costly and large cooling systems. In 2019, The University of Arizona Polarization Lab delivered the first InfraRed Channeled Spectro-Polarimeter, or IRCSP, prototype to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. It needed an enclosure that would protect the instrument and withstand conditions so that it could operate in long-wave infrared.

The enclosure can withstand harsh high-altitude conditions found in balloon flights of diminutive dimensions. It has low power consumption. In addition, the team developed an in-flight data acquisition and management system.

The IRCSP will measure the optical properties of cirrus ice clouds, which are crucial to increasing understanding of atmospheric sciences as outlined in the Earth Science Decadal Survey. It will be deployed in a future NASA balloon flight at an altitude of 39 kilometers over the southeastern United States. Testing the enclosure in this launch will reveal how it could benefit future Landsat missions.

Project Goal: Develop two commercial mosquito traps with optional data sensing and recording capabilities; and an affordable carbon dioxide dispersion system.

One million people die every year from mosquito-borne diseases. Private researchers and government agencies collect and test mosquitoes to monitor and reduce disease transmission. However, current mosquito research traps lack data-sensing capabilities and have not seen substantial upgrades to the trapping processes. These leave researchers with inefficient means of collection, as well as excessive costs from carbon dioxide production.

The team developed two prototypes: one for a professional-grade mosquito trap and another, more cost-effective, trap intended for widespread use in civilian communities. They designed the traps to include an array of data collecting sensors to automate and improve the quality of research. Additionally, many mosquito research agencies use expensive dry ice used to produce carbon dioxide to attract mosquitos. The team replaced this with a system that safely produces carbon dioxide by burning propane.

Project Goal: Design and manufacture a coaxial rotor head assembly that will integrate with a Tier-2 UAV.

Few unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are designed with commercial or industrial applications in mind, and those that do serve a singular purpose, such as photography or lidar. The team designed and built a drivetrain for a UAV versatile enough to accept a myriad of sensors and equipment for use in commercial sectors. An additional concern was improving UAV safety. Tail rotors are one of the most common sources of failures.

The Coaxial Tier-2 UAV rotor head had to fit the constraints of a Tier-2 UAV: weigh less than 55pounds, operate at no higher than 400 feet above ground level, and fly no faster than 100miles per hour. The design used a coaxial rotor system and a continuously variable transmission that varied the speed of the top and bottom rotors, allowing the UAV to yaw without a tail rotor. Lightweight 7075 aluminum alloy and nylon carbon fiber parts were used to increase payload potential and fuel efficiency.

The coaxial rotor head assembly offers greater performance and versatility compared to competitive designs.