The human population is estimated to reach 10 billion by the year 2050. The challenge is finding a way to sustainably feed a global population that large. Controlled environment agriculture practices such as greenhouse growing, hydroponics and vertical farming offer solutions to generate more produce with a smaller footprint. However, indoor vertical farms have a high labor cost, which has driven an interest in automation. The Life Grow Bot (LGBot) is an autonomous industrial robot with a hydroponic growing tower incorporated on top of it. The LGBot maintains all functions for growing leafy greens, including transportation around the warehouse from planting until harvest. The LGBot presents a possible method of growing leafy vegetables as part of an autonomous production system.

The LGBot consists of a Raspberry Pi controlled autonomous robot that uses ultrasonic and lidar, or Light Detection and Ranging, sensors to navigate through an indoor environment. The LGBot is designed to detect and avoid obstacles in addition to docking with its complementary Growth Recharge Station. The top part of the LGBot is a three-tiered hydroponic vertical farm. When the LGBot is docked to the Growth Recharge Station, a recirculating nutrient solution and optimized supplemental lighting provide the growing environment for a variety of leafy vegetables. The LGBot communicates with a graphical user interface, which in addition to displaying the location of the unit in the indoor environment, can communicate simple commands to the LGBot. LGBot reduces the cost of growing leafy greens by eliminating the need for any human interface for the complete growing cycle.

In manufacturing, scrap and rework add cost to finished products and affect delivery commitments. If companies understand the root causes of failures that result in scrap and rework, they can correct the problems.

This project used historic manufacturing data to analyze and identify the finished products and subassemblies causing the most scrap and rework.

The team identified the main drivers of rework and scrap using the 80/20 Pareto Principle, which states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences result from 20% of causes. The team employed MS Excel data analysis tools, including pivot tables and sorting. and constructed a complex three-level Pareto chart to identify the main components that cause rework across four different manufacturing cells. These levels break down to a specific component in the manufacturing where failures occur. They conducted a root cause analysis using Ishikawa Diagrams, also known as fishbone or cause-and-effect diagrams, along with the 5 Whys problem-solving technique, to distinguish potential causes of rework. The team’s analysis highlights specific areas that require improvement, facilitating production engineering efforts for root causes of rejections and pointing toward corrective actions.

A variety of commercial sensors on the market provide wireless transmission; however, no wireless, modular, multi-sensor units are capable of mesh networking. Satellites and other heavy-duty sensor-based equipment have the ability to collect data from non-surveillance areas, but are limited in resolution due to their distance and profile.

This team, in conjunction with the University of Massachusetts Lowell, designed a self-powered, autonomous system that provides a network of covert sensors in the form of rocks. This system is suitable for wildlife, military and security applications in which area monitoring must be completed in a discreet manner.

Smart Rocks are capable of sensing temperature, acoustics, and motion, and of storing data while interfacing with other rocks, or nodes. These rocks are capable of connecting to an external network for data transfer. Network functionality is maintained in the event of a single node failure. The Smart Rocks project provides a modern approach to wide area surveillance that is autonomous, low cost and user-friendly.

High-speed object tracking solutions exist at high price points. Tracking high-speed objects at close range with high-speed video equipment is nontrivial due to the high angular rate of motion required. This project presents a low-cost method for tracking high-speed objects by reducing the mass of a rotating assembly through the incorporation of a large scanning mirror and a stationary camera.

The design uses a combination of custom and commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software components packaged in a robust manner that can be used outdoors in conjunction with external high-speed video equipment to capture detailed video of dynamic events. The team designed and built a custom motor-controlled structure that controls the scanning mirror in both azimuth and elevation. This ensures that the object can be imaged by the high-speed camera at all times.

UAVs are widely used in many applications, including search and rescue, mapping and surveying, surveillance, and payload transportation, among others. While fixed-wing UAVs can successfully fulfill these tasks, many of them require a large amount of space for takeoffs and landings.

The team converted a preexisting small airframe to have vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. This UAV offers the benefits of other fixed-wing vehicles but can accomplish tasks discreetly and without requiring the extra space necessary for most fixed-wing aircrafts.

In order to effectively integrate vertical takeoff and landing capabilities, the team added four additional motors onto the existing airframe in a quadrangle design, providing aircraft stability on its vertical axis as well as keeping aerodynamics similar to the original fixed wing UAV. This was accomplished while keeping the same footprint as the original aircraft.

Onboard recorders are mounted to test vehicles and characterize shock, vibration and temperature changes that the unit experiences under test experiences. However, some projects are unable to use the existing devices due to size or shape limitations. The MR-OBR is a device small enough to fit in the palm of a user’s hand. The team designed it to compactly contain electrical components and withstand significant force.

The design consists of a small aluminum shell with an end cap to allow the user access to the inside of the recorder. The system is able to withstand up to 5,000 g’s of acceleration and temperatures between -40 degrees Celsius and 85 degrees Celsius. The team used lightweight 7075 aluminum alloy to meet survivability criteria. Internally, the device contains two stacked printed circuit boards responsible for sensing and recording environmental changes. The circuit consists of a microcontroller, two accelerometers, a temperature sensor and an SD card reader for storage. When the cap is removed, the user will be able to access recorded data and change the battery if necessary.

Within a wide variety of fields, items – also known as widgets – must be located, bonded, attached or otherwise placed in precise positions on larger objects or assemblies. This is a time-consuming and expensive process. The digital to physical point mapping system provides a way to quickly find and display key points on an object, such as a car or building, allowing users to project locations where equipment must be placed.

This system can be used for positioning signs, accelerometers, or anything that requires accurate placement. The digital to physical point mapping system aims to make this process quicker and more efficient, as the process is accomplished by fewer employees.

The system consists of a physical mount which holds up to four cameras positioned in a single plane, one projector and QR code markers placed on an object. Additionally, the system integrates both unity and MATLAB code to determine the location of the object and create/distort images to correct for geometric distortions that pinpoint the key locations on the object.

Renewable energy power sources offer unpredictable, intermittent availability. As mobility technology becomes more electrified, electric vehicle ownership will increase. The renewable energy multiphase converter intelligently switches between energy sources to charge the electric vehicle battery and can sell excess power to the electrical grid when advantageous.

This new system has electric vehicle batteries with a combination of off-the-shelf hardware to monitor renewable energy availability and grid demand to determine the most cost-effective use of the power – charging and direct use or sale to the grid.

The team used a microcontroller-based single-board computer and developed software to manage the distribution of power between four systems – solar panels, wind generator, electric grid and the electric vehicle. The developed software measures the power output of each source, compares them, and sends a signal that triggers a relay system through the microcontroller to fulfill the users’ needs, based on efficiency, cost reduction and/or profit.

This team employed novel imaging and optomechanical architectures – including off-axis aspheres, freeforms and non-rotationally symmetric surfaces – in order to match or improve the optical performance of existing Near-Infrared Imager (NIRIM) designs while significantly reducing the overall volume.

ASML develops extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography light sources used in the manufacture of semiconductor chips. EUV generation takes place inside a large diameter – greater than 1.5 meter – chamber by vaporizing/ionizing small liquid tin droplets at high repetition rates using a powerful carbon dioxide laser. The vaporized/ionized tin droplets produce EUV radiation, which is collected by a mirror and focused into a lithographic scanner. The scanning system exposes lithographic patterns on semiconductor wafers using the EUV light. The function of the Compact NIRIM is to monitor the size, position, spatial stability and form factor of the stream of tin droplets as they traverse through its field of view.

Due to the extremely high cost, lead time and complexity of manufacturing custom optics, the team was only responsible for designing the optical system, its optomechanical mounts and enclosure dimensions within relevant software.

Revolute Robotics is pioneering an autonomous rolling/flying robot. This system will allow their robot to navigate various terrain, switching between a maneuverable flying mode and energy-efficient rolling mode. The goal of this project was to develop several assisting subsystems.

The aluminum rib shell design significantly reduces bouncing, improving the rolling operation of the robot and allowing for easy assembly and disassembly with common parts making maintenance and manufacturing simple. The delivered GUI provides an interface with the drone and offering data telemetry and command sending. The camera gimbal uses motors to rotate the robot’s primary camera in two axes to maintain level pitch in both rolling and flying modes. The center of gravity control system further makes the changing orientation between rolling and flying more efficient and allows the drone to easily position itself for charging. The charging station uses wireless induction power transfer between custom wound coils. It is accessible from all directions and allows the robot to wirelessly charge its battery without an operator to plug it in or remove the robot from its shell.