Possible senior design projects, ME 461, Fall 2011

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Spencer Douglas
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1 Possible senior design projects, ME 461, Fall Title: Reliability Enhancement of PV Street Lighting in Solar Adverse regions Mentor: Krishnan Background: It is well known that identification of inexpensive and effective renewable energy sources can diversify national energy resources, strengthen economic development and mitigate pollution. Recent developments in Photovoltaic (PV) materials and solar lighting technology have paved the way to several reliable designs. However, these designs cannot be effectively utilized in regions that experience harsh weather conditions during winter. In North Dakota, although the daily average insolation is estimated to be 16MJ/m2 (sufficient for PV solar lighting purposes), sub zero ambient temperatures and wind chill remain the key limiting factors in winter for proper harnessing of solar energy. The proposed project is intended to enhance the technical feasibility of using PV solar lighting systems in an effective and efficient way even in extreme winter conditions of North Dakota. The major concern: In standalone solar lighting PV systems, even in a sunny day when the PV panel generates sufficient energy, the batteries fail to store and deliver it to lights due to rapid freezing of liquid chemicals present in it, resulting in the failure of entire system mechanism. To protect the storage batteries from freezing in winter months by (i) Identifying optimal positioning of the storage batteries (preferably underground) and (ii) by using cost effective insulation for storage batteries. Key tasks will include (a) Designing and fabrication of an insulated battery-housing that is compatible with the environmental conditions, (b) damp heat and Hot spot testing to characterize reliability of systems and compare with existing systems, (c) reliability study of the lighting system stored underground, (d) designing and fabrication of mounting arms to hold solar panels at an angle to track maximum solar radiation, and (e) assessment of technical as well as economic feasibility of the proposed system. 2. Project title: Design of a Resorbable Joint Replacement for the 1st Metatarsal Phalangeal Joint Project mentors: Annie Tangpong, Xinnan Wang, Yechun Wang Brief project description: The first metatarsal phalangeal joint (MPJ) is a commonly affected joint of osteoarthritis. The goal of this project is to use cartilage developed from the patient s own chondrocyte to replace the degenerated cartilage of the diseased first MPJ. A hydrogel scaffold will be used in the culturing of the cartilage cells and a PLA tack will be used to support the cartilage matrix and attach to the joint.

2 The previous senior design group has designed a workable cell culturing routine, selected the tack material, and tested the material properties of the tack. The objective of this new design team is to design and test a bio-absorbable tack which provides mechanical strength to the newly proliferated cartilage cells in a hydrogel scaffold before and during the surgery. 3. Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) design Mentor: Karami Human powered vehicle is concerned with the design of a new mechanical vehicle composed mainly of the frame, steering, drive train, wheels, brakes, seat and fairing. The group should review the previous designs, and come up with new ideas and implementations. For the project the design requirements have been determined by the rules for 2011 HPV Competition sponsored by American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) HPV contest is an even put on by ASME. The competition has three different classes; single rider, multi-rider, and utility. The group should make a plan to attend the contest, usually sometimes in May-June each year. The following are a list of projects that have been submitted by Dr. Selekwa D A robotic kitchen chair that extends to reach high levels: In normal home kitchens, the disabled find it hard to pick things from high levels such as kitchen shelves and refrigerators or work on high kitchen counters. Although reachers are used to assist the disabled in picking things from a distance, they are limited by the weight that can be held, normally not more than half a pound. This project will develop a retractable chair that the user can operate to raise up himself/herself and turn left or right while seated. The chair will be battery powered with an extension of up to 2 feet high, and it will be mobile so that the user can move from one point to another in the kitchen. D A robotic device for transferring wheelchair bound people to and from bed: One of the major problems faced by wheelchair users is that of transferring themselves from the wheelchair to some other platforms like a car, a bathtub, or a bed. In most cases, an assistant is needed to help transferring the disabled from the wheelchair to the other platform. This capstone project will focus on designing and developing a robotic device that will be attached to the wheelchair to automatically hold and guide the passenger from the wheelchair to whatever intended platform without causing instability in the wheelchair. Therefore, after transferring the wheelchair should not trip off and the passenger should not fall down. D A robotic structure to aid clothing the disabled: Some disabled people who have walking impairment also have at least one incapacitated arm. As such they need help of another person to dress them. This project will seek to develop a robotic structure on which the disabled person can sit and

3 easily get dressed without the help of another person. The structure will be stationary and placed in the dressing room so that it can be operated by the disabled person using a joystick to pick clothes from a hanger and dress the individual. D A sliding chair to aid the disabled play ice hockey: Among the important things that disabled people tend to miss in their life is that of participation in sports. This project intends to develop a sliding wheelchair that will enable disabled people to participate in ice hockey, which is very popular in North Dakota. The chair must be sufficiently stable against tipping over and be agile enough to maneuver in short radius turns while allowing the user to use the hockey sticks as freely as necessary. Wheelchair Hockey League (WCHL) of Michigan allows electric and manual wheelchairs to be used in the sport. However, there is expected to be more excitement in the game when players use sliding wheelchairs. Therefore, unlike the normal wheelchairs that are used in WCHL, this project will develop a more sporty wheelchair so that the rider will have to learn some balancing techniques as in normal hockey. With the understanding of the rider s disability conditions, the wheelchair will have to be equipped with some level of self balancing means in case the rider fails to provide the required balance. D An Intelligent Controller for a Powered Wheelchair: Some disabled people, especially the elderly, do not qualify to ride powered wheelchairs because of their inability to safely drive them. Either they fail to control the speed, or they cannot clearly see and avoid obstacles. This project will focus on developing a control system that will combine navigation sensors, a microcontroller and wheel motors to control the speed and direction of the wheelchair such that it does not run outside of the walkways, overspeed or hit obstacles or other people. The project will seek to help visually impaired people with walking disabilities to ride on wheelchairs in controlled environments such as public parks and residential neighborhoods without requiring assistance from other persons. D A robotic wheelchair that can easily move over the stairs: One of the main problems faced by disabled people who have walking impairment is that of climbing or going down the stairs. The American with Disabilities Act of 1990 was enacted because of, among other reasons, the discriminatory effects of architectural, transportation, and failure to make modifications to existing facilities and practices to accommodate the disabled. The primary target for the reasons cited above was to accommodate wheelchair bound people with disabilities, because wheelchairs cannot climb up or go down stairs of any kind. Although this act is enforced in public buildings and businesses, there many places where wheelchair bound people are not yet accommodated, for example in private buildings. Additionally, many countries outside of the US do not have similar laws. This in effect reduces the freedom of movement for wheelchair bound people. The proposed project will challenge students to design and build a light weight battery powered wheelchair that can be driven up and down any

4 standard stair configuration with ease, without having to add any attachments to the wheelchair. Although this problem has been studied for a long time, most of the existing wheelchair designs that can climb stairways are still unpopular among the disabled users. Typically, existing designs tend to be heavy, delivering motions that have intermittent jumps. These jumps cause passenger discomfort and wheelchair instability, which often leads to falls. This project will seek to build a wheelchair that can smoothly run over steps without any jerkiness. D A portable robotic device to assist disabled people with toileting: One of the most embarrassing problems that face the disabled is when they want to use a bathroom while they are in places, like malls. Although public bathrooms are known to be accessible to people with disabilities, the toilets do not necessarily have all the structural attachments for supporting people with disability as those available in specialized homes, such as in assisted living homes. This project intends to design and build a collapsible a wheelchair attachment that can be reconfigured to provide the necessary support for the disabled. It should have a battery driven toilet paper dispenser that automatically wipes the disabled person after using the toilet. After use, the attachment should be easily collapsed and hidden within the wheelchair structure. D A compact upright standing wheelchair Most of the disabled people who lack upright standing balance because of some impairment in the lower limbs or due to paraplegic injuries are normally assisted to regain their mobility by using wheelchairs or power scooters. As such, these people spend most of their time in sitting positions, thereby missing many health benefits of standing upright. Prolonged sitting is known in the health community to cause, among other health problems, poor blood circulation, poor bowel functions, loss of bone mineral density, poor renal functions, poor drainage of the urinary tract, and increased accumulation of urinary calculi. In addition to those health problems, disabled people also suffer psychological problems that reduce their alertness and decrease their cognition abilities, which can cause depression. The proposed project intends to address these health and psychological disadvantages for disabled people by designing and developing a lightweight, battery powered wheelchair that can easily be configured by the user to be in upright standing without having to add any attachments. Research and development of standing wheelchairs have been in existence for over 30 years, and several patents have been filed. However, these wheelchairs are still not very popular among many users primarily because of their cost, size and weight. This project will aim at developing a compact battery powered standing wheelchair using light and strong materials. D A Self-Balancing MonoSki Seat: Another sport in which disabled people can participate is skiing; the investigators had prior experience with a paraplegic person skiing using a mono-ski seat that was designed and built by students as part of their capstone design in This project will

5 challenge students to develop a balancing control system for assisting the user to easily balance the seat while skiing. It will involve building a mono-ski seat equipped with actuators, sensors and a microcontroller that together will force the seat to remain in upright position just like the Segway personal transporter. D An Automatic Twisting Device: One small item, but which can be very important in the life of any person who suffers from manipulation limitations is a twisting device. There are many applications that require a person to perform a twisting manipulation, for example, opening a twist top bottle, opening a jar, or turning the ball shaped knobs to open a door. Since there are many sizes of what need to be twisted, it can be a big challenge to have a single device to meet all twisting demands. This project will challenge students to develop a high torque, battery powered twisting device, which will be characterized by automatically adjustable jaws of high grip.

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