Home Energy Management System
Team Members
Daniel Brinks, Computer Engineering; Matt Drzewiecki, Carrie Grand, Andrew Kolinko, and Jacob McCann, Electrical Engineering; Joe Ruether, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Advisor
Sponsor
American Electric Power (AEP)
Project Overview
The ultimate goal for this project is to design a system that allows consumers to track their electrical energy consumption and control household devices. By capturing, interpreting, and processing smart meter data, the consumer will have knowledge of their current energy consumption and current time-of-day energy pricing. This information could encourage consumers to shift consumption to off-peak hours to control or minimize their energy costs. The overarching goal is to help with the current mismatch of electrical power generation and demand and delay the necessity of building new generation plants or importing expensive power during peak demand periods.
[View Senior Design Projects in Flickr]
Radar Hardware Environment Survivability Monitor
Team Members
John Carter and William Kohlstrand, Computer Engineering; Anthony Doering, Ben Marshall, and Chris Verhulst, Electrical Engineering
Advisor
Dr. Donald Secor
Sponsor
MIT-Lincoln Laboratory
Project Overview
MIT-Lincoln Laboratory is in the process of upgrading instrumentation radars with state-of-theart Radar Open System Architecture (ROSA) radar signal and communication back-end processing. The computer racks for the upgraded systems generate a significant amount of heat and contain several heat-sensitive components. Lincoln Labs has requested that we design a Radar Hardware Environment Survivability Monitor (RHESM) that will monitor the environmental conditions and initiate an orderly, automated shutdown of the radar system when specified criteria are met in order to ensure that no damage is done to the hardware.
[View Senior Design Projects in Flickr]
AMJOCH Observatory Geosynchronous Satellite Tracking
Team Members
Alex Aiello, Russell Andreas, Ashley Copeland, Chris Coverdale, and Kevin Kruse, Electrical Engineering
Advisor
Project Overview
Each day hundreds of geosynchronous satellites are drifting within close proximity of each other, leaving the possibility for costly collisions. Using the AMJOCH Observatory located in Atlantic Mine, our task for this year was to collect spectral data from these geosynchronous satellites to develop a program that will enable these geosynchronous satellites to be tracked. Along with developing a satellite tracking system, our goal was to also make the AMJOCH Observatory completely automated and accessible through the Internet.
Solar/Wind DC Backup for Power Substations
Team Members
Kaitlyn Bunker, Kevin Galbavi, Stephen Martin, and Clayton Umlor, Electrical Engineering; Amber Gilbertson, Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Advisor
Dr. Donald Secor
Sponsor
ITC Holdings
Project Overview
Many power substations across the ITC Holdings Corporation footprint have only a single source of DC power for the substation’s DC power needs. This source of DC power is the substation battery. The battery charge is maintained by a feed from the AC system. The goal is to design a backup system to charge the batteries and keep the critical equipment running in the case of a blackout event.
[View Senior Design Projects in Flickr]
Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition
Team Members
Andrew Carlson, Dave Colville, Matt Gauss, Mitch Knudson, and Mike Mott, Electrical Engineering; Amween AlMattar, Computer Engineering
Advisor
Sponsor
Oshkosh Corporation
Project Overview
A fully autonomous robotic vehicle must traverse an obstacle course under a given time limit while remaining below a 5-mph speed limit and avoiding the obstacles in its path. The vehicle must also travel to a number of waypoints and return to its starting point—given only the latitudelongitude coordinates of the targets. The 2010 IGVC team strives to improve upon last year’s entry and advance to first place. Design goals include improved reliability, enhanced path-finding algorithms, and increased user-friendliness.
[View Senior Design Projects in Flickr]
Remote Operated Military Vehicle
Team Members
Matt Borton, Jason Rudden, Ryan Schippers, and Jacob Smith, Electrical Engineering; Tim Cook and Bob Potter, Mechanical Engineering
Advisor
Dr. Donald Secor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sponsor
BAE Systems, GS Engineering
Project Overview
The development of remotely operated controlled vehicles offers the potential to reduce loss of human life in military combat. BAE’s family of medium tactical vehicles (FMTV) sets new global tactical vehicle standards for capability, reliability, mobility, and transportability. This project will advance previous design work to successfully control a FMTV remotely. One key design constraint is that any design changes cannot permanently alter the FMTV. The major goals are wireless control of steering, acceleration, braking, and transmission; relatively quick and easy installation; and safety.
[View Senior Design Projects in Flickr]
Automotive Climate Control Device Validation
Team Members
Dan Domski, Caoyang Jiang, and Robert Smith, Electrical Engineering; Nathan Fettinger and Ryan VanTreese, Computer Engineering; Devin McCauley, Mechanical Engineering
Advisor
Dr. Duane Bucheger, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sponsor
Behr-Hella Thermocontrol Inc.
Project Overview
BHTC patented pulse-count technology, used in automobile climate-control devices, that allow for sensorless positioning of a DC brushed motor. Said system is controlled by an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). BHTC has tasked the team with conducting a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) on production-level, climate control units. The team will put the ASIC and Pulse- Count system under a series of tests to discover new failure modes of the Pulse-Count system and to generate statistical data on the performance capabilities.
[View Senior Design Projects in Flickr]