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Description
With the growing penetration of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), the impact of the PEV charging brought to the utility grid draws more and more attention. This thesis focused on the optimization of a home energy management system (HEMS) with the presence of PEVs. For a household microgrid with photovoltaic (PV)

With the growing penetration of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), the impact of the PEV charging brought to the utility grid draws more and more attention. This thesis focused on the optimization of a home energy management system (HEMS) with the presence of PEVs. For a household microgrid with photovoltaic (PV) panels and PEVs, a HEMS using model predictive control (MPC) is designed to achieve the optimal PEV charging. Soft electric loads and an energy storage system (ESS) are also considered in the optimization of PEV charging in the MPC framework. The MPC is solved through mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) by considering the relationship of energy flows in the optimization problem. Through the simulation results, the performance of optimization results under various electricity price plans is evaluated. The influences of PV capacities on the optimization results of electricity cost are also discussed. Furthermore, the hardware development of a microgrid prototype is also described in this thesis.
ContributorsZhao, Yue (Author) / Chen, Yan (Thesis advisor) / Johnson, Nathan (Committee member) / Lei, Qin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
The concept of the microgrid is widely studied and explored in both academic and industrial societies. The microgrid is a power system with distributed generations and loads, which is intentionally planned and can be disconnected from the main utility grid. Nowadays, various distributed power generations (wind resource, photovoltaic resource, etc.)

The concept of the microgrid is widely studied and explored in both academic and industrial societies. The microgrid is a power system with distributed generations and loads, which is intentionally planned and can be disconnected from the main utility grid. Nowadays, various distributed power generations (wind resource, photovoltaic resource, etc.) are emerging to be significant power sources of the microgrid.

This thesis focuses on the system structure of Photovoltaics (PV)-dominated microgrid, precisely modeling and stability analysis of the specific system. The grid-connected mode microgrid is considered, and system control objectives are: PV panel is working at the maximum power point (MPP), the DC link voltage is regulated at a desired value, and the grid side current is also controlled in phase with grid voltage. To simulate the real circuits of the whole system with high fidelity instead of doing real experiments, PLECS software is applied to construct the detailed model in chapter 2. Meanwhile, a Simulink mathematical model of the microgrid system is developed in chapter 3 for faster simulation and energy management analysis. Simulation results of both the PLECS model and Simulink model are matched with the expectations. Next chapter talks about state space models of different power stages for stability analysis utilization. Finally, the large signal stability analysis of a grid-connected inverter, which is based on cascaded control of both DC link voltage and grid side current is discussed. The large signal stability analysis presented in this thesis is mainly focused on the impact of the inductor and capacitor capacity and the controller parameters on the DC link stability region. A dynamic model with the cascaded control logic is proposed. One Lyapunov large-signal stability analysis tool is applied to derive the domain of attraction, which is the asymptotic stability region. Results show that both the DC side capacitor and the inductor of grid side filter can significantly influence the stability region of the DC link voltage. PLECS simulation models developed for the microgrid system are applied to verify the stability regions estimated from the Lyapunov large signal analysis method.
ContributorsXu, Hongru (Author) / Chen, Yan (Thesis advisor) / Johnson, Nathan (Committee member) / Lei, Qin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
The field of robotics is rapidly expanding, and with it, the methods of teaching and introducing students must also advance alongside new technologies. There is a challenge in robotics education, especially at high school levels, to expose them to more modern and practical robots. One way to bridge this ga

The field of robotics is rapidly expanding, and with it, the methods of teaching and introducing students must also advance alongside new technologies. There is a challenge in robotics education, especially at high school levels, to expose them to more modern and practical robots. One way to bridge this gap is human-robot interaction for a more hands-on and impactful experience that will leave students more interested in pursuing the field. Our project is a Robotic Head Kit that can be used in an educational setting to teach about its electrical, mechanical, programming, and psychological concepts. We took an existing robot head prototype and further advanced it so it can be easily assembled while still maintaining human complexity. Our research for this project dove into the electronics, mechanics, software, and even psychological barriers present in order to advance the already existing head design. The kit we have developed combines the field of robotics with psychology to create and add more life-like features and functionality to the robot, nicknamed "James Junior." The goal of our Honors Thesis was to initially fix electrical, mechanical, and software problems present. We were then tasked to run tests with high school students to validate our assembly instructions while gathering their observations and feedback about the robot's programmed reactions and emotions. The electrical problems were solved with custom PCBs designed to power and program the existing servo motors on the head. A new set of assembly instructions were written and modifications to the 3D printed parts were made for the kit. In software, existing code was improved to implement a user interface via keypad and joystick to give students control of the robot head they construct themselves. The results of our tests showed that we were not only successful in creating an intuitive robot head kit that could be easily assembled by high school students, but we were also successful in programming human-like expressions that could be emotionally perceived by the students.
ContributorsRathke, Benjamin (Co-author) / Rivera, Gerardo (Co-author) / Sodemann, Angela (Thesis director) / Itagi, Manjunath (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The action/adventure game Grad School: HGH is the final, extended version of a BME Prototyping class project in which the goal was to produce a zombie-themed game that teaches biomedical engineering concepts. The gameplay provides fast paced, exciting, and mildly addicting rooms that the player must battle and survive through,

The action/adventure game Grad School: HGH is the final, extended version of a BME Prototyping class project in which the goal was to produce a zombie-themed game that teaches biomedical engineering concepts. The gameplay provides fast paced, exciting, and mildly addicting rooms that the player must battle and survive through, followed by an engineering puzzle that must be solved in order to advance to the next room. The objective of this project was to introduce the core concepts of BME to prospective students, rather than attempt to teach an entire BME curriculum. Based on user testing at various phases in the project, we concluded that the gameplay was engaging enough to keep most users' interest through the educational puzzles, and the potential for expanding this project to reach an even greater audience is vast.
ContributorsNitescu, George (Co-author) / Medawar, Alexandre (Co-author) / Spano, Mark (Thesis director) / LaBelle, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Guiang, Kristoffer (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The field of soft robotics is a very quickly growing field that has yet to be fully explored or implemented in all of the possible applications. Soft robotics shows the greatest degree of possibility for mimicking biological systems effectively and accurately. This study seeks to set the groundwork for the

The field of soft robotics is a very quickly growing field that has yet to be fully explored or implemented in all of the possible applications. Soft robotics shows the greatest degree of possibility for mimicking biological systems effectively and accurately. This study seeks to set the groundwork for the development of a biomimetic nautilus using soft robotic methods. The study shows background research and discusses the methods used to develop a nautilus themed sub aquatic robot that uses a double bladder system and a pump to generate thrust for movement. The study shows how the unit would be fabricated and constructed. The study also explores why the second stage of the design failed and how it could potentially be fixed in future iterations.
ContributorsCarlson, Caleb Elijah (Author) / Polygerinos, Panagiotis (Thesis director) / Parsey, John (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
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Description
The goal of our research was to develop and validate a method for predicting the mechanical behavior of Additively Manufactured multi-material honeycomb structures. Multiple approaches already exist in the field for modeling the behavior of cellular materials, including the bulk property assumption, homogenization and strut level characterization [1]. With the

The goal of our research was to develop and validate a method for predicting the mechanical behavior of Additively Manufactured multi-material honeycomb structures. Multiple approaches already exist in the field for modeling the behavior of cellular materials, including the bulk property assumption, homogenization and strut level characterization [1]. With the bulk property approach, the structure is assumed to behave according to what is known about the material in its bulk formulation, without regard to its geometry or scale. With the homogenization technique, the specimen that is being tested is treated as a solid material within the simulation environment even if the physical specimen is not. Then, reduced mechanical properties are assigned to the specimen to account for any voids that exist within the physical specimen. This approach to mechanical behavior prediction in cellular materials is shape dependent. In other words, the same model cannot be used from one specimen to the next if the cell shapes of those lattices differ in any way. When using the strut level characterization approach, a single strut (the connecting member between nodes constituting a cellular material) is isolated and tested. With this approach, there tends to be a significant deviation in the experimental data due to the small size of the isolated struts. Yet it has the advantage of not being shape sensitive, at least in principle. The method that we developed, and chose to test lies within the latter category, and is what we have coined as the Representative Lattice Element (RLE) Method. This method is modeled after the well-established Representative Volume Element (RVE) method [2]. We define the RLE as the smallest unit over which mechanical tests can be conducted that will provide results which are representative of the larger lattice structure. In other words, the theory is that a single member (or beam in this case) of a honeycomb structure can be taken, tests can be conducted on this member to determine the mechanical properties of the representative lattice element and the results will be representative of the mechanical behavior whole structure. To investigate this theory, we designed specimens, conducted various tensile and compression tests, analyzed the recorded data, conducted a micromechanics study, and performed structural simulation work using commercial Finite Element Analysis software.
ContributorsSalti, Ziyad Zuheir (Co-author) / Eppley, Trevor (Co-author) / Bhate, Dhruv (Thesis director) / Song, Kenan (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
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Description

Automated vehicles are becoming more prevalent in the modern world. Using platoons of automated vehicles can have numerous benefits including increasing the safety of drivers as well as streamlining roadway operations. How individual automated vehicles within a platoon react to each other is essential to creating an efficient method of

Automated vehicles are becoming more prevalent in the modern world. Using platoons of automated vehicles can have numerous benefits including increasing the safety of drivers as well as streamlining roadway operations. How individual automated vehicles within a platoon react to each other is essential to creating an efficient method of travel. This paper looks at two individual vehicles forming a platoon and tracks the time headway between the two. Several speed profiles are explored for the following vehicle including a triangular and trapezoidal speed profile. It is discovered that a safety violation occurs during platoon formation where the desired time headway between the vehicles is violated. The aim of this research is to explore if this violation can be eliminated or reduced through utilization of different speed profiles.

ContributorsLarson, Kurt Gregory (Author) / Lou, Yingyan (Thesis director) / Chen, Yan (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Eng Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
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Description
The CNC mill is a highly valuable tool for engineering design, allowing for the creation of precise and complex metal parts. However, due to their high cost, many engineers do not have access to these machines until they enter industry, limiting the knowledge and experience of engineering students. This also

The CNC mill is a highly valuable tool for engineering design, allowing for the creation of precise and complex metal parts. However, due to their high cost, many engineers do not have access to these machines until they enter industry, limiting the knowledge and experience of engineering students. This also restricts the level of engineering design they can participate in as they are limited to lower strength materials and processes. To expand the possibilities for engineering students, hobbyists, and small businesses, we created a reliable and affordable desktop CNC mill. Our machine is capable of cutting non-ferrous metals such as aluminum with 70μm repeatable part precision and be compatible with coolant and vacuum systems.
ContributorsHodson, Kenneth (Author) / Altobelli, Seth (Co-author) / Jordan, Shawn (Thesis director) / Sweeney, Rhett (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Engineering Programs (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description

Cornhole, traditionally seen as tailgate entertainment, has rapidly risen in popularity since the launching of the American Cornhole League in 2016. However, it lacks robust quality control over large tournaments, since many of the matches are scored and refereed by the players themselves. In the past, there have been issues

Cornhole, traditionally seen as tailgate entertainment, has rapidly risen in popularity since the launching of the American Cornhole League in 2016. However, it lacks robust quality control over large tournaments, since many of the matches are scored and refereed by the players themselves. In the past, there have been issues where entire competition brackets have had to be scrapped and replayed because scores were not handled correctly. The sport is in need of a supplementary scoring solution that can provide quality control and accuracy over large matches where there aren’t enough referees present to score games. Drawing from the ACL regulations as well as personal experience and testimony from ACL Pro players, a list of requirements was generated for a potential automatic scoring system. Then, a market analysis of existing scoring solutions was done, and it found that there are no solutions on the market that can automatically score a cornhole game. Using the problem requirements and previous attempts to solve the scoring problem, a list of concepts was generated and evaluated against each other to determine which scoring system design should be developed. After determining that the chosen concept was the best way to approach the problem, the problem requirements and cornhole rules were further refined into a set of physical assumptions and constraints about the game itself. This informed the choice, structure, and implementation of the algorithms that score the bags. The prototype concept was tested on their own, and areas of improvement were found. Lastly, based on the results of the tests and what was learned from the engineering process, a roadmap was set out for the future development of the automatic scoring system into a full, market-ready product.

ContributorsGillespie, Reagan (Author) / Sugar, Thomas (Thesis director) / Li, Baoxin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description

Our project is to create a simplified, portable, modular electrocardiogram known as ECG/EKG. Most medical facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and skilled nursing facilities, still rely on traditional 12-lead EKG equipment consisting of a large cart with long 10 wires. These wires can be a pain to constantly detangle and rearrange

Our project is to create a simplified, portable, modular electrocardiogram known as ECG/EKG. Most medical facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and skilled nursing facilities, still rely on traditional 12-lead EKG equipment consisting of a large cart with long 10 wires. These wires can be a pain to constantly detangle and rearrange to determine a person’s heart conditions. This creates issues in fast paced scenarios such as when a patient is experiencing a heart attack and needs an EKG stat. Additionally, the current technology can be somewhat unreliable at determining heart conditions, causing providers to request multiple EKG’s for patients. With our improved versatile EKG, we can help solve these issues and implement additional outpatient use with its portable features. This can be done by remotely monitoring heart conditions during activities such as exercise, sleep, or stressful events, without worrying about wire disturbance.

ContributorsMullins, Hunter (Author) / Lam, Jadon (Co-author) / Goode, Zachary (Co-author) / Taut, Sarah (Co-author) / Lee, Youngju (Co-author) / Huang, Hai (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Swader, Melissa (Committee member) / McElfish, Alex (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Engineering Programs (Contributor)
Created2023-05