Matching Items (19)
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- All Subjects: engineering
- Creators: Sugar, Thomas
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 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
Description
Recurring incidents between pedestrians, bicycles, and vehicles at the intersection of Rural Road and Spence Avenue led to a team of students conducting their own investigation into the current conditions and analyzing a handful of alternatives. An extension of an industry-standard technique was used to build a control case which alternatives would be compared to. Four alternatives were identified, and the two that could be modeled in simulation software were both found to be technically feasible in the preliminary analysis.
ContributorsFellows, Christopher Lee (Author) / Lou, Yingyan (Thesis director) / Zhou, Xuesong (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Women have evolved in the engineering profession over the decades. However, there is still a lot more room for female presence in the industry as women currently make up about 12-15% of working engineers. Based on many studies and surveys, it is clear that female confidence in their own performance and a feeling of belonging in the industry has evolved for the better. The studies and surveys also show that women still lack a certain confidence to get their engineering degree and then to pursue a career in engineering once they receive their degree. Research shows that the main cause for this is due to the stereotype that engineering is a masculine profession. Men and women both have this mindset because it has become a societal norm that most people go along with and do not even realize it. Unfortunately, it is very hard to overcome and change a societal norm, therefore, something needs to be done in order to fix this mindset. (Crawford). Based on studies and research, there are many ways the stereotype is being combatted. Social media has become a huge component in advocating for female engineers. Men and women are helping to fight the status quo by supporting female engineers and lobbying against people who think women do not belong in the industry. Industry professionals are teaming up with schools to figure out ways to make STEM programs more exciting for all young kids, but especially girls. They are also working to provide more mentors and role models for young girls in order to cheer them on and make them more confident in their abilities when learning and applying the STEM curriculum, as studies have proven that providing young girls with mentors can really help foster more female engineers in the long run. (Crawford). With all of the positive support and promotions of female engineers in the past few years, it is evident that women can certainly progress at a much faster pace than in previous decades.
ContributorsAcosta, Jazlyn (Co-author) / Venne, Hunter (Co-author) / Ward, Kristen (Thesis director) / Lou, Yingyan (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Suction stabilized floats have been implemented into a variety of applications such as supporting wind turbines in off-shore wind farms and for stabilizing cargo ships. This thesis proposes an alternative use for the technology in creating a system of suction stabilized floats equipped with real time location modules to help first responders establish a localized coordinate system to assist in rescues. The floats create a stabilized platform for each anchor module due to the inverse slack tank effect established by the inner water chamber. The design of the float has also been proven to be stable in most cases of amplitudes and frequencies ranging from 0 to 100 except for when the frequency ranges from 23 to 60 Hz for almost all values of the amplitude. The modules in the system form a coordinate grid based off the anchors that can track the location of a tag module within the range of the system using ultra-wideband communications. This method of location identification allows responders to use the system in GPS denied environments. The system can be accessed through an Android app with Bluetooth communications in close ranges or through internet of things (IoT) using a module as a listener, a Raspberry Pi and an internet source. The system has proven to identify the location of the tag in moderate ranges with an approximate accuracy of the tag location being 15 cm.
ContributorsDye, Michaela (Author) / Redkar, Sangram (Thesis advisor) / Sugar, Thomas (Committee member) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
There has been a decrease in the fertility rate over the years due to today’s younger generation facing more pressure in the workplace and their personal lives. With an aging population, more and more older people with limited mobility will require nursing care for their daily activities. There are several applications for wearable sensor networks presented in this paper. The study will also present a motion capture system using inertial measurement units (IMUs) and a pressure-sensing insole with a control system for gait assistance using wearable sensors. This presentation will provide details on the implementation and calibration of the pressure-sensitive insole, the IMU-based motion capture system, as well as the hip exoskeleton robot. Furthermore, the estimation of the Ground Reaction Force (GRF) from the insole design and implementation of the motion tracking using quaternion will be discussed in this document.
ContributorsLi, Xunguang (Author) / Redkar, Sangram (Thesis advisor) / Sugar, Thomas (Committee member) / Subramanian, Susheelkumar (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This work endeavors to lay a solid foundation for the exploration and the considerations of exoskeletons, exosuits, and medical devices concerning proprioceptive feedback. This investigation is situated at the nexus of engineering, neuroscience, and rehabilitation medicine, striving to cultivate a holistic understanding of how mechanical augmentation, interfaced synergistically with human proprioception, can foster enhanced mobility and safety. This is especially pertinent for individuals with compromised motor functions.British Neurologist Oliver Wolf Sacks in 1985 published “The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” a series of his most memorable neurological case describing the brain's strangest pathways. One of these cases is “The Disembodied Lady”, Christina a 27-year-old woman that lost entirely the sense of proprioception due to polyneuropathy. This caused her to not be able to control her body, and she declares that “I feel the wind on my arms and face, and then I know, faintly, I have arms and a face. It’s not the real thing, but it’s something—it lifts this horrible, dead veil for a while. ” Finally, she was able to control her body using vision alone. Dr. Sacks introduced, for the first time, the importance of proprioception, as the sense of position of body parts relative to other parts of the body, to western culture. This document’s mission is to identify unexplored concepts in the literature regarding exoskeletons, wearables and assistive technology and a user’s proprioception, embodiment and utilization when wearing devices. Dr. Philipp Beckerle suggests the need to research the connections between wearable hardware and human sense of proprioception. He also emphasizes the need for functional assessment protocols for wearables devices and the role of embodiment. He criticizes the current commercially available upper-limb prostheses since they only restore limited functions and therefore impede embodiment.
This document’s goal is to identify operative solutions through the adaptation of existing technologies and to use effective solutions to improve the quality of life of people suffering from pathologies or traumatic injuries.
ContributorsVignola, Claudio (Author) / Sugar, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Redkar, Sangram (Committee member) / McDaniels, Troy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Fine control of standing postural balance is essential for completing various tasks in daily activities, which might be compromised when interacting with dynamically challenging environments (e.g., moving ground). Among various biofeedback to improve postural balance control, vibrotactile feedback has an advantage of providing supplementary information about balance control without disturbing other core functions (e.g., seeing and hearing). This paper investigated the effectiveness of a waist vibrotactile feedback device to improve postural control during standing balance on a dynamically moving ground simulated by a robotic balance platform. Four vibration motors of the waist device applied vibration feedback in the anterior-posterior and medio-lateral direction based on the 2-dimensional sway angle, measured by an inertia measurement unit. Experimental results with 15 healthy participants demonstrated that the waist vibrotactile feedback is effective in improving postural control, evidenced by improvements in center-of-mass and center-of-pressure stability measures. In addition, this study confirmed the effectiveness of the waist vibrotactile feedback in improving standing balance control even under muscle fatigue induced by lower body exercise. The study further confirmed that the waist feedback is more effective in people with lower baseline balance performance in both normal and fatigue conditions.
ContributorsJo, Kwanghee (Author) / Lee, Hyunglae (Thesis advisor) / Sugar, Thomas (Committee member) / Peterson, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
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 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
With the extensive technological progress made in the areas of drives, sensors and processing, exoskeletons and other wearable devices have become more feasible. However, the stringent requirements in regards to size and weight continue to exert a strong influence on the system-wide design of these devices and present many obstacles to a successful solution. On the other hand, while the area of controls has seen a significant amount of progress, there also remains a large potential for improvements. This dissertation approaches the design and control of wearable devices from a systems perspective and provides a framework to successfully overcome the often-encountered obstacles with optimal solutions. The electronics, drive and control system design for the HeSA hip exoskeleton project and APEx hip exoskeleton project are presented as examples of how this framework is used to design wearable devices. In the area of control algorithms, a real-time implementation of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is presented as an alternative approach to extracting amplitude and frequency information of a time varying signal. In comparison to the peak search method (PSM), the FFT allows extracting basic gait signal information at a faster rate because time windows can be chosen to be less than the fundamental gait frequency. The FFT is implemented on a 16-bit processor and the results show the real-time detection of amplitude and frequency coefficients at an update rate of 50Hz. Finally, a novel neural networks based approach to detecting human gait activities is presented. Existing neural networks often require vast amounts of data along with significant computer resources. Using Neural Ordinary Differential Equations (Neural ODEs) it is possible to distinguish between seven different daily activities using a significantly smaller data set, lower system resources and a time window of only 0.1 seconds.
ContributorsBoehler, Alexander (Author) / Sugar, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Redkar, Sangram (Committee member) / Hollander, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
In nature, some animals have an exoskeleton that provides protection, strength, and stability to the organism, but in engineering, an exoskeleton refers to a device that augments or aids human ability. However, the method of controlling these devices has been a challenge historically. Depending on the objective, control systems for exoskeletons have ranged from devices as simple spring-loaded systems to using sensors such as electromyography (EMG). Despite EMGs being very common, force sensing resistors (FSRs) can be used instead. There are multiple types of exoskeletons that target different areas of the human body, and the targeted area depends on the need of the device. Usually, the devices are developed for either medical or military usage; for this project, the focus is on medical development of an automated elbow joint to assist in rehabilitation. This thesis is a continuation of my ASU Barrett honors thesis, Upper-Extremity Exoskeleton. While working on my honors thesis, I helped develop a design for an upper extremity exoskeleton based on the Wilmer orthosis design for Mayo Clinic. Building upon the design of an orthosis, for the master’s thesis, I developed an FSR control system that is designed using a Wheatstone bridge circuit that can provide a clean reliable signal as compared to the current EMG setup.
ContributorsCarlton, Bryan (Author) / Sugar, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Aukes, Daniel (Committee member) / Hollander, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023