Engineering TV

Galileo Wheel

CurtisEllzey — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:25:00 GMT

Galileo is the innovator of a unique breakthrough technology, The Galileo Wheel, which combines a wheel and a track in a single component. The simple mechanism, wheel to track, or track to wheel, enables switching back and forth between the two modes within seconds. The technology provides the benefits of both traditional transport elements: the wheel with its energy efficiency, smooth ride, maneuverability, minimal footprint and suitability for high speeds, and the tracks with their superb traction for overcoming obstacles, towing capability, smoothness of ride over rough terrain and the capability to climb up and down stairs. Mobility needs analysis of tracked vehicles, specifically tracked robots, whether large or small, shows that the majority of these would be better off on wheels most of the time, but for a short yet critical portion of their intended operation, must be on tracks to achieve their mission. Galileo has developed the ideal mobility platform for robots, vehicles, wheelchairs and any other devices needing track and wheels simultaneously.

(874 Views, 0 Comments)

Gutter Cleaning Robot

CurtisEllzey — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:06:00 GMT

Cleaning gutters can be a dangerous and time consuming job but it is an essential part of home maintenance. Now there's an easier, faster way to clean your gutters and protect the investment in your home. The iRobot Looj propels itself through your gutters, under gutter straps and over downspout holes. Using a three-stage auger, this gutter cleaning robot breaks up clogs, lifts out the debris, and brushes your gutters clean. Spinning at 500 RPM, the high velocity auger delivers the power needed to dislodge, lift and toss wet leaves, pine needles and other debris out of your gutters. The iRobot Looj can clean a 60-foot section of gutter in just 10 minutes.

(588 Views, 0 Comments)

Educational Autonomous Robotic Vehicle

CurtisEllzey — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:56:00 GMT

The c-Link Systems Trak-Bot is a tabletop educational robotic vehicle used to explore and demonstrate autonomous vehicle motion. The robot is perfect for students and hobbyists to test motion programming or autonomous concepts that need to be demonstrated. The drive system was created to look and feel like it's bigger brothers: bulldozers and military tanks. The tracks are of an Elastomer material so as not to mark or mar surfaces and gain a modicum of traction. The chassis is constructed of ABS plastic, which allows for customization and custom painting. Creation of programs for the –P robot can be handled through Cypress PSoC Express. The –C3 robot contains an Altera Cyclone-III EP3C5, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) which can be configured with a 32-bit CPU (NIOS II). The -U robot contains a 48-pin dip plug-in for add-on features and other vendor processors. The user’s imagination is the only real limitation to what the control cards can do. Optional add-ons increase the educational potential exponentially.

(537 Views, 0 Comments)

Modular Robotic Arm

CurtisEllzey — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:12:00 GMT

The application possibilities of the newly designed lightweight modular robotic arm (LWA 3, from Schunk) are versatile and cover various areas in robotics: inspection systems, service robotics, workstations and work processes with human-machine interaction, mobile platforms (such as light transport, monitoring and maintenance robots), and tactile, sensor or camera based inspection systems. The new servo-electric swivel units of the PowerCube series with integrated Motor-Controller unit and continuous center bore for the cable feed-through form its base. The combination of high power density and light materials for connecting technology enable twice the payload. In the standard design, the LWA 3 robotic arm is available as a 7-axis system. The open software-architecture makes it possible to connect and operate any type of end effectors to the servo-electric “wrist” of the robot arm, e.g.: the Schunk Dextrous Hand or Anthropomorphic Hand gripping modules.

(286 Views, 0 Comments)

Engine and Brake Friction

CurtisEllzey — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:28:00 GMT

The Motorsport Engineering Program at CSU set out to design and build a floating liner engine to be used for the measurement of internal friction. A floating liner engine is one for which the cylinder liner is mounted in such a way that any rigid contacts are intermediated by force sensors. By equipping the engine this way it is possible to measure the forces acting on the cylinder liner due to the motion of the piston. The brake friction dynamometer was developed to test heat transfer and braking efficiency as well as perform brake bedding (initial transfer of brake pad material onto rotor). The system enables the testing and evaluation of calipers, friction materials and rotors, including rotor wear and friction modification treatments.

(605 Views, 1 Comments)

Composite Monocoque and Intake Valves

CurtisEllzey — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:34:00 GMT

A wide variety of advanced materials-related topics are the basis for graduate research at Colorado State University's Motorsport Engineering program. Topics range from evaluation of composite structures, like the carbon fiber monocoque, to investigations into new materials and applications for motorsport engineering, like net-shape, resin-transfer molded, carbon fiber reinforced composite intake valves, which have 20% the mass of steel valves.

(647 Views, 2 Comments)

CSU Motorsport Engineering

CurtisEllzey — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:19:00 GMT

The Motorsport Engineering academic program at Colorado State University focuses on advanced motorsport engineering degrees, targeting the racing and performance industries. At the MS-level, students may specialize in studies related to either race vehicle design, or in the activities of a team engineer. At the PhD-level the students focus on advanced design and analysis. Key faculty are involved in the motorsport engineering program with specialties including vehicle dynamics, composites/chassis structures, and computational fluid dynamics. Current graduate research projects at the 14,000 square foot research facility include topics such as turbocharger control and optimization, composite materials insertion into IC engine technology, CFD of cylinder ports, valve dynamics studies, vehicle torsional stiffness, natural frequency approaches to spring/damper tuning, racetrack simulation, and more. Engineers educated to take on lead roles in the motorsport industry and on professional race teams are a rare commodity. CSU’s Motorsport Engineering program is a pipeline to a well trained employee pool that is prepared for the challenges of vehicle design, setup and race preparation.

(631 Views, 1 Comments)

FPGA-controlled Vocoder Beatboxing

CurtisEllzey — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:47:00 GMT

Intelligent DAQ is multifunction data acquisition that features user-defined, onboard processing for complete flexibility of system timing and triggering. Instead of a fixed ASIC for controlling device functionality, intelligent DAQ uses an FPGA-based system timing controller to make all analog and digital I/O configurable for application-specific operation. You can configure the FPGA chip by creating LabVIEW block diagrams with the National Instruments LabVIEW FPGA Module. National Instrument's Vineet Aggarwal demonstrates this functionality with a new vocoder application and some excellent beatboxing skills.

(474 Views, 0 Comments)

Inspiring Young Engineers

CurtisEllzey — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:19:00 GMT

Lindsay Lawler, inventor of the Electric Giraffe, discusses the project's past, present and future, from it's 10 month-long build cycle, to adventures at the Burning Man festival, to it's role in shaping the imaginations of future generations of engineers.

(559 Views, 0 Comments)

The Electric Giraffe

CurtisEllzey — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:04:00 GMT

Based on Tamiya's little model of a walking giraffe, the Electric Giraffe is a 17 foot tall robotic giraffe that borrows this toy's walking mechanism. The giraffe uses a small 12 horsepower engine burning propane gas to charge system batteries that power a 3 horsepower electric motor that only needs 1.5 horsepower to move the giraffe, using a true hybrid fuel-engine-generator-electric motor design. The motor gives its power to a "hydrostatic transmission", providing a continuously variable "analog" speed control. Currently the giraffe has about 500 watts of on board audio power, slated to be expanded to at least 2000 watts in the future, as well as a multitude of programmable lights controlled by Kontron embedded systems.

(817 Views, 1 Comments)

2008 Lantronix Wireless Design Contest

CurtisEllzey — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:20:00 GMT

At the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, Calif., Lantronix, Inc. announced the winners of its annual Wireless Design Contest. The contest challenges engineers, students and hobbyists to develop a creative and practical wireless product using Lantronix's MatchPort b/g, an 802.11 b/g embedded wireless device server module. Editors from Electronic Design and Machine Design, as well as Lantronix engineers, judged more than 150 entries on technical merit, originality, usefulness, cost-effectiveness, and design optimization. Winning entries this year included: VersaLights, The Wireless Miner, and a WiFi Security Robot.

(748 Views, 0 Comments)

Visica 2: Benign Tumor Treatment

CurtisEllzey — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:05:00 GMT

The Visica 2 Treatment System is a premier product for the management and treatment of fibroadenomas. The Visica 2 ICE Probes deliver therapeutic freezing temperatures to targeted tissue to ablate or localize tissue. It is a minimally invasive procedure replacing the more costly surgical procedure for treatment of fibroadenomas (benign tumors) and offering a non-surgical in-office approach for patients. The entire procedure can be performed in-office in about 30 minutes, using local anesthesia.

(498 Views, 1 Comments)

Microalgae Bioreactors

CurtisEllzey — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:23:00 GMT

Current research in the area of biofuels includes a major R&D program with Solix Biofuels and the Engines and Energy Conversion Lab to develop photobioreactors for the mass production of algae as a biodiesel feedstock. Designing and building a Photobioreactor (PBR) that produces oil at a competitive price requires precise delivery of sunlight and the photobiological formula to each algae cell in the system.

(1579 Views, 1 Comments)

Algae-based Biofuel

CurtisEllzey — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:08:00 GMT

The vision of Solix Biofuels is to unlock the complex secrets of one of the simplest organisms on Earth, microalgae, to create a commercially viable biofuel that will play a vital role in solving climate change and petroleum scarcity, without competing with global food supply.

(1975 Views, 2 Comments)

Clean Cookstoves

CurtisEllzey — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:49:00 GMT

Colorado State's EECL is actively working with Envirofit International to design low cost, high performance cookstoves for the developing world. Indoor air pollution from cookstoves causes over 1.5 million premature deaths each year. Through support from the Shell Foundation, the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory and Envirofit plan to disseminate 10 million improved cookstoves around the world in the next 5 years.

(1446 Views, 0 Comments)

Large Natural Gas Engines

CurtisEllzey — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:54:00 GMT

The Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory at Colorado State University has a 15 year history in developing products which improve engine efficiency and reduce harmful emissions from engines as small as 1 hp to as large as 2500 hp. As the quest for alternative fuels continues, new sources of gaseous fuels are emerging. These consist of both synthetic natural gas (coal gas, reformed natural gas) and biomass derived gases (wood gas, biogas). This project explores the use of alternative gaseous fuels in traditional natural gas engines.

(795 Views, 0 Comments)

Direct Fuel Injection Solution

CurtisEllzey — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:13:00 GMT

A major source of outdoor air pollution is carbureted two-stroke engines, which power 100 million "two-wheelers" (e.g. motorcycles, scooters) and "three-wheelers" (e.g. tricycles, "tuk-tuks") across Southeast Asia. Nathan Lorenz, of Envirofit International, walks us through a Direct In-cylinder (DI) fuel injection retrofit kit for two-stroke engines that is cleaner and more fuel efficient than the replacement four-stroke engines.

(1582 Views, 3 Comments)

2-Stroke Retrofit

CurtisEllzey — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:27:00 GMT

Envirofit is clearing the air and saving fuel in the Philippines by retrofitting dirty two-stroke engines with clean, fuel-efficient direct injection technology.

(708 Views, 0 Comments)

Electric Grids and Microalgae

CurtisEllzey — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:52:00 GMT

Dr. Bryan Willson, Director of Colorado State University's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory, discusses their work with two co-located partners. Spirae's InteGrid laboratory ranks among the world’s most advanced centers for test and development related to renewable energy, distributed generation, and power system management. Solix is working with microalgae to create a commercially viable biofuel that could play a vital role in solving climate change and petroleum scarcity, without competing with global food supply.

(858 Views, 0 Comments)

Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory

CurtisEllzey — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:28:00 GMT

Research at the Energy and Engines Conversion Laboratory at Colorado State University focuses on Fuels, Energy Conversion, and Energy Distribution. Applications are concentrated in transportation, air quality, indoor air quality, village energy systems, and distributed energy. Products developed at the EECL in partnership with their industrial sponsors have reduced pollution in the atmosphere by millions of tons and have saved over 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

(888 Views, 1 Comments)

Eco-Plastics

CurtisEllzey — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:25:00 GMT

Other biodegradable plastics utilize expensive, limited, food feedstocks and costly biological production processes. Novomer re-uses carbon dioxide as a major input in a low-cost, precision-quality, chemical process that produces a class of uniform polymers, plastics and other chemicals. Novomer is building the partnerships to turn these materials into environmentally friendly, green plastics products that can replace and improve the role of plastics across many markets.

(575 Views, 0 Comments)

Implantable Materials and Advanced Ceramics

CurtisEllzey — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:25:00 GMT

The aliphatic polycarbonates created by Cornell chemist Geoffrey Coates are safe and strong enough to be used in medical implants and devices. They're also used as extremely effective binders for the creation of non-oxide ceramics, which are often used as components experiencing high compressive stresses such as cam rollers in diesel engines, valves, seals, rotating parts and wear plates, abrasive powder blast nozzles, cutting tool tips, and more.

(542 Views, 0 Comments)

The Disappearing Polymer

CurtisEllzey — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:40:00 GMT

Polypropylene carbonate (PPC), is a polycarbonate plastic material, a copolymer of carbon dioxide and propylene oxide. In the ceramics industry, polypropylene carbonate and polyethylene carbonate are used as sacrificial binders, especially alumina and silicon carbide; the polymers evaporate during sintering as they decompose completely above 300 °C.

(716 Views, 0 Comments)

Novomer: Precision Catalysts

CurtisEllzey — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:46:00 GMT

Scientists at Novomer have unlocked catalytic pathways that transform simple, abundant feedstocks like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into high-performance polymers and fine chemicals.

(549 Views, 0 Comments)

APEC 2008: Texas Instruments

Electronic Design — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:29:00 GMT

Tim Goodrow from Texas Instruments discusses the company's new Fusion Digital Power products. PowerPulse.net, covering the full spectrum of power electronics, contributed to this video.

(854 Views, 0 Comments)