Final Paper

It's a little late, but here is the final paper from my work this summer.  I had a great time learning about hydraulics as well as the research process.  Feel free to contact me (rfisher@purdue.edu) if you have any questions!

Thanks again for a great summer.

Final Paper

Woops!

Well I forgot to do the final blog. Everything ended up going ok at the end. Had a lot of work to do the last 3 days, but hopefully this work will be useful in the future. It turns out that opening and closing 3/2way valves at high pressure wastes a lot of energy. Also recycling high pressure exhausted air to power low pressure applications saves a lot of energy. It was a fun summer! Hope you guys enjoyed it too.
Megan

Not finished, but here goes!

Hey everyone!
So the REU program is finally over, but my research isn't! Below I attached a very very short slideshow of stuff I'm working on as the temporary "final" deliverable. Unfortunately, I am unable to share in depth details about my project due to a non disclosure agreement! However, the slideshow consists of what I am allowed to currently show. Since my REU program was hosted by my home institution, I will still continue to work on this project throughout the fall semester, and when the project finally becomes patented and when the graduate student I work with finishes and submits her paper, I will be able to share more (particularly about the interior and design process) and submit my paper.

Mini Presentation

Progress: Currently the prototype is at it's final steps of manufacturing and once completed, it will go through preliminary testing before it is actually tested in the hydraulic rig. (That way if there are leaks, it's caught before it's tested in the actual rig, which would cause a big mess) Once it's safe, it will be tested in the hydraulic rig and data will be collected and primarily analyzed by the graduate student.

I hope to get it done ASAP so I can share it with you all!

-Daniel

Final Presentation!!!

All, I had a lot of fun learning this summer, unfortunately it has come to an end. I want to thank everyone that made this summer great and my fellow colleagues. It was a pleasure meeting everyone at Purdue Univ. This is a link to my presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/ekundayo/research-2012a?from=share_email Well enjoy!

Final day pt. 1

This video shows what Augmented reality is about, which is what my summer consisted of researching about.

The end of the beginning

Greetings all!

Hope everyone enjoyed their experiences in the new cities (for most that traveled from their hometown) as much as their research. As the final 48 hours are whittling down, I wanted to express some sentiments in regards to the REU program, in general. After a week in, I had joked with another REU participant at MSOE (there were 9 REU participants total at MSOE: 2 CCEFP and 7 related with rapid prototyping) saying that this was like having won a game show: a paid trip, cash prizes (albeit having to work for it, but nonetheless), and the occasional free meals. However, the most invaluable part of "winning", being chosen for this program, is the experience. I had not given research much as an afterthought and the experienced convinced me and opened up new perspectives for the future. Ultimately, it also pushed my gears towards preparing for graduate school. The skills and techniques that were developed through these past 10 weeks cannot be taught anywhere else. I am truly grateful for being part of the 2012 CCEFP REU program.

A flurry of events occurred since my last post, mostly related with deadlines. We've had a final presentation last week, poster session yesterday, and I'm awaiting revisions and approval from my adviser on my final research paper. Without further ado, here are my final deliverables for the program:

Final presentation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r23jz8j18do3ir2/Young%20Presentation.pdf

Final poster: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9t47g75fly1sqmh/Young%20Poster.pdf

Final paper: https://www.dropbox.com/s/73cukgrfapwu8pk/Young%20-%20Final%20Paper.pdf

I will refrain from talking about my project; the technicalities as well as basics are in the paper and poster, respectively, so please check it out! It was definitely exciting to learn about thermoelectric generators, much more than what I knew from Week 1 (absolutely nothing). While it wasn't inherently a fluid power focused project (no hydraulics or pneumatics involved), its impact in the increasingly expanding fluid power industry is immeasurable. One thing I should have prepared myself for was programming, MATLAB in general; the relevance would have incredibly helped with the system modeling and mapping out the characteristics for optimization.

It's been quite a festive time in Milwaukee. I'm not sure when I'll be back, but I made sure I got to squeeze as much of the experience that I could as time permitted. On a final note, here's a completely unrelated quote to keep in mind about my research journey: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill

Final Presentation

Hi everyone,

Well, as I stated before, I'm working with the development of a human-machine interface for excavators. The haptic interface intends to add tactile cues to the traditionally operated excavator, which uses mainly visual and auditory cues. The goal of the experiment was to assess the stability of the haptic system and the potential improvements that it can bring to the operation in terms of productivity. The following link takes you to the final my final presentation (on Prezi website), which shows the development of the research, the results and conclusions.

Final Presentation

If you have questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Thank you!

Enio.

Greetings from GA

Hello everyone!!!

Everything is going pretty well here! I got my energy harvester prototype machined, and after a few more adjustments, it should be ready for preliminary testing. Other than that, it's been somewhat hectic writing a paper about my prototype for my professor, and slowly working on the report/poster for the CCEFP deliverable, while also trying to finish up the actual prototype. But nonetheless, everything's been pretty good here at GA Tech (minus today's rainy weather).

Interesting/unrelated news: They're actually currently shooting the movie "The Internship" here on GA Tech campus! They altered a lot of the buildings to make it look like Google headquarters and apparently Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson have been walking around campus, although I've never ran into either of them.

-Daniel Kim

Crane Update

With the help of my graduate mentor, I recently replaced the over center valves on the crane.  The new valves have two important features.  The first is that they have twice the pilot ratio of the old valves (and the valves that are typically in use in the field).  This basically means that the new valves are lot more efficient, but possibly more unstable.  The second advantage of the new valves is that we can adjust the pressure that is required to open them.  Lowering the pressure means less energy is needed, but again may lead to instabilities.  My graduate mentor is developing a pressure feedback controller as part of his thesis so we can make the valves much more energy efficient while making sure the system stays stable.  We have not operated the crane since the valve replacement, so we're hoping everything goes well once we turn the pump on...

Based on the theoretical performance of the new valves, I was able to calculate that we could achieve upwards of 40% energy savings over the old valves.  This depends heavily on the load that is on the crane and what cycle the crane is put through, but we are still very happy with the energy savings that could be realized if the controller can be developed to keep the crane stable.

This is our last week of the program here at Purdue, so now a lot of my time is spent finishing up presentations and paper.  The REU program this summer was a great experience and I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did!

Hello Again

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all enjoying the last few weeks that we have left with CCEFP. I can’t believe time has gone by so fast! Since my last blog post, I have built the majority of my Simulink model for my hydro-mechanical wind turbine. In fact, I pressed ‘run’ for the very first time on Monday morning. However, with the push of that button I began the frustrating task of debugging… inevitably, this week is going to be a long one.

Nevertheless, I do have a fun tale to tell about last week. On Tuesday, I went with fellow summer researchers to visit the University of Minnesota’s Morris campus. On this campus there are two large wind turbines, a biomass-burning plant, and a silver LEED certified building which heats its rooms and water with mostly solar thermal energy. The entire tour was led by three wonderfully knowledgeable speakers, and was extremely motivational.  Seeing how the campus incorporated all of these state-of-the-art, sustainable technologies, renewed my faith in America’s green energy sector! I really cannot wait for more of these products to find their way into modern homes and communities.

If you ever find yourself out in Minnesota, make sure you take a day and visit the Morris campus. It is definitely worth the drive!      

Hi everyone!

So this week was exciting because we had a TB6 conference call and Becca, Ellen and I were all there! I am finally starting to get a good direction for my project since I stopped being asked to do other tasks. The process has been really interesting trying to breakdown what is useful for us to do and what would be useful to do for a paper (the community's use).

Hope everyone's having a good time!
Megan

Power steering system update

In our project, the primary concern is related to the articulated steering structure. Articulated steering is actually rotating the whole front frame which requires a significant steering torque. However, The steering wheel is connected to the proportional rotary valve directly. That means considerable energy loss will occur at the valve.

In order to reduce the energy consumption, we will implement the DC system. However, haptic feedback won’t be available in this case, because the steering wheel no longer has a direct linkage with the steering cylinder. So we will use a sensor to measure the steering wheel position and a torque feedback device to replicate the road feel. A controller will be used to communicate the hydraulic pump and steering interface. 

In general, we will have improvements in 3 aspects: efficiency, safety and productivity

A lot of work has demonstrated the improved efficiency of the displacement controlled actuation by getting rid of the throttling loss across the valve. Next, stability is normally an issue for articulated steering vehicle, like jackknifing or snaking. However, with the new system, the active steering assistance can modify the driver’s input to stabilize the vehicle. We will also use progressive steering to help driver be more productive. That means in low speed situation, driver will experience faster and easier steering than that in high speed, in which case the resistive force will increase for better stability.

Haptic Devices

Hello everyone,

I hope each and everyone of you are enjoying your time thus far. For the past couple of weeks, I have been working on two haptic devices. The 1st was the Phantom Omni; which I tried to test but did not work out as planned. The Phantom Omni is a haptic devices makes it possible for users to touch and manipulate virtual objects. Due to some technical difficulty, I could not use it as I wanted to. Though we are still using the 2nd haptic device. The 2nd haptic device is the Phantom Premium 1.5 which provides a range of motion approximating lower arm movement pivoting at the elbow. Those in industry believe this haptic device to be better than the Phantom Omni.

The Premium 1.5 device includes a passive stylus and thimble gimbal and provides 3 degrees of freedom positional sensing and 3 degrees of freedom force feedback. Since it has been connected, I mainly just played with it using the graphic excavator and loading and unloading sand. While the Phantom Omni provides six degree-of-freedom positional sensing, Portable design and compact footprint for workplace flexibility, Comfortable molded-rubber stylus with textured paint for long term use and secure grip, removable stylus for end-user customization and two integrated momentary switches on the stylus for ease-of-use, and end-user customization.

Until next time, Stay Up!!!!

Hi everyone! In these past few days, we ran the pilot test to study the usability of a prototype interface for fluid powered rescue robots. The experiment consisted on the participants running two interfaces (the previous one, and the new one, with the changes suggested in our first study). Their eye movements were recorded, and the data collected was compared to analyze if we were able to improve the usability of the interface. Good results have been achieved, and now we will probably run the real experiment.

Long overdue update

Hello all! Hope everyone is doing well, as we are past the halfway mark and these 10 weeks are coming to a close (it seemed not that long ago since we all met at Purdue, wasn't it?)

Anyhoo, for the past few weeks, I've just been getting myself more acquainted with the research material: thermoelectric generators (TEG's), their theory, performance, and applications. My project has now been geared towards improving and perfecting upon the system modeling that was done the previous year using MATLAB (had to dust off my notes and refresh on that). I've done lots of literature survey regarding modeling, including system, mathematical, and simulation modeling. I will be receiving aid by a graduate student and hopefully get something running in the next few days. If time permits, I will be experimentally testing a commercially available TEG and comparing it to the system model for validity.

Essentially, as noted in the previous blog post, the application for the TEG in fluid power systems will be implemented in Test Bed 6 (ankle foot orthosis) and for greater scales, Test Bed 3 (hydraulic hybrid passenger vehicle). TEG's will utilize the waste heat from the engines and converting it to usable electric energy to power on small devices (batteries, valves, control circuitry) due to their minimal power output.

The research has been exciting, as its new to me and its potential is remarkable. I was able to test out an evaluation kit that was used from last year's and the phenomenon of thermoelectricity was fascinating. As time is quickly running out, I will be working extra hard to at least complete the system modeling to gain knowledge about the system characteristics for future optimization. 

Haptic Excavator

Hi everybody,

As I stated on my previous post, I'm working on a project for a multimodal excavator. The purpose of this project is to replace the traditional control for a different joystick which allows the operator to have tactile cues, such as feeling pressure, vibration, and also to provide a more intuitive interface, improving the productivity of the operation. I'll post a video showing the device later, but today I'll talk about what I've been doing so far. Over the past weeks my mission has been to revise a mathematical model for the haptic control and for the traditional control. This model includes transfer functions representing the cues (visual, auditory and haptic), the neuromuscular system, force generator, central nervous and task dynamics systems. By combining all these functions, it is possible to come up with a equation of the operator-excavator model. Once I have the equation, I can plug into Matlab and generate some plots to evaluate the systems using some parameters such as stability. Currently, I'm plotting the charts on Matlab and making this evaluations.

I hope everybody is enjoying the experience.

Enio Frota.

Maha Crane

Hello everyone.  My project has switched gears recently.  Originally, I was working on analyzing the load holding valves on the hydraulic crane installed at Maha.  I was able to run tests on the valves that came with the crane and would represent that technology that is currently in the field.  The next step is to replace the valves with new, state of the art valves that were donated to us and run the same tests.  In this way, I could quantify how energy efficient/inefficient the current valves are and how much could be saved with new valves and a closed loop controller.  Recently though, I've been working on improving the simulation for the crane.  Specifically, I'm working on improving the kinematic model.  To do that, I've made the entire crane in Solidworks and then imported the model into MATLAB's SimMechanics.  The current challenge is getting SimMechanics to talk to AMESim (where the fluid model was made), so we can simulate the entire system.  The goal is to validate this model so in the future, they can more easily test different control techniques.

Hi!
So the most exciting thing that happened last week was a lab field trip up to Chicago. We got toured around the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and learned about all the prosthetic and orthotic research they are doing up there. There is a lot of cool stuff they can test by tethering to able-bodied people so that the device can be tested on them first. And we saw an exoskeleton!! So the future of bionic suits is not far away :) once they become a little more stable...
Have a great week!
Megan

Hi everyone! In these past few days I have been working on the development of the new prototype interface for a fluid power rescue robot. Based on the data collected on the Tobii machine on the previous experiment that we ran, some suggestions to address the usability issues were implemented. Also, external research was conducted to gather data from usability studies to create a more user-friendly interface. Now, a new experiment will be conducted in the new interface, to make a comparison and see if our goal was achieved.

Hello everyone! The past few weeks, I helped fellow grad students with their projects. I helped them test their noise suppressors in the fluid power oil rig we work on. On top of helping grad students, I am still designing my project, and modeling it using Autodesk Inventor. I am currently trying to optimize the device and trying to make it plausible for the machine shop to machine. Once it's ready, I should have a test ready prototype by the end of July. Other than that, I learned a lot of basic fluid power, acoustics, and even machine design while working on my project.

Closing time.

I'm starting to feel the crunch for time and realizing that there isn't enough time for my project to be finished being that it's a new concept starting freshly anew. We finally bought some magnetorheological fluid to be used as a coupling device in our (Stephan Jean and I) valve concept. The best price we could find was $750 for one liter. Pretty expensive stuff to say the least. As time is drawing to a close, I am finalizing the schematic  and set up of our test rig. I am also delving into the world of electricity and learning about Peak and Hold circuits. Fun stuff.

The Civil Engineering Side

As a civil engineer, my project is rather different than what most of my fellow REU students are working on, and it actually entails two projects related to wind turbines. As a somewhat side project, I am working two days a week with a high school student who is interested in civil engineering. His first week we did an introduction to finding research material and a lesson on statics. His second week he did an investigation into wind turbine towers. Variables he looked at included power, hub height, tower composition, and cut-in and cut-out speeds. This week, his third week, he is using the information he found to determine the amount of steel used in the towers of various wind turbines. He is also using the statics lesson I gave him to practice making shear and moment diagrams. By the end of his six weeks here, we aim to have a basic height optimization for a wind turbine column completed.

As for my project, it started off slowly, but now has direction and potential! Last week I had the pleasure of touring the EOLOS wind turbine after attending the Fluid Power Expo held at the University of Minnesota. This turbine is owned by the university and has been operational for less than a year. Being a new turbine build for research, it is equipped with a variety of sensors on the foundation, column, and the blades themselves. On the foundation of the turbine there are three accelerometers, and these are the sensors I will be working with.

Before I begin working with the massive amounts of data collected on-site, I first need to ensure that I understand the data that accelerometers output. Accelerometers measures three dimensional accelerations. From these accelerations it is possible to determine displacements and orientations. In order to determine if I am calculating the displacements and orientations properly, I am going to build a basic wooden test bed. All smart phones have accelerometers in them, these are the devices which switch the screen orientation when the phone is rotated. Therefore, I can simply use the accelerometer on my cell phone and the wooden test bed to displace my cell phone to a know height and a know orientation. The data recorded and outputted by my cell phone can than be used to validate the MatLab code I will be developing before I apply the code to actual data.

The goal of this project is to determine how the foundation of the turbine is moving and how the accelerometers themselves are moving with respect to each other.

Fun times in Minnesota

Hi everyone!

Over the past few weeks I have been furiously working on understanding Simulink and how exactly I should be attaching a wind turbine rotor, an electric generator, and a hydrostatic transmission to a three shaft planetary gearbox. It has been quite the learning experience to say the very least :) There have been plenty of confusing moments and honestly, I must admit that I owe my grad student, Feng, a gigantic shout-out for all of the wonderful help he has given me thus far: Thanks Feng!

Now, fun things have not just been happening inside the lab. Firstly, Ellen and I were able to attend a Fluid power conference here at the UMN this past week. Not only were the speakers really knowledgeable, but the venders were really chatty and extremely generous with their free stuff (yay for USBs and posters and bags and pens and journals and more!). Moreover, the conference ended with a tour of the large wind turbine located about 40 minutes from campus. It was so amazing to see it up close. You really cannot comprehend the size of these things until you stand directly below them! Secondly, I had a once in a lifetime experience in Starbucks. As Ellen and I were quietly sipping our Cinnamon Apple Spices (if you have not tried this drink you need to! It’s Christmas in a cup, really though…) we were shocked as a bride and groom, still in their full wedding attire, walked into the café. From this point forward I must warn you to stop reading if you are not the hopeless romantic type. Trust me it gets sappy quick J Anyway, not only had these two newlyweds met in a Starbucks, but they made sure to order the exact same coffees they had been drinking during their first encounter. It was absolutely adorable watching them pose for pictures with their mugs. Plus it was wonderful to hear the cashier refuse to let them pay- Minnesota really is full of nice people!

So, fellow REUs, clearly the moral of this story is to start staking out your local Starbucks. Just think, even if you don’t find the man/woman of your dreams at least you will have tried the Cinnamon Apple Spice- trust me, it’s a win-win J      
  

Hey everyone,
Hope everyone's been doing well since the REU bootcamp! My project is to design a pneumatic actuator that can be used to control a robotic exoskeleton/glove that can help rehabilitate a patients hand. When someone has a stroke they commonly suffer from hand plasticity which affects their ability to control and flex their fingers and wrist. So far progress has been a little slow. I have mostly been reading through a lot of papers and searching for different information regarding the typical strength and flexibility of a healthy hand. In addition, I've been looking into the current rehabilitation methods for patient's hands. Recently (in the last 2 days) I have begun modeling an exoskeleton in Solidworks that can be rapid prototyped.

-Josh

These last couple of weeks I have been using CAD to make models for a new case and swashplate in order to eventually get some measurements.  It has been an iterative process, making a design and then adjusting it when I discover some new criteria or encounter new challenges.  Aside from that, my design includes running analysis and researching sensors/talking to sales representatives for instruments companies. 

Reading, and more reading!

Last week, I read about current augmented reality implementations in games, medical field, construction, and military. I am currently reading a 280 page paper on Augmented Reality-Some Emerging Application Areas, looking to gather more information to apply to our area of research. Hopefully, will start applying  my findings next week!!!

Last week, I worked on a bunch of random stuff. Mostly I helped work on a new prototype for test bed 6. It is lighter and more compact than the old one. I am trying to help create a new ankle angle sensor also. But mostly just waiting for materials to get in.

Fun times with an Oildyne Pump

      This past week has been filled with a lot of reading. I received a 300 page book from Professor Durfee on O-ring materials, properties, fittings, etc. But I also had the chance to do some really fun things taking apart the miniature circuit that our lab uses to demonstrate the power density of compact fluid power machines.

Miniature Hydraulic Circuit

      This is the small hydraulic circuit that we use for demos. The entire thing is about the size of a sheet of paper. Although detached from the circuit in this picture, a small motor and pump contained in a manifold casing are attached to the two ports at the bottom right corner of the circuit. The small loop of metal wire (see top right corner of the circuit) is attached to the actuator and is used to attach a load to the actuator. Currently the system can lift a load of 300 pounds during actuation. Right now there's a minor problem with the reservoir not having a cap, making such tests very messy, but stay tuned for testing the circuit out to see if it can lift the other REUs at UMN! 

From left to right: motor, pump, manifold

     Now for fun times with the pump! first I had to take apart the motor, manifold, and pump. In the complete circuit, the pump fits snugly into the manifold which prevents the external pump casing from rotating when the motor is running. I decided to take them all apart and see what everything looked like on the inside, including figuring out how the inlet and outlet in the pump connected to the manifold and the rest of the circuit. Then Jicheng (a grad student in my lab) and I decided to have a little fun and tried to see if we could actually watch the pump displacing fluid out of the outlet.

Some serious struggle-bus moments and a LOT of spilled oil later, we ended up with this. Enjoy!

A Change of Scenery and A Change of Topic!

Hey everyone!

So far it has been an amazing, work-filled, and pretty insightful week. First, to begin, I found out on the  day after my return to Milwaukee that my research project would be changed from dealing with biodegradable fluids to working with reservoir sizing. Thus far the new name for my project is "Determining an Engineering Basis for Specifying the Size of a Hydraulic Reservoir"

After doing some initial digging on the criteria for reservoir sizing I was pretty shocked to figure out that there was no engineering or mathematical basis behind why the size of a hydraulics reservoir has to the size it is. I was able to determine that criteria used to size the reservoir include pump flow, cylinder displacement, slope, heat rejection, and aeration. One recommendation offered by many sources stated that the reservoir size should be 2-3 times your flow rate from the pump. What if there were a way to make it smaller?

My project will essentially revolve around the criteria used to size a hydraulic reservoir. I will stop here, but I just wanted to give you all a brief preview of what my project has become since leaving Purdue. I have a couple schematics and pictures of some of the equipment that I'll be working with, but that's for next time!

Thanks for reading!

Chris

A week already flew by?

Hey everyone! Hope everyone is doing alright!
So far I haven't done too much except read a lot of manuals and textbooks, and help out grad students here and there with their projects. During the first week I read papers on some previous students' work and had to read textbooks to get familiar with basic hydraulics and acoustics. The grad students taught me how to use the oil rig for testing and gave me a brief overview of how everything functions. In addition to working on my project, I am expected to help out other grad students with their projects. For example, I helped them test their hydraulic suppressors and collect data. I also had to make a fluid power schematic of the oil rig using all of those symbols learned at the boot camp. As far as my project goes, I'm still learning and researching on ways to optimize the device I'm creating and calculating the stresses that the device will undergo.

First update, for science

Hello all, hope you have all survived since the CCEFP meetup and have quickly assimilated to the REU sites.

I initially thought that I would be dealing with some direct involvement with Test Bed 6 (Human Assisted Ankle Foot Orthosis); my project title from the CCEFP website was as vague as they come, "Novel Fluid-Power Components through Additive Manufacturing". When I finally met with my advisor, he drew up some suggested routes to take the research project to, which I deduced to thermoelectric generators (TEGs)/energy harvesting or meso-scale steam turbines and actuators. I chose to continue the work on waste heat recovery from a previous REU participant from 2011 (Toni Borel) in seeing the impact that a TEG could have if implemented to any of the test beds, as they convert thermal energy and heat into electrical energy. Considering the project is listed under the compactness thrust, portability and size is definitely a consideration, as TEGs are mobile due to lack of moving parts. Additionally, the ability to extract excess heat from engines and convert it to useful energy would help improve efficiencies in most fluid power systems. I expect to fabricate my own miniature TEG and fully testing its capabilities for future use. Currently, we are using a demonstration kit from last year until a better commercial manufacturer is found; awaiting a soldering iron from McMaster to solder small contacts. 

The following short video demonstrates one of three effects (Peltier effect) that comprise of thermoelectricity theory. 

Your working on SimHydraulics! Oh wait, Just Kidding...

Thursday Professor Durfee returned to the University of Minnesota from vacation. We had a wonderful talk about my project, and we seemed to have settled on a topic. I would be responsible for modeling the refined AFO hydraulic circuit in SimHydraulics, a branch of Simulink in Matlab. The current generation of the AFO circuit is functional, but too heavy due to excess pipe fittings and an unnecessarily large cylinder. He explained the my goal would be to gain expertise in SimHydraulics and develop this model. Energized, I set out to master SimHydraulics through various tutorials and by reconstructing the existing models for the Generation 1 AFO circuit.

This is one of the sample circuits that you can find in the SimHydraulics tutorials. It's pretty simple, but it still took me a good hour to figure out how to put it together. 

I was modeling away happily, when Professor Durfee walked into the lab. He then informed me that I would be doing little to no modeling for the rest of the summer. Instead I would be responsible for machining a newly designed miniature cylinder, and running tests on the new hydraulic circuit to verify the theoretical values for circuit power and efficiency that one of Professor Durfee's grad students, Jicheng, has calculated. Honestly, I'm thrilled that I get to do some hands on machining and experiments instead of sitting in front of the computer all day! I've got to keep reading up on basic hydraulics for the next week, but soon Jicheng should be done designing the new cylinder and I can get started!

Hi everyone!

This first week has flown by! I have done a TON of reading on hydrostatic transmissions and wind turbines, and I am beginning to look at Matlab's Simhydraulics. This is all in preparation for my project which consists of modeling a split power system (between a planetary gear box and a hydrostatic transmission) for a 50 kW wind turbine. I am really excited to start the modeling process although my first interaction with the computers in the mechanical engineering computer cluster does not bode well for me- after logging into a Linux system for the very first time I discovered that not only was I incapable of finding or opening any programs but I didn't even know how to logout. I was completely stuck and ultimately needed a one-on-one tutoring session from the tech department. I definitely owe them some pastries now!    

So Do You Make Boilers? Or something...

It is a well known fact that the majority of engineers are not the most socially gifted individuals in the world (obviously my fellow REUs and I are social masters). But even this knowledge could not have prepared me for the single most awkward conversation I have ever had with another engineer. I was sitting calmly, wearing a Purdue shirt with the word Boilermakers across the top, reading my copy of Hydraulics and Pneumatics: A Technician's and Engineer's Guide by Andrew Parr, when a young man approached me. "Do you make boilers?" he asked.
It took me a moment to understand what he said, since it was such an unusual question. Then I remembered the shirt I was wearing, and struggled to hold back laughter as I explained that the Boilermakers were Purdue's mascot, and that I didn't even go there, but had gotten the shirt from a friend. After an unbearable and one-sided conversation, I was finally free to resume my project for the week:

READING

Despite my background in English and propensity for creative writing, I have never done so much reading in one week. While waiting for Professor Durfee (my research sponsor) to return from his vacation, I was told to do some reading on the basics of hydraulic circuits and to make myself as familiar with the basics of hydraulic pumps, motors, and cylinders. Over the week I read Hydraulics and Pneumatics, several papers on miniature hydraulics written by a graduates student in my lab, and a LOT of articles on hydraulicspneumatics.com about hydraulic components. If I read another article on vane pumps my eyes may explode, but now I am very informed. Looking forward to putting this knowledge to the test. 

Dexter Watkins

Hi guys!  I'm Dexter Watkins, and I will be a senior at Vanderbilt this coming school year.  I'm majoring in Mechanical Engineering, with minors in Computer Science and Chinese.  I am your typical nerd, into video games, comics/manga, fantasy and sci-fi novels, and D&D.  

This summer I am working in the MEDLab here at Vanderbilt.  I've worked in this lab last semester, developing a deployment device for an active cannula as well as helping run a few experiments on a steerable needle, but this summer I will be starting a new project and work on ressurecting an old haptic robotic arm that has been sitting in one of Vandy's mechanical engineering labs for the past 15 years.  It was originally built for a student's master's thesis, and as the years have gone by its parts have been cannibalized for use in other projects.  All that remains now are the motors, potentiometers, and the carbon fiber arm itself.  

Project goals are to buy amplifiers and interface the robot with a computer (we'll be using Simulink and mathwork's xPC OS).  Next will be to implement position control.  Finally, we will be prepare the robot for fluid power interaction, most likely interacting with a pneumatic cylinder or setting up a master-slave control scheme with a fluid powered robot  in another of the engineering labs here at Vandy.

So far, I have the power supply and amplifiers ordered (thank you AMC for the great discount!) and am building the emergency stop circuitry from scratch, which is slow going but a lot of fun.

AFO pneumatic circuit efficiency...sort of

Hi everyone!
So originally when I met with my professor, I was going to work on testing the efficiency of the components in the pneumatic circuit for their current ankle-foot orthotic prototype (test bed 6). After that I was going to create a model of it in a special version of Simulink. But after a couple other meetings, that stuff is now on the back-burner I am now in charge of more electrical stuff ...currently wiring a new prototype and will have to debug it on Monday. Also, apparently I will be helping with a study on the biomechanics of firemen. Soooo I think that puts me all over the place :) It's good to hear what everyone's doing!
Have an excellent weekend!!!

Hello everyone,

As the first week comes to an end, I have been reading up on Augmented Reality (AR) which is a form of Virtual Reality or Virtual Environment that aims to duplicate the world’s (real form) environment. I will be working on developing a Human Machine Interface (HMI) for hydraulic excavators using AR combined with HUD technology and Multimodal Augmented Interaction (MAI) to allow for information presentation and interaction.

Hi everyone,

I'm working with human-machine interaction. The project I'm involved addresses a multimodal interface for an excavator. The new developed excavator is controlled by a haptic device, which includes haptic cues to the operator, while in the traditional excavator, the operator relies mainly on visual and auditory cues.
So far I'm working on a quantitative modeling of human-excavator interaction, developing and revising mathematical models, then implementing on Matlab in order to compare the haptic-controlled and the traditional excavator in terms of human factors and operation productivity.
If anyone wants to know more details about the project, please contact me.

Enio Frota.

Hi everyone,

I forgot to give a brief description of me, so here it goes: I am from Brazil and I came to study for one year here in the Unites States, and now I am an Industrial Engineering senior at North Carolina A&T, in Greensboro

In this first week, I have been working on a study of a prototype interface for a fluid powered rescue robot, testing its usability using an eye tracking device, Tobii T60. We ran some experiments and now I am analyzing the results and studying the changes that need to be made in the interface, using the GUI Design Software, in order to improve the usability of the interface. 

Shop Infrastructure.. 

That's what I'm dealing with and ideally, it'd be going much faster than it currently is. I am currently in the process of getting my test bed prepared here at Maha. As my bed is currently being used by another researcher, I kind of have to just like get things prepared for when he is finished. Which is a bit of a scary thought considering how little time I have left. Currently I am awaiting quotes from 2 machinists that are creating the motor mounting brackets I've designed. Those weren't too bad to make other than getting the exact measurements from my pump's original mount drawings... which were in German, and obviously didn't include modifications since then. We have almost all of our equipment for our circuit now, it's just a matter of finding where to mount everything and ordering all the electrical wiring and components for installation. That is actually pretty tricky because understanding the manual of the frequency drive which was written for experienced electrical engineers isn't easy. So I'm a little lost in which electrical cables are necessary.. and those have to be very exact because I'm working with like 125A... enough to do some damage if something isn't correct. But I will eventually get all that figured out, just a matter of talking to the right person.

Greetings from New Hampshire!

Well, I guess it would be more accurate to say "Greetings from Minnesota!" at this point since yesterday I arrived at my REU Site! But first, a bit about me: My name is Ellen and I go to school at Dartmouth College, located about an hour away from any semblance of civilization out in New Hampshire. I was born just outside of Detroit, MI, and spent most of my life moving throughout the Midwest with my Mom, eventually ending up back in Detroit. I decided I wanted to get out of Michigan for college and ended up at Dartmouth, where I'm getting a B.E. in Biomedical Engineering, and an A.B. in Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction. Outside of the classroom (a small, but important part of my life), I enjoy writing (go figure), running, singing, kung fu, and studying Traditional Chinese Medicine with my Kung Fu teacher! I'm also active at my school's Catholic Student Center (#Maryismyhomegirl). This summer, I'm working with Professor William Durfee on the hydraulic foot-ankle orthosis. I'll be focusing on designing simulations for the new hydraulic system, and working on compacting elements of the design using Sim. software.

Thank you all for participating in the CCEFP REU Fluid Bootcamp at Purdue!

It was a pleasure to meet everyone and I look forward to hearing about all the cool work you'll be doing!

Please continue to blog your weekly experiences!  You're welcome to include photos, videos, links to YouTube, etc. 

Hi everyone! My name is Enio Frota, I'm an Industrial Engineering senior at North Carolina A&T State University. I'm an exchange student from Brazil spending this year of 2012 at U.S. I have some research experience in developing and improving interfaces for rescue robots and my project will probably be on human factors. I'm looking forward to work with you all and to see the outcome of our research.

Hello

Hi everyone! My name is Becca Trietch and I am a mechanical engineering major at Yale University. I love horseback riding, singing, farming, building stuff, traveling, and being outside. Before Yale, I grew up on a small dairy farm in northeast CT which clearly sparked of all of my environmental interests.  In particular, I really enjoy learning about renewable energies and current food policies. This summer I am lucky enough to be working on the Wind Power Project at the University of Minnesota. I am really excited and can’t wait to get started!

Michael Ekundayo

Hello everyone, I am Michael Ekundayo and I am humbly privilege to be a part of CCEFP REU program. I am a Junior at North Carolina A&T State Univ studying Industrial and Systems Engineering. I am originally from Nigeria, and I came to the U.S to better myself. I served 8 years in the U.S. Navy as a Logistics Specialist touring in the Meditteranean Sea, Persian Gulf, Europe, Middle East, and finally recruiting in Asheboro, NC. I am married to a beautiful wife, and we have a 3 month old bouncy baby boy! I am excited to be a part of this program and looking forward to working with each and everyone of you!

Greetings - Men Young

Warmest welcome!

My name is Men Young, representing the city of Miami. I'm 5'11", born in Puerto Rico, of Chinese descent, occasional video gamer (there's just not enough time..), enjoy long walks along the beach...

I am currently a Senior Mechanical Engineering student attending Florida International University. I've always had an engineering spark since late middle school/throughout high school, bridging my fondness for math and physical sciences, although I leaned closely towards Chemistry and Computer Engineering early in my college years. One thing about engineering in my school's program, however, is learning so much about the theories and equations and having limited exposure to actual engineering, which is unfortunate as I'm a much more hands-on and visual learner.

The university in which I will be participating in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program for the CCEFP will be the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) with Douglas Cook as my advisor, working in the Rapid Prototyping Center, possibly aiding his research in Testbed 6 dealing with thermal components for orthosis patients. This REU provided by the CCEFP is an excellent tool for me to really apply myself, providing me with my first (and very invaluable) research experience that will be beneficial for my eventual progress towards graduate school. Throughout the short (albeit exciting) ten weeks, I expect the experience to connect the powerful utility of research to solve the problems in the expanding field of fluid power.

... *takes deep breath*

I can't wait to hear more from everyone and their progress throughout the longevity of the program!

Christopher Stovall

Hi, my name is Christopher Stovall and I am a third year Aerospace engineering student at the Illinois Institute of Technology. I hail from the south suburbs of Chicago and attended the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) for three years of my high school career. While at IMSA it prepared me for the rigorous college atmosphere that I would encounter. I believe that a combination of my high school and college experiences have prepared me for this very research opportunity as it will draw on everything I've learned thus far. Aside from academics my hobbies include running, sightseeing, reading, and hanging with friends!

Chris McHugh

Hey everyone, my name is Chris McHugh. I'm going into my senior year at Lehigh University studying business and mechanical engineering. I grew up in Nashville, TN and have returned home for the summer to do research at Vanderbilt. I'll be working on a pneumatic accumulator, which is eventually supposed to combine with an ankle orthosis (maybe the one Megan is working on?). While I know I want to work with energy efficiency after school, that's about as far as I've figured; not sure whether that would be in a consulting role or a developmental role.

Megan Hodgson

Hi everyone! My name is Megan, and I am going to be a senior next year at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. I grew up just north of Chicago and I love it here! I've been a hockey fan my whole life and was so excited when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup a couple years ago. I also really like running and baking and going to concerts.  My project will be "fluid-powered ankle foot orthotics" down at U of I in Urbana-Champaign, and eventually I would like to be a prosthetist/orthotist. Currently last minute packing like always, and can't wait to meet you all in a couple hours :)

Jordan Garrity.

Hello guys, my name is Jordan Garrity. I will be going into my junior year here at Purdue in the fall continuing to pursue a degree in Machine Systems Engineering in Ag & Bio Engineering. I am from a small town called Huntington, Indiana. It's about 90 miles northeast of Lafayette, located just south of Fort Wayne. Growing up in the rural area really influenced my decision of pursuing a degree in agricultural engineering. I enjoy the outdoors, paintball, and golf. My project includes working alongside Stephan Jean on rebuilding a micro sized excavator for educational purposes. I hope to see you all tomorrow at the "boot camp." 

Joshua Hooks

Hey everyone,

My name is Joshua Hooks and I am a rising senior, mechanical engineer, at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). I've grown up in Maryland all my life and love the state, but am ready to get out and try other places lol. I'm doing research this summer at Georgia Tech and my project is to design pneumatic actuators for use in an MRI machine. I don't really have a consistent hobby but I enjoy drawing, singing, biking, hiking...and going out to eat.

Hello Tello!

My name is Jessica Tello.  I majoring in civil engineering at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and will graduate in the spring of 2013, hopefully with a minor in ecological engineering.  I grew up in a Minneapolis suburb called Blaine, but currently live on campus in Minneapolis.  My favorite pastimes are going out for thai food, attending concerts downtown, and thrift-ing.  I am currently obsessed with Noodles & Company.  The summer project I will be working on is a collaboration between the Minneapolis and Morris campuses, revolving around the replacement of a mechanical gear box with a reverse hydraulic pump.  Can't wait for all of us to get started!

Daniel Kim

Hey! My name is Daniel Kim and I'm a mechanical engineer undergraduate student at Georgia Tech. I was born in Los Angeles, CA and moved around multiple times since. However for the past 9 years I have lived in Atlanta, GA. As for hobbies, I enjoy going out with friends, going outdoors on nice days, watching movies, and cooking. One of my favorite places to travel to is Seattle, WA, and once I graduate, I definitely plan on trying to move there. My project for this summer is designing prototype hydraulic energy harvesters. I look forward to meeting everyone tomorrow!

Roy Fisher

My name is Roy Fisher, and I am currently a senior in Aeronautical Engineering at Purdue University.  I was born and raised in a small town in Western Illinois called Taylor Ridge.  My dad is a pilot, so I basically grew up at the airport.  I've continued my interest in aviation for my entire life, finally receiving my pilot's license about three years ago.  After I graduate, I will commission into Air Force and attend pilot training.  My project this summer is at Maha Fluid Power Research Center studying the adaptive control of hydraulic systems.  I look forward to meeting you all next week!

Cory Raizor

I am from Jeffersonville, IN, a suburb of Louisville, KY, and I study mechanical engineering at Purdue University. Jeffersonville is kind of small but it is like literally across the bridge from Louisville so there's always things to do. I really enjoy being outdoors and have loved camping, and hiking since I was young. Each summer I usually go on a long camping trip with some friends. They rarely work out as planned but that's always half the fun and they tend to make for some interesting stories after the fact. I like to keep my future plans rather open as to not close out any possibilities but I am pretty interested in the German automotive industry and am hoping to explore career options there.

Cary Wood

Hey, my name is Cary Wood and I am a student at Purdue University majoring Electrical Engineering.  I am working this summer at the Maha Fluid Power Research Laboratory with research heavily involved with vibrational analysis.  I am from St. Louis, MO, home of the Anheuser-Busch  Brewery and the greatest team of underdogs, the St. Louis Cardinals. (I refuse to talk about the Rams.)  My hobbies include playing music, snowboarding, weightlifting, and pretty much any sport.  I play guitar in a Purdue Jazz Combo and have helped run sound for a number a Purdue Theatre productions.  It's been a great start to the REU program and I can't wait to meet everyone! 

You can call me Burger

By now you've received a half dozen emails from me, but I thought I'd share with you a little about myself personally! I was born and raised in Minnesota, I moved from "up north" to "the Cities" to attend college at the University of Minnesota. I earned my BS in Kinesiology and I'm currently one project away from my Masters in Science Education. I still work in the field of Kines, that is, the study of body movement, as a fitness instructor at the local YMCA. I love to cycle, walk the beautiful lakes of Minneapolis, garden and I'm just starting to learn the craft of jewelry making. Also, my new endeavor is learning to run following leg surgery to correct an impairment. I feel like Lt. Dan (Forrest Gump reference) with my new legs!

Enough about me, what about you??

Welcome to the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP) Summer 2012 Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program!

As you know, the purpose of your summer research experience is to provide you with exposure and application of laboratory research practices and facilities. It is also to determine your interest in graduate school, to promote an advanced knowledge of fluid power, and to continue to mentor your undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering and mathematical fields. While you will be one of only a few students at your local university, you are, in fact, part of a bigger network of 23 other REU participants across the CCEFP!

We hope your time spent with us is an exciting one and your experience is valuable, meaningful and insightful.

Before the REU program begins, here is a list of required tasks and helpful information to prepare you for your experience.
1. REU Data and Demographics Form (required)
2. Discovering Fluid Power Video (recommended)
3. REU Program Evaluation (required)
4. REU Fluid Power Bootcamp at UMN (required)
5. For your first blog post, tell us a little about yourself in the form of a short bio! Each week, post something regarding your research project and experience on this blog! (required)
6. All CCEFP REUs Contact Information As always, please let me know if you have ANY questions, concerns, and suggestions!

Alyssa