Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
33 Bicycle Tire Pressure Sensors
 Bryan Rafferty
Michael McDowall
 Thomas Galvin design_document0.pdf
final_paper0.pdf
proposal0.pdf
Riding a bicycle with under-inflated or leaky tires can reduce traction and cause faster tire deterioration, but tire pressure monitoring systems are currently unavailable for bicyclists. We will design and build wireless, wheel mounted, battery powered sensors that will monitor bicycle tire pressure as well as the rate of change of pressure. The sensors will transmit their measurements to a central, battery powered unit mounted on the handlebars, which will compare the measurements with defined ranges of pressures and rates of change. If the measured values lie outside of the "safe" ranges, then various colored LEDs will be illuminated to alert the rider which tire is at fault and the severity of the pressure deviation.

Propeller-less Multi-rotor

Ignacio Aguirre Panadero, Bree Peng, Leo Yamamae

Propeller-less Multi-rotor

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Our project explored the every-expanding field of drones. We wanted to solve a problem with the dangers of plastic propellers as well as explore new method of propulsion for drones.

Our design uses a centrifugal fan design inspired by Samm Shepard's "This is NOT a Propeller" video where he created a centrifugal fan for a radio controlled plane. We were able to design a fan that has a peak output of 550g per fan that is safe when crashing and when the impeller inside damaged.

The chassis and fans are made of laser-cut polystyrene and is powered using brushless motors typically used for radio-controlled helicopters.

The drone uses an Arduino DUE with a custom shield and a PCB to control the system via Electronic Speed Controllers. The drone also has a feedback loop that will try to level the drone using a MPU6050.

We were able to prove that this method of drone propulsion is possible and is safer than using hard plastic propellers.

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