Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
26 Enkidu Bike Locker
 Jiahao Chen
Shijie He
Zhengyu Ji
 Mengze Sha design_document2.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
video1.mp4
team members: Zhengyu Ji(zji5) , Shijie He(she19), Jiahao Chen(jchen237)

Problem: Bicycle thefts becomes the most rampant theft happening around campus. Despite students ask for the help from police and
buy insurance for their beloved bicycles, they still got stolen and there is nothing to stop the bad feeling of losing the cherished.

Solution Overview: An anti-theft device that will automatically lock the front tire when the back tire is not properly unlocked. The lock on the front tire can only be unlocked using facial recognition of the owner.

Modular design and hardware details:
The system will be mainly consists of three subsystems. The back tire lock system (which will be called as back system for short), the front tire lock system(which will be called as front system for short) and the facial recognition system. The back system will contain a circuitry used to detect if the back lock is properly unlocked. It consists of two switches. The first switch represents the locking part of the back tire lock. Therefore when the first switch is turned on, the whole circuit will still function properly. The second switch represents the other breakable parts of the back tire lock, which means that the front tire lock will be locked if the second switch of the back tire lock is turned on(i.e the back tire is not properly unlocked). A current signal will be sent through wire to the front system if the second switch of the back system is turned on. The front tire lock will lock itself when it receives the signal from the back system. Currently, I want to achieve that by using electromagnet. I will design a mechanism that consists of two plugs that is pulled by the electromagnet and a string to store the potential energy. The second plug pulled by the string is constrained by the first plug pulled by the electromagnet. When the signal from the back system is received, the electromagnet starts to function and pull the first plug out so that the string could stretch to push the second plug out to lock the system. Meanwhile, the electromagnet will start to stop functioning in a very short amount of time(around 1 sec to minimize energy consumption) so that the first plug will start to constrain the second plug so that the system will be securely locked.(This is my current plan for solving the problem asked by Mr.Sha that the thieve might just destroy the whole circuit to break the front lock. In this case, even if there is no current flow, the system will stay locked once the signal is triggered.) The elementary hand sketched diagram of the front system will be provided here. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1okX_1jU9o1-EYlTbFp2eDW51kRrBFcCn/view?usp=sharing) The front system could only be unlocked by passing the facial recognition system that will be described below. If the facial recognition system is passed, then a signal will be sent to the front system. The electromagnet will be activated again and stay functioning in a short amount of time(around 5~8 second to minimize energy consumption). Now the first plug will be pulled out so that the owner of the bike can manually unlock the front tire lock by compressing the string. Then when the electromagnet stops functioning, the first plug will then be pushed out to constrain the second plug, so that the front system is securely unlocked. We will provide light source for the night use of facial recognition.

Criterion for Success:
The overall design should achieve an effect as followed: If the back system is properly unlocked(the first switch is turned on), nothing will happen. If the back system is not properly unlocked(the second switch is turned on), the front system will lock itself by the mechanism consists of electromagnet, spring and plugs. By now, even the battery is disintegrated from the circuitry, the front lock will stay locked. If the facial recognition system is passed, the plug contained within the front system will be pulled out so that the owner could manually unlock the system.

Features that could be potentially added to the project:
Solar charger that will be used to charge the battery when the bike is parked under daylight.
A proximity sensor that will be used to detect if the tire is disintegrated from the body of the bicycle.

Link to the posted idea: https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/pace/view-topic.asp?id=30319

S.I.P. (Smart Irrigation Project)

Jackson Lenz, James McMahon

S.I.P. (Smart Irrigation Project)

Featured Project

Jackson Lenz

James McMahon

Our project is to be a reliable, robust, and intelligent irrigation controller for use in areas where reliable weather prediction, water supply, and power supply are not found.

Upon completion of the project, our device will be able to determine the moisture level of the soil, the water level in a water tank, and the temperature, humidity, insolation, and barometric pressure of the environment. It will perform some processing on the observed environmental factors to determine if rain can be expected soon, Comparing this knowledge to the dampness of the soil and the amount of water in reserves will either trigger a command to begin irrigation or maintain a command to not irrigate the fields. This device will allow farmers to make much more efficient use of precious water and also avoid dehydrating crops to death.

In developing nations, power is also of concern because it is not as readily available as power here in the United States. For that reason, our device will incorporate several amp-hours of energy storage in the form of rechargeable, maintenance-free, lead acid batteries. These batteries will charge while power is available from the grid and discharge when power is no longer available. This will allow for uninterrupted control of irrigation. When power is available from the grid, our device will be powered by the grid. At other times, the batteries will supply the required power.

The project is titled S.I.P. because it will reduce water wasted and will be very power efficient (by extremely conservative estimates, able to run for 70 hours without input from the grid), thus sipping on both power and water.

We welcome all questions and comments regarding our project in its current form.

Thank you all very much for you time and consideration!