Our team, in cooperation with the Telecommunications department, has designed a remote access Internet system that we will also be installing in Mto wa Mbu. Tanzania. MSU has been involved in a development project bringing computers and Internet access to schools in Tanzania for the past four years and has contributed greatly to the quality of education opportunities in Africa. The major issue that our project is to address is Internet availability and power management.

Our system is designed to supply Internet access to multiple rural schools in Tanzania. These schools have various limitations which include power restrictions due to solar-powered batteries. To overcome these limitations, we have created a system that can allow for on-demand Internet access. By using the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard we can reliably signal the remote satellite Internet system to power on.

Included within our system is a microcontroller, a GSM module, a battery monitoring system, and an Internet monitoring system. Together these components actively provide an Internet on-demand system while also monitoring the health of components within the system. These systems are vital to improving the longevity of the Internet system currently in operation in Mto wa Mbu.

The concrete curing process is a complicated process that involves many variables. Improperly cured concrete can be exceptionally fragile. Our team has removed the uncertainty of the process by developing an embedded sensor system that
reports the temperature and moisture content of the wet concrete. These two parameters provide the user with the data necessary to make a more precise decision on when the concrete has cured.

The system provides a demonstration of Texas Instrument’s MAVRK prototyping platform. The sensor and pMAVRK. modules create a single, compact unit that can be placed directly in the concrete. Our sensor module contains the temperature and moisture sensors along with the necessary signal amplification and conditioning. These signals are sent to the pMAVRK. module where they are converted to digital signals and sent to the MAVRK. motherboard via RF transmission. The MAVRK routes the data to a PC which displays the data with a user-friendly GUI.

The combination of temperature and moisture sensing with wireless data transmission is a solution which is currently unavailable for purchase. Implementation of this system can save the user time and money by preventing weak, improperly cured concrete or allowing the project to move forward if curing occurs quickly.

Design Team 3 was tasked with developing an Android enabled GPS-based camera  positioning system for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The AFRL will use this system to automate the positioning of an infrared camera to perform field testing of infrared imaging technology and processing algorithms. Automated motorized mounts similar to
this are already used for surveillance cameras and telescope systems; however these systems typically do not have a built-in GPS receiver and require that data be entered manually. This project was designed to produce a low-cost, off-the-shelf solution by utilizing the sensory and computation capabilities
of an Android smartphone.

This project entailed constructing the motorized camera mount for a 19 pound infrared camera that is capable of being controlled by an Android smartphone. We also developed software for the phone’s location awareness and target acquisition as well as a camera control program to be run on an external laptop. The developed system is able to point with high accuracy at any targeted GPS coordinate (latitude, longitude, and altitude) on a pre­ programmed script. In order to do this, the system detects its own location and orientation and then calculates the necessary orientation so that the infrared camera focuses on its target location by issuing controls to the motors on the mount. The phone then signals the camera to capture an image and takes one itself as context imagery.

Our project is focused on improving the functionality of an RPV designed to fly over forest fires and record video. Current technology does not enable the video, attitude, and location data to be synchronized. Also, the orientation and location data are not associated with the sensor gathering the video, but instead with the RPV itself. The goal of our project is to resolve these problems by attaching an enclosure containing sensors and a computer-on-module (COM) to the RPV’s camera.
The enclosure contains a GPS unit, an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and a COM. The
system collects and outputs thelocation and orientation data o f the camera. The location and orientation data is output in a standard format and synchronized with the video frames. The team has developed the system to be compact, lightweight, and low power, because all of these aspects are important for RPVs.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MULL) developed a kit to demonstrate radar system principles utilizing affordable, off-the- shelf parts and a simple, easy-to-understand design. MITLL’s kit is designed for use with a laptop as the processing unit. To extract the desired information from the radar output signal, it must undergo a user-facilitated processing sequence, and the data thus cannot be displayed in real time. Our project goal is to automate signal interpretation and to display target range and speed in real time. The radar screen appeals to children by generating interactive, visually- stimulating graphics.

The robot is controlled using an intuitive graphical user interface on a laptop computer, which sends serial communications wirelessly using the ZigBee protocol to an on-board Arduino processor. This processor controls the movement of the servo motors, which dictate the outward behavior of the robot. Head and ear movement are controlled by independent servo-and-gear systems, while the tail is controlled by varying wire tension within the flexible tail structure.

When running tests on battery cells, temperature plays a large role in the results. Our design team was tasked by XG Sciences with modifying an existing environmental chamber to accurately control temperature for such tests.

Our final design is based on two control principles, PID (proportional, integral, derivative) control and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). By designing these two controllers we were able to achieve a high level of accuracy, as well as a highly stable temperature. The chamber can operate over a wide range of temperatures from -40°C to 85°C.

Our final design also incorporated an alarm system that triggers if the temperature deviates too far from its set point. All of these features were created with an external microcontroller development board. This allowed us to design a new’ control system without the need to rebuild the entire chamber.

The device is composed of a capacitive sensor element which works in sync with a microcontroller to provide interval data measurements of the moisture or on command. Since the device can be inserted into an enclosure with pipe thread, it can be attached to any of the six intake lines. With this versatility, it doesn’t require the user to purchase six different devices unless simultaneous measuring is requested.

More than 95% of the unit resides outside of the pipe and communicates accurate data measurements of both temperature and humidity to the user. With this data, the end user can then adjust the gas levels in the pipe appropriately to reduce condensation.