Smart Microsystems Lab (Michigan State University)

Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV)

The ROV was designed for the SML to act serve as a test bed for both onboard autonomous underwater control and exterior mounted research projects. The ROV is wirelessly controlled via a Bluetooth PS4 DUALSHOCK 4 controller. The ROV is designed in such a way that onboard controllers, sensors, and wireless communication hardware can be swapped out and interfaced between different systems. The ROV also contains an aluminum frame on the bottom for mounting of exterior research projects. 

Autonomous Electric Motorboat

The motorboat was designed to act as a test bed for autonomous control and externally mounted research projects. Primarily, the motorboat is designed to work with a custom built sonar system for mapping underwater surfaces. The motorboat currently uses Pixhawk hardware, but is interfaceable with any system controller. The boat is capable of streaming live underwater video from the sonar system. Currently, the boat can be controlled via a handheld controller or a preprogrammed path within the limits of the ArduPilot mission control software.

Autonomous Sailboat

The ongoing autonomous sailboat project has the goal of creating a fully autonomous sailboat with the capability of generating its own power at a rate great enough to permanently sustain itself under constant operation. In its present state, the project contains a completed remote control electrical system and a mechanical system capable of operating under extremely low power requirements. The project currently relies on Arduino architecture and communicates using XBee Pro S3Bs, which have a theoretical range of 28 miles given an appropriate Fresnel zone and high gain antennas. The project is currently focused on the construction of a hull, the addition of solar panels, and the implementation of an autonomous control algorithm.

Soft Robotic Glove

The soft robotic glove project is an extension of the lab's long time focus on soft robotics. This new project is designed to explore and develop improvements to robotic gloves developed elsewhere, including those at Harvard and NASA/General Motors. The picture to the left shows a part of the forearm assembly, which houses tendon actuators and various electronics.

Student Design Teams

MSU Rocketry Team

The MSU Rocketry Team was founded in the 2016-17 season. That year, we attained 12th place overall at the Spaceport America Cup. We competed in the 10,000 ft class, reaching only 34 feet over our target. My primary responsibility was the design of the fins.

This year, we are developing a hybrid motor. My focus is in the design and manufacturing of the oxidizer injector plate. The injector plate has been designed primarily by literature review. It features 14 small injector orifices with impingement angles ranging from 90 to 60 degrees. The final part is to be 3D printed out of Titanium alloy, courtesy of MSU faculty.

MSU Unmanned Systems Team

The Unmanned Systems Team has developed several UAVs over the years. We have developed quadcopters, hexacopters, and now we are developing a hybrid fixed-wing quadcopter with VTOL capabilities.

MSU Formula Race Team

I was a member of the team during the 2014-2015 season, during which time we completed a complete redesign of the car. I was a member of the aerokit team. The carbon fiber parts and mounting brackets we manufactured can be seen in the photo to the left.

Farmington FIRST Robotics Team #3414

My high school's FIRST Robotics Competition Team was my first true exposure to engineering design and build. Our team developed a robot capable of picking up and accurately shooting frisbees at over 40 mph, then doing a pull-up to score extra points in the live action game. The robot was also capable of blocking frisbees thrown by opponents. This robot took our team to the world championship in our team's first year of existence.

Personal Work

Sound Responsive Color Chasing LED Array

This LED array is an Arduino based system that synchronizes  to music and changes color chasing modes in beat. The system runs along about 32 feet of ductwork in my apartment. The Arduino takes an audio digital input from my computer, converts the signal to analog, splits the frequency into seven frequency bands on both the left and right stereo signals, and uses a shifted 5-point running average function to determine the beat of the audio source. The Arduino then controls a color chasing LED controller which in turn controls the LED array. This project required a significant amount of experimentation and research. First, significant analysis was needed to create an optimal control algorithm that works across a large variety of music. Second, significant experimentation was needed to interface the Arduino with the LED controller, which lacks documentation as it was not intended for developer use.

Engineering Workstation

This workstation was hypothesized after my laptop was unable to handle many of the CAD, CFD, and FEA problems I was using it for in engineering projects. The goal was to design a workstation capable of strong computing that also served as a high quality home entertainment PC. The workstation operates on a liquid cooled 16 Core Intel Xeon CPU with 32GB of RAM. These parameters were chosen based off of the recommended value proposition of common CFD and FEA softwares and technical qualities of the hardware, such as the Intel Xeon's ability to handle high precision floating point numbers. The system was designed to handle mid-sized projects at high speed, as opposed to large projects at lower speed. In regards to the home entertainment features, the workstation was outfitted with an array of high quality equipment, such as a sound card, Blue-ray player, and high speed WiFi receiver in case of ethernet failure, a feature that has proved life-saving many times.