Mechatronics Bachelor Curriculum Development in Light of Industry 4.0 Technology Needs: Contrasting US and German University Curricula

This study compares Mechatronics bachelor curricula at universities in the United States of America and German universities. Mechatronics education is relatively new in the United States, but has been common in Germany for over a decade. With the multidisciplinary nature of technologies required by the 4’th industrial revolution, a.k.a. Industry 4.0, composing an appropriate Mechatronics curriculum becomes a challenge and an opportunity. This paper studies how Mechatronics education can address the future needs of industry, while building on a specific university’s strengths and industry links. We have also analyzed the new undergraduate Mechatronics program at Michigan Technological University (MTU) and compared its content to other US and German universities

Operation of a Controllable Force-sensing Industrial Pneumatic Parallel Gripper System

As part of the advanced programmable logic controllers (PLC) course at Michigan Tech, this class project was performed on a mechatronics system gifted by Donald Engineering, a Michigan-based supplier of industrial automation systems and components. This paper explores the functionality and application of a force-programmable and sensing pneumatic parallel gripper system. Force sensing is a critical part of many systems in modern automation systems. Applications such as prosthetics, robotic surgery, or basic manufacturing systems may rely on the ability to properly read and control forces applied to an object. This work evaluates the basic operation of the pneumatic force-sensing gripper system, through a human machine interface (HMI), and presents two demonstrations using programmable logic controllers to open the door for future customized developments. Different gripper force-time and pressure-time responses are presented to demonstrate the control and visualization of the grippers force

An Industrial Pneumatic and Servo Four-axis Robotic Gripper System: Description and Unitronics Ladder Logic Programming

As part of the advanced programmable logic controllers (PLC) course at Michigan Tech, this class project is performed on a mechatronics system gifted by Donald Engineering, a Michigan-based supplier of industrial automation systems and components. This paper explores the functionality and ladder programming of a four-axis robot enclosed in a cage with one side guarded by an optical fence. The robot has pneumatically actuated X-Y linear motion and a pneumatic gripper. Furthermore, the Z-axis motion and gripper wrist rotation are controlled by servo motors. A human machine interface (HMI) is also present, and it allows for easy manipulation and programming of the robot. This type robot can be used to transfer small components between conveyer belts or for light assembly functions. This paper details of the system’s components, operation, and custom programming

A Smart Parallel Gripper Industrial Automation System for Measurement of Gripped Work Piece Thickness

As part of the advanced programmable logic controllers (PLC) course at Michigan Tech, this class project is performed on a mechatronics system gifted by Donald Engineering, a Michigan-based supplier of industrial automation systems and components. This paper explores the functionality and ladder programming of the smart parallel gripper system to measure the width of components grasped with the gripper. In addition, details of the system’s components, operation, more advanced uses are discussed. On the automation line, this smart gripper can be used to measure the thickness of work pieces while handling them and classifying these as either acceptable, too large or too small. In addition, the pneumatic power supply and safety measures are discussed, along with the human machine interface (HMI)

Power requirements for Rayleigh beacon generation in laser beam projection systems

© 2016 IEEE. The task of delivering sufficient level of airborne laser energy to ground based targets is of high interest. To overcome the degradation in beam quality induced by atmospheric turbulence, it is necessary to measure and compensate for the phase distortions in the wavefront. Since, in general, there will not be a cooperative beacon present, an artificial laser beacon is used for this purpose. In many cases of practical interest, beacons created by scattering light from a surface in the scene are anisoplanatic, and as a result provide poor beam compensation results when conventional adaptive optics systems are used. Three approaches for beacon creation in a down-looking scenario have been developed and commonly used in simulating laser beam projection systems utilizing down-looking scenarios. In the first approach, the entire volume of the atmosphere between transmitter and the target is probed by scattering an initially focused beam from the surface of the target. The second approach utilizes generation of an uncompensated Rayleigh beacon at some intermediate distance between the transmitter and the target and allows compensation for only part of the atmospheric path. Lastly, a more advanced technique of bootstrap beacon generation that allows achieving dynamic wavefront compensation creating a series of compensated beacons along the optical path, with the goal of providing a physically smaller beacon at the target plane. For all case sceneries discussed above, it is crucial to estimate the power requirements for single Rayleigh beacon generation as a function of the distance from the transmitting laser source. Sufficient amount of energy is required to allow for wavefront sensor measurements with satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio. In this paper, the calculations conducted in order to estimate the power requirements for a single Rayleigh beacon as a function of the laser altitude and the slant range between the transmitter and the generated beacon are presented. To fully understand the results presented here, some physical understanding of nature of scattering is required. There are four main types of scattering the transmitting light can experience: Rayleigh, Raman, Mie, and resonance scattering. Raman scattering is very weak typically, only one photon out of 107 is Raman scattered. Resonance scattering requires tuning the laser to the frequency closely comparable to the internal rotational or vibrational frequency present in the specific atom or molecule. Presence of dust, fog, haze, or clouds cause the Mie scattering and may vary unpredictably. In practice, it is important to produce a stable and constant intensity beacon, and therefore the generation of a Reileigh beacon for laser beam projection systems should not rely on surrounding atomic and molecular content, and unpredictable events such as presence of clouds, haze, dust or fog. Therefore, to properly estimate power requirements for Rayleigh beacon generation it is reasonably to only rely on always present elastic Rayleigh scattering excluding impact of other types of scattering. The results presented in this paper form a lower bound on power requirement for Rayleigh beacon generation, and occasional presence of other types of scattering may only improve the final result by boosting the scattered energy

Bootstrap beacon creation technique for lower altitude and ground based targets

The task of delivering a sufficient amount of laser energy to the ground based targets and the targets located at lower altitudes is of a high interest. The laser beam propagating through atmosphere is significantly degraded by the turbulence. As a result, the laser beam arriving at the target does not have sufficient amount of power. To overcome the degradations induced by atmospheric turbulence the artificial beacon for probing the atmospheric conditions is needed. The current techniques implementing a Rayleigh beacon at the target or at some intermediate distance between the transmitter and the target provide some means of improvement. In this work we extend our work on earlier proposed bootstrap technique in- volving creating multiple beacons between the laser transmitter and the target. In the bootstrap technique, the light from each beacon is propagated back to the wavefront sensor located at the receiver. Signal from the wavefront sensor is processed to generate commands for the deformable mirror and the next beacon gets pre-compensated for the further distance. The process continues till the last beacon is created at the target. We have previously reported the results on implementation of the bootstrap techniques on ground based targets demonstrating noticeable improvement in the final laser beam power at the target. In this work we examine the possibility of using the bootstrap technique for cases when laser energy needs to be delivered over nearly horizontal propagation distances and at lower altitudes. The system performance is examined using both Hufnagel-Valley and Hufnagel/Andrews/ Phillips models for structure constant Cn2 characterizing the strength of the index of refraction fluctuation, and compared with the sceneries when the beacon is generated directly on the target or at some intermediate positions between the transmitter and the target. © 2014 IEEE

Anisoplanatic studies and Fried parameter estimation via multi-channel laser communication system

The knowledge of the turbulence conditions and the ability to describe its properties are the key aspects to improve performance and extend the range of optical communication systems. The developed multi-channel, outdoor 3.2 km, partially over water, turbulence measurement and monitoring communication platform is directed to collect significant amount of the experimental data with the goal of statistically describe atmospheric turbulence. The communication system described in this paper has two transmitters and two receivers. The transmitter side is equipped with the laser and the bank of 14 horizontally, in-line mounted LEDs. The receiver side consists of two channels for wave front sensor (WFS) and point spread function (PSF) measurements. Data collected via both channels is further used for Fried parameter estimation and anisoplanatic studies. In this article authors provide comprehensive analysis of the turbulence statistics extracted from the experimental data. Statistics of Freid parameter r0 is derived from 6 Tb of data collected through 40 days time interval, and under various day and night atmospheric conditions. These data collected from WFS and PSF channels are digitally post processed and results obtained from PSF measurements are compared with the ones derived from the WFS data. Consistent results obtained via both channels allows authors to conclude that the entire system performs reliably and generates trustworthy results. Results extracted from the data collected via both channels show significant fluctuations of r0 with the values ranging from 2mmand up to 20 cm. The data collected from the PSF channel is also used for measurements of anisoplanetic effects. Theoretically, the severe anisoplanatic conditions found in horizontally imaging scenarios can be approximated by a finite number of phase screens placed along the imaging path. However, comparison of adjacent PSFs generated in this manner reveals significant correlation at angles much larger than the predicted theoretical isoplanatic angle. In this article the effects of anisoplanatism on the optics point spread function via simulations and experimental approaches have also been studied. © 2013 IEEE

Small unmanned aerial platform for geospatial data collection and analysis

This paper outlines research experiments performed on quantative evaluation of 3D geospatial data obtained by means of Photogrammetric Small UAV(PSUAV) developed at Michigan Tech. SUAV platform is equipped with autopilot and capable to accommodate a payload up to 11 pounds. Experiments were performed deploying 12MP Cannon Rebel EOS camera, which was a subject of calibration procedures. Surveying grade GPS equipment was used to prepare ground calibration sites. Work on processing of the obtained datasets encompasses: sensor modeling, single photo resections with image co-registration, mosaicking, and finally 3D terrain models generation. One of the most important results achieved at current stage of PSUAV development is method and algorithms for comparison of UAV obtained DEMs with another models obtained from different geospatial sources. © 2011 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Experimental approach for geometrical calibration of small UAV sensors

Small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) imagery geometrical quality is affected by the fact that cameras which are installed in SUAV usually are not calibrated due to the platforms size and cost constrains. To this end, image enhancements and camera calibration processes are crucial elements of the remote sensing system architectures. In this work we present experimental research involving SUAV platform equipped with autopilot and with ability to accommodate a payload up to 11 pounds. SUAV platform is currently fitted with a 12MP EOS camera, which is a subject of calibration procedures. Presented preliminary results of the research demonstrate SUAV remote sensing feasibility. © 2010 SPIE

Some aspects of optimal human-computer symbiosis in multisensor geospatial data fusion

Nowadays vast amount of the available geospatial data provides additional opportunities for the targeting accuracy increase due to possibility of geospatial data fusion. One of the most obvious operations is determining of the targets 3D shapes and geospatial positions based on overlapped 2D imagery and sensor modeling. 3D models allows for the extraction of such information about targets, which cannot be measured directly based on single non-fused imagery. Paper describes ongoing research effort at Michigan Tech attempting to combine advantages of human analysts and computer automated processing for efficient human computer symbiosis for geospatial data fusion. Specifically, capabilities provided by integration into geospatial targeting interfaces novel human-computer interaction method such as eye-tracking and EEG was explored. Paper describes research performed and results in more details. © 2013 IEEE