Faculty and Staff Spotlights

Hybrid Bike: Optimizing Pedal Power (VIDEO)

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Hybrid Bike: Optimizing Pedal Power (VIDEO)

Junior Robert Herman (Mechanical Engineering) is a serial tinkerer. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, he converted a bicycle into a hybrid electric/pedal bike to manage the five miles of hilly terrain between his home in Coventry and the UConn campus.
“I was tired of pedaling all the time.  Initially, I thought about a scooter, but parental pressure nixed that idea.  I ultimately decided to retrofit my bike, a Trek 7.2 FX.”

Using a CAD program to design the apparatus, Robert says “Most hybrid bikes use a hub motor. I decided to place mine with the crankset so it could benefit from the bike’s transmission.  I watched some YouTube videos to familiarize myself with different options for converting bikes into hybrids; I learned there are no standard components or methods, so I had to improvise on my own.  Also, in the original design, I was going to build force-feedback pedals, but I scrapped it in lieu of a simple knob to vary speed.”

Like electric cars, the hybrid bike is remarkably quiet and gets great mileage: about 15-25 miles per charge. The assembly includes a lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) rechargeable battery, motor with a re-wound armature for enhanced power, motor driver, speed controller, 24 volt charger and battery management system that balances the battery voltage. After assembling and testing the bike, Robert enclosed everything in an aluminum casing that he machined himself, adding weather stripping to prevent moisture from seeping into the pristine assembly.

 

 

Unlike most UConn Engineering students, who arrive on campus with degrees from traditional high schools, Robert is a graduate of Windham Technical High School.  While he trained for the HVAC trade at Windham Tech, Robert taught himself machining technology and developed more advanced skills in the design and construction of complex machines.  Robert thrives on “projects” and always has at least one underway.  He confesses that movies are a source of many ideas, and games flexed his creative aptitude. Most projects are executed in the family basement/design workshop.

This school year, Robert has worked in the Adaptive Systems, Intelligence and Mechatronics Laboratory of Dr. Chengyu Cao.  Robert contributes toward the design and manufacture of a prototype autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), along with the mechanical and some electrical components – including the AUV’s circuit boards and wire components – on the testing platform.

He also conducts independent research within the AIM lab.  During the fall semester, he learned a programming language and began to develop code intended to direct a Nao humanoid robot to walk.  His current efforts focus on a four-legged spider robot.  For this project, he has developed a stereoscopic camera setup with the aim of converting the camera’s two-dimensional images into three dimensions so the robot can effectively navigate a room.

Robert’s mechanical inclinations and love of hands-on work underscore his career aspirations.  As the engineer that he is training to become, he remarks, “After I graduate, I want to be a tinkerer.”

Around Engineering

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Around Engineering

Doctoral candidates Lu Han and Paul Elliott have been competitively selected to represent UConn Engineering at the Universitas 21 Graduate Research Conference on Energy Systems, Policy and Solutions at University College Dublin, Ireland from June 19 – 22, 2013.  Universitas 21 is an international network of 23 leading research-intensive universities, including UConn, located in 15 countries.

Lu and Paul will receive up to $2,000 each to attend the three-day conference, whose theme is Energy – Systems, Policy and Solutions. The conference will entail presentations, student competitions, activities and workshops, and site visits to energy companies.

In applying to attend the conference, Lu – a UConn alumna and Ph.D. candidate (Adv. Dr. George Bollas) in Chemical Engineering – proposed a theory that the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power stations is to tax the emissions.

She asserts that a tax encourages consumers to conserve energy and producers to innovate. “With the establishment of the tax, there will be a real incentive for coal- or gas- fired power plants to adopt carbon capture technologies, and from the various options available, only chemical-looping combustion (CLC) accomplishes in-situ CO2 capture without additional energy penalty for gas separation downstream. CLC delivers a higher overall combustion efficiency, prevents NOx emissions, and produces a CO2 stream ready for sequestration. While there may be economic costs associated with mandating carbon capture, it will generate a source of stable, clean energy in the long-term.”

Paul, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Research Fellow, is pursuing his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (Adv. Dr. Hanchen Huang).  His abstract submission argues that national energy policy should encourage the use of electric vehicles. For widespread use of electric vehicles to become a reality, he notes that “If the weekly ritual of going to the gas pump is removed and replaced primarily with charging vehicles at home, an important step is taken toward encouraging people to accept renewables to provide all their energy needs. A medium-term goal for the encouragement of electric vehicles should be the installation of electric car fast chargers at current filling stations along all highways in the U.S.”

He adds that the U.S. should also develop car battery technology and establish subsidies for electric vehicle manufacture to normalize the production and purchase costs of electric vehicles relative to conventional gas vehicles. “This will lay the foundation of social acceptance for renewables necessary to allow the long-term goals of providing all electricity and heating in the U.S. by renewable methods,” he suggests.

Smart Robotic Drones Advance Science

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By Colin Poitras Dr. Chengyu Cao sees a day in the not-so-distant future when intelligent robots will be working alongside humans on a wide range of important tasks from advancing science, to performing deep sea rescues, to monitoring our natural habitats. It’s a bold leap from the pre-programmed factory robots and remote-controlled drones we are most familiar with today. Cao, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and his research team are creating a new generation of smart machines – devices that are fully autonomous and capable of navigating their way through our complex world unassisted. These machines will not only be able to travel untethered from one point to another in space and perform tasks; they will be able to “think” on their own using artificial intelligence to adjust to unforeseen obstacles and situations in their environment – a tree, a building, a sudden gust of wind or change in tidal current – without human interface. It is the stuff of which science fiction movies are made. Read the full story, and watch the exciting video, here.

GE, UConn Collaborate on Advanced Technology Initiative [VIDEO]

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On Tuesday, October 9th, GE (NYSE: GE) officials announced the company will expand its longstanding relationship with UConn through a five-year, multimillion dollar investment intended to transform the state’s technology sector and spark breakthrough innovations in electrical distribution products.

The financial support from GE’s Industrial Solutions business, creator of advanced technologies that protect and control the distribution of electricity, will bring together researchers from various academic disciplines and from the energy industry to conduct research and development (R&D) on core electrical-protection technologies, including circuit breakers. As part of the donation, GE also will finance the creation of an endowed GE professorship in the UConn School of Engineering, as well as GE graduate fellowships and GE-sponsored research.

Please read the full story here.

Watch the video here.