The Wi-SUN Project for Smart Grid is meant to emulate a mesh network of EV charging stations that send current measurements over the Wi-SUN protocol. By using an ammeter click integrated on a TI Launchpad, the current measurements are sent via Wi-SUN to a web server and then displayed on a unique user interface for the end user to visualize and analyze the current measured. 

Team Members

Raquel Alvarez
Hannah Amitrano
Jaime de Clemente
Samip Poudel

In large scale directed graphs, strongly connected components, also known as strongly connected graphs, are a subset of nodes that are traversable from one another. Loops within these subsets are redundant and can result in system inefficiencies and ultimately reduce the performance of a product. This project serves to identify those inefficiencies and remove them from the graphs resulting in a more streamlined product.

When a breaker trips in the nacelle of a wind turbine, there are significant opportunity and labor costs associated with dispatching a technician to manually reset it. Our project aims to reduce these costs by creating a BreakerBot which is able to monitor breaker status and perform a reset action remotely.

Team Members

Ahmad Elbanhawy
Chet Pena
Christopher Morton
Kyle Dotter
Mariano Blanco
William Bundrant

John Deere tractors utilize a two-module system that allows their tractors to receive and interpret geographical data from GPS satellites. This system includes an antenna module, a receiver module, and a coaxial cable that connects them. Each antenna has a QR code encoded with the antenna’s serial number and calibration data which is then printed onto the antenna module. 
 

John Deere relies heavily on crops being available for testing their products. The issue with this is that crops are not available year-round. This project will help John Deere test the behavior of their products without needing actual crops to be present. The team created a system that simulates a virtual crop field and an ideal path that the vehicle should travel along.

John Deere vehicles operate in a variety of environments and ground conditions and precisely following a path can be more challenging when on hillsides or in soft conditions. Specifically, problems arise when a machine can’t steer properly and loses traction (think of a tractor driving along the side of a steep hill and turning the wheels to keep moving straight). This crabbing situation can happen in flat conditions as well as when the soil is soft or wet or if there is a heavy draft load.

When driving a tractor and hauling an implement behind it, guidance systems are necessary to ensure accurate path tracking. Due to various terrains and unique implement designs, the guidance systems need specific dimensions related to the tractor and implement.The goal of our project is to design an automated offset detection algorithm that calculates the offset measurements of any tractor-implement combination using real-time GPS data. These dimensions are inputted into John Deere's AutoTrac TM Guidance System during initial calibration to help properly steer implement configurations.

There are a lot of situations where specific sensors in isolate cannot give a full understanding of what is happening. One solution is to utilize a full inertial navigation system (INS) compared to the current solution of a lone GPS. We were tasked with the understanding and the exploration of the capabilities of such system, and we have built a project composed of hardware and code which properly showcases our findings. By being able to interactively work with our project, we hope that engineers can better understand an INS and utilize it efficiently to solve problems.

Design of a casual filter to provide early detection of shading conditions purely using GNSS data. Shading is a significant problem when it comes to the use of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) on John Deere tractors.

Team Members

Anmol Anand
Sathya Balakumar
Drew Conyers
Chiadika Obinwa
Antonio Pardo

The Hardware Accelerated Smart sensor uses arUco markers to allow a camera to track its own position in real time. This system is designed to operate when environmental conditions cause GPS to fail. This system utilizes a field programmable gate array (FPGA) in order to operate faster than the system would normally be able to if it was only software. This system is designed to act as a redundancy for an autonomous vehicle that normally relies on gps to track its own position. 

Team Members