Date of Award

5-6-2024

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

This project entails designing and developing a mechanism to accurately place an underwater testing unit and an acoustic sensor in precise, calculated locations in an underwater testing tank to ensure effective placement repeatability for testing purposes. The initial project prompt was provided to Team 17 by sponsor representatives, Dave Lavallee and Adam Maziarz, from Raytheon, who detailed their specific design expectations in our preliminary meeting. The most important design characteristics of this project are the ability to displace an object precisely and accurately and in multiple degrees of motion, autonomous movement, and a method of determining and ensuring precise placement of the testing units including an acoustic sensor. Throughout the Fall 2023 semester, Team 17 produced a working prototype which satisfied most of the given and developed engineering and customer requirements. This prototype was partially autonomous, producing accurate and precise results which are verified through the developed software interface.

During the Spring 2024 semester, our group developed a final assembly which improved almost every aspect of the proof-of-concept prototype. Our final assembly reliably reproduces motion in the X and Z directions, as well as an angular swiveling movement for the unit under test. These movements are accurate and are performed automatically by motors controlled by a GUI interface via Python and an Arduino chip. Several pertinent engineering analyses were performed throughout the duration of this project, including extensive testing of individual components and holistic system functionality, a lead screw torque analysis, stepper motor acoustic analyses, QFD/house of quality product analyses, and cost and resource analyses. This project was completed to both Raytheon’s and the University of Rhode Island’s satisfaction, and this report details the year-long process of this project’s development in full.

Comments

Team Name: Team 17

Company Sponsor: Raytheon Technologies

Sponsor Representative: Dave Lavallee and Adam Maziarz

Document Reference: URI-MCE-402-17-2024

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