Photomosaics

The ES453 Introduction to Computer Vision class created their own photomosaics by replacing small segments of an image with a smaller image whose color most closely matched the original patch of the image. Large photo databases were created in MATLAB with Google Image searches. These pictures were used to create the small points of color.

Don't spill that drink!

ES405 is a course about sensors and motors. In a lot of ways, the course helps prepare you for your capstone project. This year's course project was to build a self leveling platform. They used a cheap accelerometer as a tilt sensor. The output of the sensor is fed to a small computer which turns a motor in order to keep the platform straight.



Shmooooove!

What about the 2/c Courses?

One of the things I always hear from plebes at recruiting events:

Question: You show us all these great 1/C projects, but what goes on in the 2C year?
Answer: We give you all the tools you will need to do those great 1C projects.

In Control Systems Laboratory (ES308), we teach you how to use little computers to control your projects. These micro-computers don't have a keyboard or a mouse, and they are small enough to fit on most projects. They can be used to talk with motors and sensors. For example, check out the cart in this video. Students had to program the cart to always move at the same velocity -- like your car's cruise control.



(Work by 2/C Selby and Haley)

The computer had to read the velocity sensors on each wheel and decide what voltage to send to the motor to keep it going straight at the right speed. Seems pretty easy on flat ground, but it was required to maintain a constant speed, no matter what the terrain (carpet, smooth floor, uphill, down hill, towing a trailer, etc) . That is where the skills of the 2/C Systems Engineer are put to the test.

(Work by 2/C Lovett)



Since we didn't have a radar gun, one of the ways we measured velocity was to time how long it took to travel between two tape marks on the ground. You can see these guys were pretty pround that they got their vehicle to stop on a dime. Needless to say, they got an A.

Autonomous Vehicles

So you probably know by now that by 2025, congress has mandated that 1/3 of all combat vehicles will be unmanned. You have probably heard a lot in the news about the DARPA Grand Challenge, Urban Challenge, the Predator, etc. But how many schools have an undergraduate course in Autonomous Vehicles where you can actually get your hands on experience in that area? In ES456, students learn about navigation sensor technologies such as gyros, accelerometers, GPS, laser range finders. We try to use all of that to as part of a control system that enables the vehicles to navigate effectively.

The final project last year was to make this hovercraft drive autonomously in a straight line. It's really hard to do -- even by remote control. It kind of feels like riding a bike on a sheet of ice. Unlike wheeled or tracked vehicles, there isn't of lot of friction and friction is your Friend when your trying to drive in a straight line. The hovercraft wants to slip sideways, and if you build up too much momentum, you can't count on friction to slow you down.

The vehicle uses gyros and a digital magnetic compass to try to detect when it gets off course. A small microcomputer reads the sensors and decides how to adjust the rudder and thrust to correct course. Unfortunately they didn't have a range sensor, so there is no obstacle avoidance. I guess that will have to wait until next year.

This Guy Can Teach!

A faculty committee selected Prof. Bishop as the recipient of the 2008 Civilian Faculty Teaching Award!

He was selected from an extremely competitive yard-wide field. The committee praised him for his efforts in creating the Systems Engineering Honors Major, and for
starting two of our most popular courses:
Mobile Robot Design (ES451)
and Emerging Technologies (ES502).

The Honors Major lets our top students challenge and distinguish themselves in special courses. The students engage in a year long research project with a faculty mentor. We're the only Group I major to have one.

Mobile robots is a true design experience where students build 8 different robots through the semester to compete in a variety of challenges. Emerging Technologies is a unique course that tries to give students a framework to think critically about the scientific, economic and sociental implications about new technologies such as nanoscience, cybernetics, etc.

Reach Out and Touch Something

One of the ways humans learn about their world is through touch. They can determine an object's temperature, shape, roughness, etc. Nick Dadds focused his Honors project on trying to give robots the same capabilities.




The three selected object properties to be determined are material type, surface roughness and surface temperature. The data is collected using a sensor suite that is positioned using a robotic manipulator. This project spanned over two semesters in which the first semester was used to research state of the art sensor technology, specify desired object properties, acquire necessary parts and begin development of the sensors. The second semester was used to continue development of the sensors while also designing a sensor suite.

On great thing about the project was that it pulled together a lot of the technologies covered in his courses. Material type is based on the dielectric constant of the object and is determined through the use of a capacitance sensor (sounds like EE301). Surface roughness is determined through signal analysis obtained from a phonograph cartridge and stylus. Surface temperature is based on the heat energy emitted from the object which is determined through the use of an infrared temperature sensor (1/C do that in ES405). The target objects are located in the workspace using a Fixed Camera Tracking system developed in Advanced Robotics (ES452)... who says you never use all the things you learn in your courses?

Rollin' Sentry - Mids. Hixson, Savoie, Florea and Ramos

These midshipman designed a novel locomotion scheme to make a robot sentry vehicle. They designed an advanced feedback control system that shifts the robot's center of gravity to cause it to roll forward, stop and change direction on command. They were the winners of the Marsh Award - the departmental prize for the best 1/C design project.


It's never too early to start dreaming up your 1/c Design Project....

Painting with Pixels: A Computer Vision Art Show

The ES453 Introduction to Computer Vision class created art pieces for their 6-week projects. Students were challenged to manipulate or create an image using MATLAB. Some samples from 1/C Kayla Johnson & 1/C James Santelli




Their work can be viewed in the Nimitz Library Coffee Bar along with a collection of books on image processing and art!

Mars is easy, Maury 201 is tough… - by Prof. Bishop

Modern mobile robots are required to traverse increasingly challenging terrain, from the surface of an alien planet to the depths of a collapsed building. Building robots to move through these extreme environments requires a new way of thinking about mobility.

Students in ES451, Mobile Robot Design, face a rite of passage each Fall as Maury 201 is transformed into one of the most difficult navigation challenges imaginable. Robots are subjected to a tortuous obstacle course comprising bolt-studded hills, steep inclines, deep, obstacle-strewn sand, and the dreaded gap (into which at least one hapless robot tumbles every class period).


Students whose robot can make it unaided through the entire course receive the ultimate accolade from the instructors: a perfect score on the challenge and excusal from writing a lab report.

The task is not for the faint of heart, and more than one robot has met its untimely demise at the bottom of heartbreak hill or dug its own sandy grave in the pit of despair.


But for those students with determination, engineering savvy, and some serious hardware design chops, the terrain challenge offers an unparalleled sense of accomplishment and a chance at immortality, enshrined alongside those happy few whose robots have faced down this ultimate test of machine vs. terrain.

Check em out!

Courtney & Doliente


Vegel, Healey

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition - perspective of Ens Enloe

As you probably have heard the USNA team took 5th place of 25 teams in this August's conpetition. The competition is stiff, including teams from engineering powerhouses like MIT, Maryland. Here is the prespective of Ens Mike Enloe Class of 2008:

Going to San Diego is always a good time. Getting paid to go to San Diego is even better. Finishing in the top 5 in a technical competition, well, that's downright sweet. Once we got to the competition site with a vehicle that
had sustained some significant damage in transport, we realized that everyone else was in the same boat as us. Walking around the site was a great time - talking with other engineers, looking at designs, figuring
out how other people tackled the same problems. Everyone was very friendly - when our vehicle flooded (AAAAAHH!), UC-Boulder lent us a heat gun to dry out the electronics. One of the teams helped us troubleshoot our sonar.

In the end though, it's all about the competition. With San Diego being a Navy town and the facility being a Navy
facility, a lot of people were rooting for us. Most other teams had post-grads working on their respective vehicles - we had two undergrads, a 2/C, TSD's Joe Bradshaw, and CAPT Nicholson. 5th place isn't bad. But the best part was watching my senior design project - a system of sensors, computers, thrusters and who knows what else - work as best
as it could. There's nothing quite like the feeling when your vehicle performs as it's supposed to. What was the
second-best part, you ask? Getting one of those huge checks. Where would you endorse it, I wonder?

Unmanned and Autonomous Vehicles

Did you know that congress passed a bill that by 2025, 1/3 of all combat vehicles will be unmanned? Autonomous systems are the future of the Navy. Systems Engineering is the ideal major to learn about Autonomous Systems. In fact we have two entire classes dedicated to the topic: Mobile Robot Design and Autonomous Vehicles. We bring together our knowledge of sensors, mechanical design and robotics to build some really cool projects!

Cool First Class Design Projects

Every year we ask out Firsties what they thought the best part of our major was. Far and away, the number one response was their 1/c Design Project experience. Students get to dream up any crazy project idea and spend a year designing and bulding it.

Here is one of last year's projects. Everyone knows that one of the biggest casualty sources in Iraq is IEDs, so these Mids decided to study the problem further.

Welcome to our blog!

The purpose of this blog is to allow you to make an informed choice about your major. We know you have a lot of options, and that you hear a lot of different things back in the hall.