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VideoRecent Projects: Recreation
AquaScout: Autonomous Open Water Swim Chase Boat
Team: John Brozena, Joshua Patch, Austin Zheng
Sponsor: Peter Woodson, SwimNetix Corporation
Advisor: Professor Laura Ray
Open water swimming, the first event of a triathlon, is dangerous: there are no lifeguards, no walls to hang on to, and no buoys to provide guidance. Boat traffic, inclement weather, and water conditions can also make the swim unsafe. It is nearly impossible to safely go on an open water swim alone. Currently another person needs to escort the swimmer in a boat. The escort must estimate the swimmer's pace and is usually incapable of keeping records or following a predetermined course accurately. The swimmer must interrupt the swim to locate the escort. The goal of our project was to solve all of these issues. We selected a microcontroller as our principal development platform. The microcontroller controls all boat operations. It has inputs from the swimmer's remote, operation use buttons, the GPS, and an uplink from the computer to input swimming routes. A prototype of all the electronics were made and mounted on a testing hull made out of a boogie board. Testing on the prototype has proved successful even under tough wind and water conditions. The boat can navigate between waypoints with controllable speeds. Additional testing shows that the boat can meet all specifications, including size, weight, endurance, and speed.
Novel Field Hockey Facial Impact Protection
Team: Maxwell Bogren '10, Kyle Betts '10, Heather Kluk '11, Katharine Gulemi '11
Sponsor: Dr. Angela Ranzini
Technical Advisor: Jeremy Murray
Faculty Advisor: Richard Greenwald
Current field hockey safety gear fails to adequately protect the head and face from impact injuries. A novel form of protection is needed. The group developed a facemask design and produced a testable prototype. Tests involving ball-and-stick impacts were implemented on the state-of-the-art protective sports masks and the prototypes. Additional video analysis data was used to augment theoretical analysis on the impact situations. Materials research and testing was conducted to determine appropriate shell and padding materials. User specifications were developed through focus group discussion with field hockey athletes. The group created two advanced "form, fit, and function" prototypes: a contoured modular mask and a hockey-style mask. These prototype designs relied on user specifications, such as optimal vision and comfort, without sacrificing protection. Field hockey players from Dartmouth practiced while wearing the masks and provided constructive feedback. From the physical and user testing results, one ultimate design has been recommended for future production.
Hybrid Snowboard Binding Locking Mechanism Redesign
Team: Elizabeth Kemp '11, Teddy Sinsheimer '10, Garrett Simpson '11
Sponsor: Brendan Walker, Bon Hiver Inc.
Advisor: Professor Peter Robbie
Our sponsor company is developing a hybrid snowboard binding which will marry the positive aspects of traditional "strap in" and "step in" bindings. The new binding design retains the same support and aesthetics of strap-ins while giving the user the ability to remove either binding from the board (in order to ride the chair lift or traverse flat ground) and then lock it back onto the board on the move. We discovered mechanical flaws with the locking mechanism, so we designed and fabricated a prototype of a binding with a new locking mechanism. We tested our prototype and compared it to other systems, performed finite element analysis modeling, and made a new CAD model with suggestions for a future iteration. We concluded that our prototype is a significant improvement upon the original Bon Hiver design.
Next-Generation Game Table
Team: Gregory Detwiler, Joseph Friedman, Oliver Townsend
Sponsor: Mark Lackley
Advisor: Professor Peter Robbie
Furniture maker Mark Lackley sponsored the open-ended project of adding an electrical component to a high-end custom-built poker table. With his aid, we built an on-table poker chip counter that uses image processing to determine each player's total chip value. A desktop computer acquires camera images of stacks of poker chips and analyzes the image data to evaluate the color of each chip stack and the quantity of chips in each stack. The total value of each player's chips is then displayed on the LCD screen, adding to game-play smoothness and the players' ability to make rational betting decisions.
