Eglin 1 Team Members:

Erik Fernandez

Kevin Garvey

William Hefner

Brian McMinn

Sponsor:  Dr. Henry Pfister

Project Scope

Design and integrate a collapsible acoustic eye sensor housing into an existing NASA RDS (Robot Demonstration System) for the purposes of multiple sensor integration.  The design must mitigate as much mechanical vibration as possible that is caused by the RDS during its operation and maneuvering. 

Click on the above figure to see a video of the working array!!!!

Shown above are the final completed and assembled designs for the 2006 Eglin 1 Senior Design group.  Shown on the left is the half-size T-base Array and on the right is the Collapsible Tetrahedral Array.

Team Background

The Eglin 1 Team was tasked to work on a collaborative effort with NASA and Eglin/AFRL to implement an acoustic eye sensor into a robot demonstration system (RDS).  The system will be used for demonstration purposes around the U.S. to show integration of multiple sensor technologies.  The Senior Design team at the FAMU/FSU College of Engineering designed the physical housing by which the array will mount to the RDS platform.  This task entailed vibration characterization techniques, materials analysis and selection, as well as actuation systems for deployment and retraction of the array.  The team's success hinged on the characterization of vibration shock impulses that the current RDS platform imposes upon the acoustic eye sensor array.  The culmination of the project produced a collapsible array that was lightweight, cost-effective, and damped as much as 65% of the impinging vibration shock impulse within the system.