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This paper presents enhancements to, and the demonstration of, the General Urban area Microclimate Predictions tool (GUMP), which is designed to provide hyper-local weather predictions by combining machine-learning (ML) models and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations. For the further development and demonstration of GUMP, the Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) campus was used as a test environment. Local weather sensors provided data to train ML models, and CFD models of urban- and suburban-like areas of ERAU’s campus were created and iterated through with a wide assortment of inlet wind speed and direction combinations. ML weather sensor predictions were combined with best-fit CFD models from a database of CFD flow fields, providing flight operational areas with a fully expressed wind flow field. This field defined a risk map for uncrewed aircraft operators based on flight plans and individual flight performance metrics. The potential applications of GUMP are significant due to the immediate availability of weather predictions and its ability to easily extend to arbitrary urban and suburban locations.

Evolving technology and regulation is making package delivery via drone more feasible since Amazon first ignited the public imagination with the idea in 2013. However, additional progress needs to be made before package delivery on a large scale is viable. Some of these needs include the maturing of vehicle-to-vehicle communication, standards and decision laws that enable autonomous package delivery drones to come to consensus on delivery route selection and prioritization when multiple uncrewed aircraft (UA) converge on a single drop-off location. This work describes a two-part project that, first, simulates a package delivery scenario using the Mobility Virtual Environment (MoVE) and, secondly, physically executes the package delivery scenario on Embry-Riddle’s campus. Both the simulation and experimental execution involve solving the consensus problem with multiple unique UA, and payloads, arriving at the drop-off location at similar times.

With the rapid industrialization and the current status of climate change, air pollution has become a global concern. However, detecting atmospheric pollutants is costly, time-consuming, and cumbersome. Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) utilizes filter-based techniques in their federal reference and federal equivalent methods (FRM and FEM, respectively) to measure ground-based particulate matter (PM) levels in the atmosphere. Recently, the development of low-cost sensors has helped in combatting the high cost associated with acquiring these measurements. These sensors allow for PM concentrations to be measured at high resolutions. Due to their surface mounted nature, the EPA’s methods are limited in measuring the concentrations of PM at the ground-level. Hence, they lack the ability of determining the concentrations at various altitudes, which is important in characterizing the origin and the formation pathway of such pollutants. To address these shortcomings, we propose placing multiple low-cost sensors on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to measure the concentrations of PM in Daytona Beach, FL. Sampling will be conducted seasonally, and the PM concentrations will be compared to their counterpart observations obtained using the EPA’s methods. The findings of this study should aid in the development of low-cost air pollution sensors that can be hosted on UAVs. This work promises to be advantageous in detecting air pollutants in both congested and remote areas.

Cities of the future will have to overcome congestion, air pollution and increasing infrastructure cost while moving more people and goods smoothly, efficiently and in an eco-friendly manner. Urban air mobility (UAM) is expected to be an integral component of achieving this new type of city. This is a new environment for sustained aviation operations. The heterogeneity of the urban fabric and the roughness elements within it create a unique environment where flight conditions can change frequently across very short distances. UAM vehicles with their lower mass, more limited thrust and slower speeds are especially sensitive to these conditions. Since traditional aviation weather products for observations and forecasts at an airport on the outskirts of a metropolitan area do not translate well to the urban environment, weather data for low-altitude urban airspace is needed and will be particularly critical for unlocking the full potential of UAM. To help address this need, crowdsourced weather data from sources prevalent in urban areas offer the opportunity to create dense meteorological observation networks in support of UAM. This paper considers a variety of potential observational sources and proposes a cyber-physical system architecture, including an incentive-based crowdsensing application, which empowers UAM weather forecasting and operations.

In May 2017, the Project Haiti team of two faculty and eleven students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida, working together with a professor and translator from the Universite d’Etat d’Haiti, designed and installed a solar-powered water purification system in the village of Drouin, Artibonite Department, Haiti. This region has been at the epicenter of the post-2010 cholera epidemic that has infected hundreds of thousands and killed many thousands. There has been no reliably safe drinking water in the region. The Haitian operators were empowered with ongoing maintenance and operation of the system, as well as the micro-business operations. Partnership with Haitians and the long-term partnering NGO (non-governmental organization) is a critical enabling aspect that improves sustainability of this community development effort.

A thermal management system for an energy storage device that includes a liquid-cooled cold plate made of phase-change material changeable from a substantially solid form to a sub­stantially liquid form upon absorbing heat generated by the energy storage device. The system may be useful as a thermal management solution for energy storage systems (ESS) in hybrid-electric vehicles (HEY).

This paper presents the design and commissioning of a solar powered water purification system at the Ryan Epps Home for Children (REHC) in Michaud, Haiti. This system supplies clean drinking water to the 200 children who live and go to school at REHC and also to the community in the form of a micro-business. This micro-business is the mechanism for income generation for sustainable system operation. The purifier uses a three stage filtration system with a disc-type sediment filter, a 0.1 micron ultrafiltration membrane, and an ultraviolet light for disinfection. The backwash cycle extends the life of the ultrafiltration membrane to 4 – 7 years before a new filter is required. Simplicity in operation was an important design consideration because it facilitates local operator training, and understanding. To further ensure complete understanding of operation, a pictorial quick-start manual was developed so that operators only need to follow the diagrams laid out on the manual. The design folder with CAD drawings, schematics, datasheets, and troubleshooting guide are left with the local operators. Testing before shipping and after installation to ensure proper operation upon installation and on-site water quality testing ensures it will promote improved community health.

An ultra-portable water purification system (1). The system (1) can include a pump (22) for pumping water under pressure through the water purification system (1). The system (1) can also include a battery (14) for supplying power to operate the pump (22), a power source (10) for providing power to the battery (14) and the pump (22), and a charge controller (18), electrically connected to the power source (10), battery (14), and pump (22), for regulating power received from the power source (10) and limiting the power provided to the battery (14) to power the pump (22). The water purification system (1) can also include a mesh strainer (20) upstream of the pump (22), a sediment filter (26), and an electropositive filter (30). The mesh strainer (20), sediment filter (26) and electropositive filter (30) are arranged in series such that the source water is pumped sequentially therethrough.

In this paper we will share our experiences of fostering entrepreneurial spirit through projects funded by EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) P3 (People, Prosperity, and the Planet) Program which hosts the P3 collegiate competition for designing solutions for a sustainable future. Since 2012, we have integrated the P3 competition with the capstone design course of Clean Energy Systems track in mechanical engineering as an effective educational vehicle for introducing the concept of sustainable design. Since the competition focuses on designs which have values of real world application, it is also a great opportunity to create entrepreneurial spirit. We have successfully turned a design from a capstone design prototype to a commercial product through the EPA P3 awards. Similar successful stories have been heard within this program. We will share our story in this paper with an attempt to encourage educators who are working on technologies with commercial viability to take advantage of this unique opportunity to grow more student entrepreneurs.

In this paper, we share our experiences and lessons learned from Project Haiti 2012, a project to design and install a water purification system serving 20,000 people per day in the largest tent city in Haiti. Project Haiti 2012 was the third and largest system we have built for Haitians and represents a huge success for all participants and stakeholders. This paper discusses the unique experiential learning opportunity involved in the design and delivery of the water purifier in a foreign developing country. Multiple positive educational, social, and economic outcomes were achieved including students applying knowledge gained from coursework towards a greater cause, faculty gaining experience in leading an overseas student trip, engaging Haitians to be less dependent on foreign aid, and relieving water crisis in Haiti. We hope that this paper inspires others to pursue similar experiential learning experiences and develop a repeatable engineering education model for international community improvement projects.

In this paper, we will share our experiences and lessons learned from a design project for providing clean water to a Haitian orphanage (Project Haiti 2011). Supported by funds from a renewable energy company and the university president’s office, five engineering students and two faculty members from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University successfully designed and installed a solar powered water purification system for an orphanage located in Chambellan, Haiti. This paper discusses the unique educational experiences gained from unusual design constraints, such as ambiguity of existing facilities due to limited communication, logistics of international construction at a remote village location, and cross-cultural differences in water usage. Multiple positive outcomes were achieved, such as our students developing a global perspective, our faculty gaining experience in leading an overseas student trip, and the provision of daily water for children and surrounding community in Haiti. Our students' perspectives will be shared, as well as the framework for support from our community and university administration. Project Haiti 2011 was a big success for all the participants and the stakeholders. We hope that this paper inspires others to pursue similar service learning experiences, and is found to be a repeatable engineering education model for international community improvement projects.

Our team’s research focuses on fundamental problems in undergraduate education in terms of how to expand use of well researched, yet still “new”, teaching pedagogies of ‘sensing’ or ‘hands-on’, ‘active’ and ‘problem-based learning’ within engineering courses. It is now widely accepted that traditional lectures ARE NOT best for students – yet that is what the community almost universally does. To address this issue we are developing new Desktop Learning Modules (DLMs) that contain miniaturized processes with a uniquely expandable electronic system to contend with known sensor systems/removable cartridges, as well as, unknown expansions to the project. We have shown that miniaturized mimics of industrial-scale equipment produce process data that agree with correlations developed for large-scale equipment. We are now adapting concepts shown efficacious in a single chemical engineering course to a variety of engineering classes within civil, mechanical, bio- and electrical engineering. Some examples of new hands-on learning applications in chemical engineering include a boiler / condenser and evaporative and shell & tube heat exchangers. In bioengineering, we are developing prognostic devices for separating Prostate Cancer Tumor Cells (PCTCs) from blood, sensing for the presence of PCTCs, a thermoregulation simulated limb cartridge for studying kinematics of heat flow and heat distribution in human extremities, and immunoaffinity neuron-like ion selective electrodes. In civil engineering, the DLMs illustrate open channel flow units and a solar powered Rankine cycle is underway in mechanical engineering. We are implementing DLMs along with team learning pedagogy. In this paper we will present technical aspects surrounding development of a large number of new learning cartridges. While the assessment strategies being developed are broadly applicable we will just present one instance, with the civil engineering cartridge, of the identification of misconceptions and experim

It has been established that traditional lectures ARE NOT best for student learning – yet that is what the community almost universally does! Furthermore, engineers work in broad multidisciplinary teams while classroom learning is individual and narrow. Yet, educators rarely invest the time and resources necessary to employ such innovations. In this CCLI type II award we are further refining Desktop Learning Modules (DLMs) within a Cooperative, Hands-on, Active, Problem based, Learning (CHAPL) setting for Chemical, Civil, Mechanical, Bio- and Electrical Engineering courses at a diverse set of institutions, including a community college engaged through a distance learning mode. A workbook is being developed and tested for easier adoption of the hands-on units and accompanying pedagogy. Existing concept inventories are not always showing significant gains in apparent student learning either for control or experimental groups and we are concluding these assessments are not well aligned with the macroscale design calculations being emphasized in the course. Therefore, new concept question assessments are being developed consisting of some macroscale questions from past inventories along with conceptual essay and calculation based questions aligned more specifically with the DLM processes at hand. Past implementations like this show students learn key concepts at least as well from each other in a guided inquiry as they do from lecture. Also, a mixed qualitative / quantitative assessment using a critical reasoning rubric reveals student abilities become better aligned with what is expected of graduating engineers ready for industry and that the CHAPL/DLM environment serves to reinforce understanding of physical phenomena, and to develop analytical and evaluative problem-solving skills. Interviews, surveys and team reports reveal students are better able to visualize concepts and that classroom exercises are promoting team skills and academic rigor. Faculty interviews rev

This paper describes a human-in-the-loop motion-based simulator interfaced to hybrid-electric power system hardware both of which were used to measure the duty cycle of a combat vehicle in a virtual simulation environment. The project discussed is a greatly expanded follow-on to the experiment published in Paper SIW-06S-080, Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO), Orlando, FL, April 2006. This paper is written in the context of the earlier paper and therefore highlights the enhancements. The most prominent of these enhancements is the integration (in real-time) of the Power & Electric System Integration Lab (P&E SIL) with a motion base simulator by means of a "long haul" connection over the Internet (a geographical distance of 2,450 miles). The P&E SIL is, therefore, able to respond to commands issued by the vehicle's driver and gunner and, in real-time, affect the simulated vehicle's performance. By thus incorporating hardware into a human-in-the-loop experiment, TARDEC engineers are able to evaluate the actual power system as it responds to actual human behavior. After introducing the project, the paper describes the simulation environment which was assembled to run the experiment. It emphasizes the design of the experiment as well as the approach, challenges and issues involved in creating a real-time link between the motion-base simulator and the P&E SIL. It presents the test results and briefly discusses on-going and future work., For presentation at the 2008 Spring Simulation Interoperability Workshop in Providence, RI on 14-17 Apr 2008. Prepared in collaboration with Science Application International Corporation (SAIC), Marietta, GA; Realtime Technologies, Inc., Royal Oak, MI; and DCS Corporation, Warren, MI. The original document contains color images.

This paper describes a human-in-the-loop motion-based simulator interfaced to hybrid-electric power system hardware, both of which were used to measure the duty cycle of a combat vehicle in a virtual simulation environment. The project discussed is a greatly expanded follow-on to the experiment published in [1,7]. This paper is written in the context of [1,7] and therefore highlights the enhancements. The most prominent of these enhancements is the integration (in real-time) of the Power & Energy System Integration Lab (P&E SIL) with a motion base simulator by means of a long haul connection over the Internet (a geographical distance of 2,450 miles). The P&E SIL is, therefore, able to respond to commands issued by the vehicle's driver and gunner and, in real-time, affect the simulated vehicle's performance. By thus incorporating hardware into a human-in-the-loop experiment, TARDEC engineers were able to evaluate the actual power system as it responds to actual human behavior. After introducing the project, the paper describes the simulation environment which was assembled to run the experiment. It emphasizes the design of the experiment as well as the approach, challenges and issues involved in creating a real-time link between the motion-base simulator and the P&E SIL. It presents the test results and briefly discusses on-going and future work., Presented at the International All-electric Combat Vehicle Conference (7th), held in Stockholm, Sweden on 11-13 June 2007.

This paper describes a human-in-the-loop motion-based simulator interfaced to hybrid-electric power system hardware both of which were used to measure the duty cycle of a combat vehicle in a virtual simulation environment. The project discussed is a greatly expanded follow-on to the experiment published in [1]. This paper is written in the context of [1] and therefore highlights the enhancements. The most prominent of these enhancements is the integration (in real-time) of the Power & Electric System Integration Lab (P&E SIL) with a motion base simulator by means of a “long haul” connection over the Internet (a geographical distance of 2,450 miles). The P&E SIL is, therefore, able to respond to commands issued by the vehicle’s driver and gunner and, in real-time, affect the simulated vehicle’s performance. By thus incorporating hardware into a human-in-the-loop experiment, TARDEC engineers are able to evaluate the actual power system as it responds to actual human behavior. After introducing the project, the paper describes the simulation environment which was assembled to run the experiment. It emphasizes the design of the experiment as well as the approach, challenges and issues involved in creating a real-time link between the motion-base simulator and the P&E SIL. It presents the test results and briefly discusses on-going and future work.

This paper describes a human-in-the-loop motion-based simulator interfaced to hybrid-electric power system hardware, both of which were used to measure the duty cycle of a combat vehicle in a virtual simulation environment. The project discussed is a greatly expanded follow-on to the experiment published in [1,7]. This paper is written in the context of [1,7] and therefore highlights the enhancements. The most prominent of these enhancements is the integration (in real-time) of the Power & Energy System Integration Lab (P&E SIL) with a motion base simulator by means of a “long haul” connection over the Internet (a geographical distance of 2,450 miles). The P&E SIL is, therefore, able to respond to commands issued by the vehicle’s driver and gunner and, in real-time, affect the simulated vehicle’s performance. By thus incorporating hardware into a human-in-the-loop experiment, TARDEC engineers were able to evaluate the actual power system as it responds to actual human behavior. After introducing the project, the paper describes the simulation environment which was assembled to run the experiment. It emphasizes the design of the experiment as well as the approach, challenges and issues involved in creating a real-time link between the motion-base simulator and the P&E SIL. It presents the test results and briefly discusses on-going and future work.

The RemoteLink effort supports the U.S. Army's objective for developing and fielding next generation hybrid-electric combat vehicles. It is a distributed soldier-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop environment with a 6-DOF motion base for operator realism, a full-scale combat hybrid electric power system, and an operational context provided by OneSAF. The driver/gunner crewstations rest on one of two 6-DOF motion bases at the U.S. Army TARDEC Simulation Laboratory (TSL). The hybrid power system is located 2,450 miles away at the TARDEC Power and Energy System Integration Laboratory (P&E SIL). The primary technical challenge in the RemoteLink is to operate both laboratories together in real time, coupled over the Internet, to generate a realistic power system duty cycle. A topology has been chosen such that the laboratories have real hardware interacting with simulated components at both locations to guarantee local closed loop stability. This layout is robust to Internet communication failures and ensures the long distance network delay does not enter the local feedback loops. The TSL states and P&E SIL states will diverge due to (1) significant communications delays and (2) unavoidable differences between the TSL's power system simulation and the P&E SIL's real hardware-in-the-loop power system. Tightly coupled, bi-directional interactions exist among the various distributed simulations and software and hardware-in-the-loop components representing the driver, gunner, vehicle, and power system., Presented at the SAE Power Systems Conference, held in New Orleans, LA, Nov 2006. Session: Advanced Power Systems Technologies.

The RemoteLink effort supports the U.S. Army's objective for developing and fielding next generation hybrid-electric combat vehicles. It is a distributed soldierin- the-Ioop and hardware-in-the-Ioop environment with a 6-DOF motion base for operator realism, a full-scale combat hybrid electric power system, and an operational context provided by OneSAF. The driver/gunner crewstations rest on one of two 6-DOF motion bases at the U.S. Army TARDEC Simulation Laboratory (TSL). The hybrid power system is located 2,450 miles away at the TARDEC Power and Energy System Integration Laboratory (P&E SIL). The primary technical challenge in the RemoteLink is to operate both laboratories together in real time, coupled over the Internet, to generate a realistic power system duty cycle. A topology has been chosen such that the laboratories have real hardware interacting with simulated components at both locations to guarantee local closed loop stability. This layout is robust to Internet communication failures and ensures the long distance network delay does not enter the local feedback loops. The TSL states and P&E SIL states will diverge due to (1) significant communications delays and (2) unavoidable differences between the TSL's powersystem simulation and the P&E SIL's real hardware-inthe- loop power system. Tightly coupled, bi-directional interactions exist among the various distributed simulations and software- and hardware-in-the-Ioop components representing the driver, gunner, vehicle, and power system. These interactions necessitate additional adjustment to ensure that the respective states at the TSL and P&E SIL sites converge. This is called state convergence and ensures the dominant energetic states of both laboratories remain closely matched in real time. State convergence must be performed at both locations to achieve bi-directional, real-time interaction like that found on a real vehicle. The result is a distributed control system architecture with Internet communica

In this paper, a distributed driver-in-the-Ioop and hardware-in-the-Ioop simulator is described with a driver on a motion simulator at the U.S. Army TARDEC Ground Vehicle Simulation Laboratory (GVSL). Realistic power system response is achieved by linking the driver in the GVSL with a full-sized hybrid electric power system located 2,450 miles away at the TARDEC Power and Energy Systems Integration Laboratory (P&E SIL), which is developed and maintained by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The goal is to close the loop between the GVSL and P&E SIL over the Internet to provide a realistic driving experience in addition to realistic power system results. In order to preserve a valid and safe hardware-in-the-Ioop experiment, the states of the GVSL must track the states of the P&E SIL. In a distributed control system utilizing the open Internet, the communications channel is a primary source of uncertainty and delay that can degrade the overall system performance and stability. The presence of a cross-country network delay and the unavoidable differences between the P&E SIL hardware and GVSL model will cause the GVSL states and P&E SIL states to diverge without any additional action. Thus, two robust strategies for state convergence are developed and presented in this paper. The first strategy is a non-linear Sliding Mode control scheme. The second strategy is an H-infinity control scheme. Both schemes are implemented in simulation, and both schemes show promising results for state convergence in the presence of variable cross-country time delays.