RoboCup Nanogram League (2006 - present)

MIDN 1/C Bryan Watson, MIDN 1/C Eric Eastman, and MIDN 1/C Ashley Skahan

Past students: Paul Hodapp, Class of '07, Keith Pridgen, Class of '07, Wes Tucker, Class of '07, Nick Kimmel, Class of '07, Josh Veara, Class of '07, Kanok Bunnag, Class of '08, and Scott Wallace, Class of '08

Advisors: Assoc. Prof. Samara Firebaugh and Assoc. Prof. Jenelle Piepmeier

Imagine robots small enough to fit inside the width of a human hair.  The new “nanogram league” of the international RoboCup robotics competition challenges teams of students and researchers to construct microscopic untethered robots to compete in soccer-related agility drills. This competition created many multidisciplinary educational opportunities in microsystems as well as in the area of vision-based robotic control.  USNA has participated in this competition since 2007, and has the only all-undergraduate team.

Microstrip Antenna Design (2008 - present)

MIDN 1/C Yewpang Lau and MIDN 1/C Olivia Begay

Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Deborah Mechtel

This senior project challenges students to fabricate a patch antenna for use with a fiber optic cellular repeater designed to improve cellular phone coverage on the laboratory deck of Rickover Hall.  This project will expand the capability of the laboratory to create microwave circuits.

Remote Measurement of High Temperatures in the Presence of a Strong Magnetic Field (2006-2007)

Scott F. Lord, Trident Scholar, USNA Class of '07

Advisors: Assoc. Prof. Andrew Smith and Assoc. Prof. Samara Firebaugh

Pulsed discharge systems generate a large amount of heat, and thermal management systems are crucial to their development.  However, the environment inside a railgun makes conventional temperature sensing techniques ineffective. Large time-varying magnetic fields induce noise into sensors with electrical connections. The high rate of change of temperature requires a fast thermal response and a fast sampling rate. Finally, the intense heat generated requires a sensor that is thermally stable over a large range of temperatures. To overcome such environmental challenges an interferometric sensor was developed where the temperature is measured remotely with a low power laser and a thin sapphire sensor bonded to the rail. The interferometer was constructed from a thin sapphire wafer with a nickel oxide coating on the top side and a nickel coating on the bottom side. A laser was directed at the wafer at normal incidence, and the reflection from the sensor was collected with a photodiode. As the sapphire sensor changed temperature its reflectance changed due to variations in the optical properties in the sapphire, nickel, and nickel oxide.   The system was modeled and calibrated.  The apparatus was then tested on a pulsed discharge system at the Naval Research Laboratory and found to exhibit better performance than the previous technology.