Mechatronics Engineering Capstone Design Symposium Teams - March 2020
We Scoot. We aim to create a fleet of semi-autonomous scooters, which are able to cluster and redistribute themselves automatically, thereby improving the efficiency of scooter collection, charging and redistribution. Recently, micromobility services have transformed the way people move. In 2018, over 40 million trips were taken using shared scooters in the U.S. alone. To offer these services, scooter share companies hire an army of contractors to collect, charge and redistribute their scooter fleets each night, a process which is both costly and inefficient. We aim to create a fleet of semi-autonomous scooters, which are able to cluster and redistribute themselves automatically, thereby improving the efficiency of scooter collection, charging and redistribution.
LEAFME: In a world of increasing urbanization and decreasing living space, gardening is becoming more and more difficult. LeafMe allows easy maintenance of indoor plants and comes with a mobile app for remote control. This compact solution provides all the indoor gardening basics, from plant growing guides to water level monitoring. With LeafMe, you'll never have to worry about keeping your plant alive ever again, even when you're away from home.
Tomat.io is working on the future of agriculture by building a tomato harvesting robot for greenhouses. Currently, there is a labour shortage in agriculture and job vacancies are continuously increasing. Our platform uses computer vision to accurately identify and target ripe tomatoes, coupled with a custom-designed end effector that gently grabs and cuts the tomato off the vine. This enables greenhouse owners to have 24/7 picking of only the finest tomatoes.
Speero - The Speech Therapy Robot. 1% of the global population is impacted by a speech impediment. Upon talking to therapists at the Sound Expression clinic, our team found that therapists manually record when stutters occur during sessions and spend hours annotating audio files. Our team has developed a platform called Speero in order to automatically annotate audio recordings, improve client engagement and track progress. Speero records audio during sessions and tracks when stutters occur using deep learning and displays performance metrics on an online platform for therapists to view.
buoy.link is a scalable self-powered remote water quality monitoring network for tracking lake health over time and predicting environmental risks, allowing for early preventative measures to improve drinking water and promote a more stable aquatic ecosystem.
DeShingler On The Roof lets a robot system perform the dangerous task of shingle removal while roofers can safely operate from the ground. The goal of the Instickerator is thus to automatically remove such unwanted stickers in a fast and efficient manner, requiring little to no human interaction.
Designed for amateur vloggers and social media enthusiasts, Lumetix is a portable smartphone attachment that performs dynamic lighting adjustment for video recording. By measuring the colour temperature of the scene in real-time and controlling a series of lights used for colour mixing, the device illuminates the user’s face appropriately under various lighting conditions. This produces natural-looking footage with consistent tone and brightness throughout the video even under changing ambient surroundings, which can otherwise be difficult to achieve solely using digital image processing.
Lilypod is a compact and easy-to-use module for water monitoring needs. With applications in hydroponics, aquaponics and swimming pools, Lilypod can help ensure the safety and purity of water bodies. Intelligent data analytics will help inform future decisions.
HelpMeHome is a wearable device that allows people to keep track of their loved ones with dementia. Currently 50 million people worldwide are living with dementia, and there are millions of new cases every year. People with early stage dementia want to retain their freedom to be able to leave their homes alone and return safely. HelpMeHome is a wearable device that allows people to keep track of their loved ones with dementia. Using GPS and cellular technology, HelpMeHome sends information to the user’s phone with the whereabouts of their loved ones and if they are displaying unusual behavior.
The IGNIS Sparq is a compact wearable solution to predict flashover, a dangerous firefighting scenario. The device uses powerful computer vision and machine learning algorithms to process real-time data gathered from near-field IR and visual cameras mounted to the firefighter’s head and body. IR is a device that is compact, inexpensive, and capable of delivering consistent breaths to a patient through bag valve mask compressions. The objective is to reduce the amount of medical attention and expertise required to operate a bag valve mask.
DonutBot aims decorates high-quality, customized donuts on-the-spot using a robotic arm and an automated controls system, within a few minutes of creating an order.
Identifybre sorts textiles inexpensively. Climate change and pollution are two of the biggest challenges the world faces today. A huge contributor to this problem is textile waste. With no efficient and inexpensive methods to sort and recycle textiles, most clothing eventually ends up in our landfills. In 2014, approximately 16 million tons of textile waste was generated in the United States alone. With Identifybre, our team will aim to tackle the sorting portion of this problem by coming up with an inexpensive device that can accurately and efficiently sort different types of textiles.
UpRoot Robotics is tackling this issue at the intersection of farming and sustainability with a chemical-free, autonomous weedin. There is an increasing global population to feed but an environmental need to move away from herbicides in high-value crops. UpRoot Robotics is tackling this issue at the intersection of farming and sustainability with a chemical-free, autonomous weeding solution. It is designed to be extendable to different platforms, allowing it to scale to just about any agricultural setting. Modular vision and controls software allow for quick configuration, while the fast and precise actuation of the end-effector ensures effective operation over many different crops.
SLAP. is a low-power, wide-range, non-intrusive solution that uses sensors to detect and report parking occupancy. SLAP. (Slap A Dot) is a smart parking management system that helps drivers find parking spaces more efficiently, and parking management derive more insights into their parking lots. As parking real estate in Canada becomes more scarce and expensive, it becomes more problematic for drivers to find available parking in a timely and energy efficient manner. SLAP. is a low-power, wide-range, non-intrusive solution that uses sensors to detect and report parking occupancy, allowing visualization and optimization of parking usage.
HeRB is a fully mechanical weed control system designed to replace herbicide spraying as the main weed control method. With an increasing number of cases of herbicide resistant weeds, HeRB offers a mechanical alternative for weed control. HeRB weed control is as effective as herbicides, without the environment and sustainability issues. HeRB is a modular system that is easily mounted to your tractor to perform weeding on row crops.
Aftershock reduces the number of undetected concussion-level impacts in hockey. Currently, in the NHL, professional spotters in the crowd determine if a player needs to be tested for concussions. This can be controversial because it is based on human perception. The objective is to build an under-helmet device to reduce the number of undetected concussion-level impacts in hockey. The device provides coaches and trainers with historical and real-time data that allows them to make data-driven decisions. The device will constantly be accumulating data points that can be used to facilitate concussion research.
EASYSCAN is a popular low cost product for manufacturing and engineers/developers to rapidly prototype. Popular 3D scanning methodology can be obscenely expensive for individuals and companies alike. We aim to bring down this cost without compromising the quality of the scan using the increasingly popular technique of photogrammetry. With everyday use in mind, we're designing a low cost product that can be used in manufacturing settings to aid engineers and developers to rapidly prototype their designs.
WatSize’s goal is to eliminate apparel size ambiguity for online shoppers by providing fit recommendations on apparel websites based on the measurements of the user. Round RL, we are developing reinforcement learning algorithms for autonomous roundabout maneuvering. SmartSnipe is an advanced version of the hockey shooter tutor.
The SPE3D project is making FDM 3D printers faster. 3D printing is currently changing the world of manufacturing by allowing for freeform design, low-volume prototyping, and in-house production of parts, but at the cost of either speed or quality. The SPE3D solution characterizes the belt and extruder dynamics with higher order models and uses advanced control techniques to increase printer throughput and quality while decreasing printer cost.
Awayke is a smart alarm clock in the form of a mat, which is only deactivated by a user stepping on it. Mibo is a social robotic solution to mediate forensic interviews to ensure the child is comfortable in such environments. Caravel is a self driving alternative for food delivery.
Catch Me Outside is a robotic bouldering safety system designed to empower climbers to safely do outdoor bouldering alone. Traditionally, outdoor bouldering requires climbing partners to constantly drag crash pads below the climber in case of a fall. Catch Me Outside replaces the need for climbing partners with a robot that does the same task. The system uses computer vision to track the position of the climber in the environment. Carrying the crash pad, it then continuously moves to keep itself below the climber.
The JROM System consists of wearable inertial measurement nodes that transmit data to a centralized software core on the physiotherapist's laptop. The core also uses computer vision to increase accuracy, then visualizes the resulting joint angle and analysis.
Ballr aims to provide competitive softball pitchers with a training solution that removes the need for a catcher and easily tracks pitch data. This device will autonomously catch and return a thrown ball back to the pitcher while recording speed and accuracy statistics, enabling pitchers to focus on repetition without relying on a catcher or wasting energy retrieving balls.
Ada is a better breast pump designed for working mothers. Innovating on a device that has lacked technological focus in the last 50 years, Ada provides a women-first breast-pumping experience, contrasting current options that are clerical, stressful and uncomfortable. Ada measures milk production in real-time, allowing analysis and personalization to be built on top. Combined with an improved form factor, auto controls, and an application proactively connecting mothers to a community of lactation consultants, Ada empowers mothers to prioritize both their maternal and career choices.
Pollimate is our design team’s technological alternative solution to animal-mediated pollination. Honey bees contribute roughly $20 billion of agricultural pollination value in the US alone and are integral to a majority of ecological systems. Unfortunately, populations have been declining globally since 2006 due to pesticides, disease, and climate change. Pollimate is our design team’s technological alternative solution to animal-mediated pollination. It is a scalable and autonomous aerial solution that is capable of artificially pollinating crops by leveraging computer vision to localise drones and accurately pollinate flowers across a wide variety of plant species.
Swapstop, Forest AI, Bold & Brash : SwapStop features a platform allowing a drone to autonomously land, receive a fresh battery, and take off within a blazing 30 second window. Forest AI is aiming to create the first low cost in-vehicle driving scenario collection system of which the primary goal is to enable crowdsourcing as a method of data collection for on-road traffic scenarios. Popular 3D scanning methodology can be obscenely expensive for individuals and companies alike. We aim to bring down this cost without compromising the quality of the scan using the increasingly popular technique of photogrammetry.
Kiyo Robotics is building a fully autonomous solution for piece picking in ecommerce order fulfillment and kitting processes. We use state-of-the-art in artificial intelligence to enable highly efficient robotic dexterity capable of grasping millions of different items to reduce costs and decrease delivery times.
TopCharge plans to lead the way into the wireless charging revolution. Imagine simply charging your phone by setting it down beside your meal. TopCharge is working to make wireless charging mainstream and effortless. Existing wireless charging pads can be inconvenient and are not suited for a public environment. A durable table that automatically detects the location of multiple devices and starts charging them without any user input or interaction will improve customer satisfaction and retention. With the ability to expand into the accessibility market, TopCharge plans to lead the way into the wireless charging revolution.
InnerVision aims to enhance safety in amateur sports by protecting athletes from the harmful effects of playing while concussed: Allowing an athlete to return to play too soon after a concussion can lead to permanent damage and increased healing time. InnerVision aims to enhance safety in amateur sports by protecting athletes from the harmful effects of playing while concussed. Combining eye-tracking with cutting-edge biomedical research and machine learning algorithms, our ProSpecs device can quickly provide sports teams with an objective concussion likelihood score without requiring comparison to baseline tests.
LightBike is a holistic solution that aims to improve communication between cyclists and vehicles, for the purpose of improving : Despite improvements in road infrastructure, accidents involving bicycles are ubiquitous. LightBike is a holistic solution that aims to improve communication between cyclists and vehicles, for the purpose of improving cyclist safety. The hardware components include a wearable glove and a mounted hardware module for communicating cyclist intention. There is also an app that is able to relay information while tracking cyclists locations to show them to other motor vehicles in the area. The goal is to reduce the frequency and impact of common vehicular accidents.
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