Proposal

Narrative

The objective of this proposal is the acquisition of three laboratory equipment for the education and training of FAU students in Aerospace Engineering. The proposed equipment includes: 1) 3DOF Hover Workstation: a 3 degrees-of-freedom (3DOF) helicopter model with 4 propellers mounted on a fixed base for teaching and research applications.. 2) Aero 2 Workstation: a dual-rotor aerospace experiment with reconfigurable dynamic components for mechatronics exploration and control. 3) QBot Platform: a versatile and reconfigurable mobile robotics solution designed to elevate robotics education and research within academic settings. Currently, the Ocean and Mechanical Engineering Department offers an Aerospace Certificate for undergraduate students and a concentration in Aerospace Engineering for graduate students. Based on inputs from the Aerospace industry in south Florida, it’s growth employment forecast and interest from our students, OME and the CoECS are planning to launch an AE program within FAU To continue the effort to establish this program and strength the curriculum in the CoECS, this Tech Fee proposals seeks to improve the educational and research laboraties at OME in the area of Aerospace Engineering by the acquisition of the three workstations mentioned before: 3DOF Hover, an Aero 2 and QBot develop by Quanser. These three instruments will be integrated to our OME curriculum by a one or more classes including -ME Lab (EML 4730L) -Innv Sensing and Actuation (EGN 4670C) -Flight Dynamics (EAS 4010) -Aerodynamics (EAS 4101) -Electro-Mechanical Devices (EGM 4045) -Controls, Robotics and AI classes We envision that these three workstations will be part of the future AE laboratory. QUARCTM for QBot Platform provides a seamless application prototyping environment for advanced robotics, autonomous multi-platform and multi-agent systems. Each of these workstations will need a dedicated desktop and monitor with MATLAB.

Facilities

The three workstations will be located at Engineering West, either in the ME Laboratory or Electronic Lab. The equipment has relatively small area footprint. The Hover and Aero2 workstations are workbench systems. QBot has a diameter of 570 mm.

Hardware Requirements

3DOF Hover Workstation (Q8-USB) •1 × 3 DOF Hover Stationary Quadcopter (P/N:506) A helicopter model with 4 propellers mounted on a fixed base for teaching and research applications. Includes joystick, Laboratory Guide, User Manual and pre-designed controllers. •1 × VoltPAQ-X4 Amplifier (P/N:845) 4 channel linear voltage-controlled amplifier. - Quick Start Guide and User Manual included. •1 × Q8-USB Data Acquisition Device (P/N:841) 8 channel - USB Data Acquisition Board - Quick Start Guide and User Manual included •1 × QUARC Essentials - Individual License (1 Year) (P/N:971) QUARCTM Essentials Platform provides a flexible hardware interfacing and takes full advantage of Quanser's course resources to rapidly deploy an experiential teaching lab. Aero 2 Workstation •1 × Aero 2 (P/N:1070) Dual-rotor aerospace experiment with reconfigurable dynamic components for mechatronics exploration and control. Includes: - QFLEX 2 USB Interface Panel - Built-in Amplifier - Documentation: User Manual, Quick Start Guide, Instructor and Student Workbooks, and Laboratory Guide, and pre-designed controllers. • 1 × QUARC Essentials - Individual License (1 Year) (P/N:971) QBot Platform • 1 × QBot Platform (P/N:1074) QBot Platform is a versatile and reconfigurable mobile robotics solution designed to elevate robotics education and research within academic settings. Each QBot Platform is outfitted with an advanced sensor suite, including LiDAR for detailed environmental mapping and autonomous navigation, a RealSense camera for immersive 3D object recognition, and a high-performance NVIDIA GPU for executing complex computer vision and applied AI projects. • 1 × QUARC for QBot Platform - Individual License (1 Year) (P/N:1085) QUARCTM for QBot Platform provides a seamless application prototyping environment for advanced robotics, autonomous multi-platform and multi-agent systems. Each of these workstations will need a dedicated desktop and monitor with MATLAB.

Software Requirements

The equipment will need - “QUARC Essential” license (included in the quote) - MATLAB /or Python

Personnel Costs

Personnel cost has been included in the proposal to cover the setup of the workstation and for the testing and development of the laboratories. The cost includes support for PI and one graduate student.

Other Costs

Three desktops and three monitors.

Timeline

- Spring 2025: acquisition of the system - Summer 2025: setup and testing of the equipment. Development of laboratories - Fall 2025: include one module in the course “Innovative Sensing and Actuation” using one of the workstations course. - Spring 2026: include one workstation in the ME Lab - Fall 2026: using workstations in Flight Dynamics & Innovative Sensing and Actuation - Spring 2027: incorporate workstations in AE Lab - Spring 2028: evaluate the acquisition of additional workstations

Sustainability

The first three years the cost of the acquisition, setup and use of the equipment will be covered with the Tech Fee funds. After the third year, the cost of the license fee will be covered by the OME lab fees.

Resource Matching

N/A

Implementing Organization

Ocean and Mechanical Engineering Department. The implementation of the proposed work and use of the equipment will be performed by OME. Dr. Curet will lead the effort with assistance from Electronic Laboratory and one graduate student.