This team is collaborating with Wisk Aero, an aerospace manufacturer in Mountain View, CA, to develop an automated assembly line for battery packs powering their Generation 6 eVTOL aircraft. The team focuses on automating the stacking and installation of battery cells, a process that currently requires manual loading. The solution involves a SCARA robot with…

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, or SRNS, is improving pit production with a mobile, automated LIBS system for real-time, non-destructive defect detection. Replacing slow, costly destructive testing, the system enables immediate defect identification before additional costs accrue. It includes a coaxial optical path, rotating sample fixture and radiation-shielded design to ensure accuracy and durability. This solution…

This team, in collaboration with Honeywell Aerospace, is developing a compact hydrogen refueling station for small drones. The goal is to create a system for the safe and efficient generation and storage of hydrogen in standard pressure containers, while focusing on minimizing weight, size and hydrogen loss. Existing market solutions are often too large or…

This team is working with Honeywell to design and test a new delivery drone powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, addressing the challenges of limited range and long charging times faced by battery-powered drones. The team aims to recycle waste heat from the fuel cell to maintain optimal food temperatures, ensuring high-quality deliveries without compromising…

This team is collaborating with Los Alamos National Laboratory, or LANL, to develop an auxiliary transportation system for safely transferring hazardous materials between gloveboxes. LANL uses gloveboxes to prevent radioactive exposure, and the material transfer process must match this level of safety and sophistication. The team’s solution uses industrial pneumatics to efficiently deliver materials between…

This team is working with the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility, or SRPPF, to develop a quick-change workholding solution for their vacuum-based pot chucks. The current fixturing process is time-consuming and requires manual adjustments to align parts concentrically with the lathe axis. The project aims to design, prototype and test a solution that enables fast,…

This team is collaborating with Los Alamos National Laboratory, or LANL, to develop a wearable robotic exoskeleton that reduces operator fatigue caused by prolonged use of gloveboxes in plutonium handling. LANL researchers face significant muscle strain due to unnatural arm and shoulder positions required by these devices. The project aims to improve portability, usability and…

In collaboration with Honeywell Aerospace, this team is developing a low-SWaP drone flight controller to improve UAV stability, efficiency and modularity. Current flight controllers face issues like gyro drift, high power consumption and limited adaptability. The solution integrates the Honeywell I400 MEMS IMU with an STM32 microcontroller for high-precision stability under 5W power. The modular…

Xnrgy, an HVAC design and manufacturing company, aims to enhance their systems. Current fan array systems maintain a consistent speed across the entire array, often designed for maximum load situations. The project explores the potential efficiency gains from using an algorithm to automatically reduce the number of fans running when a reduced load is detected….

The team is collaborating with the Marine Corps to address the challenge of clearing foreign object debris, FOD, from civilian roadways without taking up valuable cargo space in transport vehicles. Current FOD removal solutions are bulky and inefficient, making transportation to remote locations difficult. The goal is to design a compact, transportable device that clears…