Electrical Engineering Technology students in their senior year of study at Bluefield State College are creating exciting, imaginative, and innovative projects that they enter in shows and competition with students from other colleges and universities from throughout the world. These projects range from devices like motors and lights controlled by Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), microprocessors, and other electronic "gadgets," to robots that drive cars without a human driver.
Such projects have been taking place within the department for the past 10 years, thanks to efforts of the BSC Engineering Technology faculty. Roy Pruett, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering Technology at BSC, has led teams of students in creating projects that have been displayed at various technology exhibits. Earlier this year, two BSC student projects won first and second place awards in a competition with other state colleges as part of the International Society for Measurement and Controls Biannual Technology Exhibit in Charleston.
The first place project involved a fan motor with its speed controlled by a variable frequency drive. A ball was raised or lowered in a tube by using air pressure from the fan. To raise the ball to a certain position, an individual would place a hand in a slot. A photoelectric cell then determined the presence of the hand and its elevation. This information was fed to a programmable logic controller which would, in turn, cause the variable frequency drive to change its position and alter the speed of the fan. The project involved a complex electrical system much like what a student will encounter in industry.
The second place project involved a binary "adder." It illustrated how a computer would add two numbers in the binary state. The project was later displayed at the Princeton/Mercer County Chamber of Commerce's Technology Expo and was distributed to hundreds of school children.
Earlier this semester, the BSC electrical engineering technology department added a senior project class to the curriculum. "Starting this semester, all students were required to choose, research, design, build, and test a project using concepts covered by all the courses taken at BSC," noted Dr. Robert Riggins, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering Technology. The addition of this class involves assistance from much of the faculty and staff in the entire college, as well as industry. EET faculty and staff members Dr. Shekhar Pradhan (Associate Professor and Department Head of Electrical Engineering Technology), Virgil Harden, Riggins, and Pruett serve as technical advisors to the senior project class.
Chad Baker, an EET senior, with the help of his advisor (Dr. Riggins), designed and built a special communication device that can transmit and receive audio signals over a light beam. In a recent presentation, Chad demonstrated how his voice could be transmitted up to several feet using a special low power light. Next they plan to focus the light from a 1 million candle-power light, using lenses and telescopes. Their goal is to transmit audio over a light beam from one mountaintop to another--a distance of many miles.
Another student group is currently working (with the supervision of Prof. Pruett) to build an industrial robot from scratch. The robot will be controlled by a programmable logic controller. Using proximity sensors, the robot will be able to detect the presence of objects on a conveyor belt and move them to a second point. This will be the type of procedure used in industry today to place a car door in position to be bolted into the frame of an automobile.
In another project, Riggins has organized and directed a group of nine electrical engineering technology students to create a fully autonomous vehicle that will compete in the seventh annual International Ground Robotics Competition in Oakland, MI in June, 1999. During the spring semester, 1998, BSC students Chris Lafferty and DeWayne Bowles, along with Dr. Riggins, conceived the idea for building an autonomous ground robotics vehicle (GRV) at BSC. In August, seven additional students--Arthur Ball, Steve (Todd) Browning, Cullen Medley, Richard Midkiff, Rodney Price, Mickey Udy, and Terry Wells--joined the project. This project, starting from "scratch," has already put into use a significant amount of the knowledge of these BSC students--ranging from the initial design phase to final testing and computer program refinements. The vehicle will have to run a course, avoiding obstacles, negotiating "trap" situations, going through sand pits, up hills, over debris, and following a manned vehicle over a curvy road--all without human intervention. The only human link to the robot will be a remote motor cut-off, in case the vehicle goes out-of-control.
Starting with old bicycle parts and the shell of a dilapidated lawn mower, the GRV team has built the body of the robot, complete with front and rear wheels and steering mechanism. The first phase of the project involved a large amount of machine work, welding, computer-aided design, and much more. The team is also designing, acquiring, and integrating robotic sensors for detecting objects in the vehicle's path and for following the road. They have already installed three video sensors and several sonar sensors, and they're hoping to integrate more. Other efforts of the team include motor interfacing, motor controllers, computer interfacing, computer software, and many other sub-topics.
The purpose of the sensors is to collect data from the vehicle's surroundings, send it to the onboard computer for processing, then control the power and steering motors for propulsion and guidance, accordingly. In the competition, the road obstacles will be barrels and cones which the machine must locate and avoid. The circuit around the course will be timed and points deducted for each touch made.
Operating on a limited budget, the GRV team has obtained parts mostly by donations from sponsors or simply from "scrounging." The three video cameras came from dismantled phones. Sponsors include the Academy of Careers and Technology in Beckley and Lin Electronics in Bluefield. The GRV team is looking for additional sponsors.
These projects are successful because of the students' talent and knowledge, Riggins said. "Many hours of labor, design, calculation, and testing are invested in these projects," he continued. "The results confirm that BSC has the resources necessary to develop excellent engineers."
Release Menu |