Reducing global warming from county vehicle fleets

Martha Bushong — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 12:35:20 +0000

Reducing global warming from county vehicle fleets Martha Bushong Mon, 04/26/2021 - 08:35

In This Story

Baltimore County, Maryland’s fleet of 1,500 light-duty vehicles emits an estimated 7,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.

The CO2 enters the atmosphere and causes the outgoing “thermal” radiation, which is naturally emitted by the Earth, to be reflected to Earth. The reflected radiation results in increased temperatures that cause increased frequency of coastal flooding and stronger storms in the Baltimore area. This is known as the “Green House Effect.”

To reduce Baltimore County’s contribution to global warming, the municipal government seeks to transition the vehicle fleet from fossil fuel Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) to no or low carbon emission vehicles.

A team of systems engineering (SE) students worked with Baltimore County staff in more than six departments.

“It’s a lot more complicated than you would think,” says Rebecca Quintero. “Like most organizations, the county has strict accounting practices for purchasing vehicles. These practices account for only the acquisition costs, not the total life-cycle costs.” The team worked with county personnel across departments to modify the purchasing and acquisition process to consider total life-cycle costs.

“The difference between acquisition costs and total life-cycle costs is very important,” says SE team member Khiem Duong. “Electric vehicles are more expensive to purchase but have lower operating costs than fossil fuel-burning vehicles. Electric vehicles have fewer moving parts, so their maintenance costs are lower. Also, electricity costs for charging the vehicle batteries are lower than gasoline costs. The total life-cycle cost model is complex.”

“The other complexity is in the choice of vehicle and charging station infrastructure,” says team member Evan Anderson. “There are three categories of electric vehicles: hybrid ICE/Electric, plug-in hybrid, and plug-in electric. Each department has different vehicle needs that can be serviced best by one category, manufacturer, and vehicle model. There are also different types of charging stations.”

The team developed and thoroughly tested a decision support tool (DST) that allows non-technical department personnel to provide information on how the vehicles are used, cabin and cargo space, carrying loads, towing capacity, and other attributes. The tool then uses forecast gasoline and electric costs, estimates of CO2 emissions, estimated maintenance costs, and more to generate a ranked list of recommended vehicles and their acquisition and total life-cycle costs.

The DST is in use by Baltimore County staff. Seth Blumen, Baltimore County energy and sustainability coordinator, says, "The thorough assessment and detailed analytics provided in a user-friendly tool has helped the county tremendously. We can now explore options for which vehicles to consider meeting sustainability goals. It was a privilege to work with such a sophisticated and dedicated team."

“The project is not over,” says SE team member Hein Nang. “We have developed a business plan and hope to create a start-up to provide the tool and consulting services to other municipalities to make the safe and cost-effective transition to electric vehicles.”

“We are very proud of systems engineering students,” says Systems Engineering and Operations Research Department Chair and Professor John Shortle. “These are complex system problems that require sophisticated engineering and analytical skills. This project, and other SE senior design projects, show how graduates from this department are making the world a better place one project at a time.”

Advising for this senior design project was provided by Systems Engineering Associate Professor Lance Sherry and Professor George Donohue.

Topics

Sustainability

Senior Design Project

A new fish in the sea: Engineers create swimming robotic fish

Nanci Hellmich — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 15:11:14 +0000

A new fish in the sea: Engineers create swimming robotic fish Nanci Hellmich Mon, 12/03/2018 - 10:11

Computer engineering student Blazej Horyza and two other seniors created this robotic fish, which is about four feet long and weighs 17 pounds, for their senior design project. Eventually, marine biologists and environmentalists will use robotic fish to track aquatic life and monitor the conditions of the ocean, rivers, and lakes. Photo by Evan Cantwell

“It’s about four feet long and weighs 17 pounds and performs as we wanted it to perform.”

— Computer engineering senior Blazej Horyza

Computer engineering seniors designed and built this robotic fish so that a user can send commands to the buoy through a private wireless network on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Pictured from left to right: seniors Sergio Cruz, Blazej Horyza, and Morteza Eskandari with Feitian Zhang, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Photo by Evan Cantwell

It swims like a fish, turns like a fish, and dives like a fish, but it’s not a fish. It’s a robot.

Three Mason Engineering seniors have created a robotic fish that can navigate water through wireless commands.

“We designed and built the robotic fish from scratch,” says Blazej Horyza, one of the computer engineering team members on the capstone design project. “It’s about four feet long and weighs 17 pounds and performs as we wanted it to perform.”

“We can talk to the robotic fish and tell it what to do—swim forward, speed up, turn left, and turn right,” says faculty supervisor Feitian Zhang, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Eventually, marine biologists and environmentalists will use robotic fish to track aquatic life and monitor the conditions of the ocean, rivers, and lakes. “If there is a disastrous event such as an oil spill, we can deploy the robotic fish to investigate,” Zhang says.

The yellow-and-black robot that the team, which includes Sergio Cruz and Morteza Eskandari, calls Bumblebee or Goldilocks, has:

Three battery-powered electric motors to generate tail movement.
An onboard computer, magnetometer (compass), water pressure sensor, video camera, and an accelerometer.
A buoy on top with a wireless antenna inside.

The user sends commands to the buoy through a private wireless network on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Those directions are transmitted to the fish’s onboard computer via a tethered cable.

Horyza says the project had its challenges, such as programming the private network and waterproofing the body of the fish. “Every time we tested it, something new came up. It was daunting at times but also interesting.”

The total cost of the project was under $600.

In the next few years, Zhang plans to work with other students to build on this concept, with the goal of creating a school of robotic fish.

Robotic fish will be equipped with sensors that can collect data on temperature, algae, dissolved oxygen content, and oil, he says. “We will have real-time feedback and information about water quality.”

“We can talk to the robotic fish and tell it what to do—swim forward, speed up, turn left, and turn right.”

— Feitian Zhang, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering