Browsing by Author "Tellers, Mary"
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Item MEMS Conveyance: Piezoelectric Actuator Arrays for Reconfigurable RF Circuits(2015) Tellers, Mary; Bergbreiter, Sarah E; Mechanical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)An array of piezoelectric cantilevers was designed, fabricated, and characterized for use as a micromanipulation surface in a reconfigurable RF circuit micro-factory. The project, known as RFactory, is an effort by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to create environmentally adaptable, rapidly upgradeable RF systems. The RFactory actuator surface uses unimorph lead zirconate titanate cantilevers with metal posts at the tip that exaggerate the horizontal deflection produced by out-of-plane bending. The motion of a circuit component on the surface has been modeled and observed experimentally. By varying the waveform, voltage amplitude, and frequency of the drive signal, as well as the actuator length and width, the speed and precision of the motion can be controlled. From these characterization efforts, operating conditions that create speeds above 1 mm/s and low positional error (<200 microns after 5 mm translation) have been identified. Finally, full system RF reconfigurability has been demonstrated.Item Real-time decision aid display(2011) Au, Jennifer; Bonomo, Anthony; Freyman, Laura; Kwong, Brian; Li, Benjamin; Lieberman, Jessica; Mkrtchyan, Levon; Price, Michael; Skoda, Andrew; Tellers, Mary; Tomaschko, Andrew; Wu, Johnny; Mowrer, Frederick W.Fire sensor systems effectively monitor the state of the building, detect fire, and alert occupants in the event of an emergency. However, fire sensor technology is limited in its ability to convey information to firefighters. Even though all of the necessary information can be obtained through Fire Annunciator Control Panels (FACPs), it is difficult to use them to track the progression of fire. We designed and prototyped a decision aid system to illustrate our approach to this problem. Our goal was to create a tactical decision aid display that can present building information through an intuitive interface in real time. We used previous research on the information needs of firefighters in designing the interface. Our key insight was to use a floor plan with a sensor information overlay to organize information. We implemented a prototype that interfaces with FACPs using existing facilities systems management communication protocols.