Internship Projects

X, The Moonshot Factory (Google X) Research Intern

Description

In response to the need for sustainable energy solutions, solar panels have gained significant traction. One way to increase the energy capture of solar systems is through solar tracking, a means of reorienting solar panels throughout the day in order to face the sun. The energy consumption increase that comes with solar tracking often far outweighs the amount of energy required to move the panel, which makes it a compelling strategy for improving solar systems. Unfortunately, while solar trackers are commonly used in large solar farms, they are rarely used on rooftops, an area where solar panels are commonly installed. This is for two primary reasons: (1) most commercially available solar trackers are too large to be installed on roofs and (2) even if traditional solar trackers were made in a more compact form-factor it would be difficult to densely lay them out on a roof without the trackers substantially shading each other. In order to address these issues, we introduce OriTrack, a small three-degree-of-freedom (3 DOF) solar tracker which reduces the area of its shadow by reducing its height as it tracks the sun. My paper discusses the design, manufacturing, and control of OriTrack. We also compared OriTrack to a flat reference panel, the solar energy solution commonly used on roofs today, and found that OriTrack demonstrated 23% increased energy production. This result suggests OriTrack could be used as a future solution for solar tracking on rooftops.

Contributions/ Skills Used

• This was a project I completed as a research intern at X, The Moonshot Factory (Google X) as part of the Tapestry project. During that summer I did the following...

• Presented paper at International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2024

• Submitted patent application with X employees

• Iterative mechanical design and fabrication of device's structure

• Device orientation control and mechatronics

• Outdoor testing and validation

Google Geo Hardware Intern

Description

I was not allowed to leave the internship with images of my project, so unfortunately they are not included here. If you are a Google employee, you can see more details on this project at go/cwinston.

As part of my internship at Google Geo Hardware I was tasked with designing a thermal imagining system intended to detect overheating power lines. This was a system I built over the course of a summer, under the supervision of my internship mentor. The final system consisted of a gimbal and vibration isolation mounting system with a visual and thermal camera mounted to it that could point the cameras to specified locations. The system was capable of maintaining a position accuracy of ± 2% while driving over rumble strips, speed bumps, and Mountain View roads. I was later listed as a co-inventor on a Google Patent based on this work.

Contributions/ Skills Used

• Mechanical Design (in Solidworks) of the gimbal structure

• Selection of motors, motor control board, and vibration isolators based on expected vibrations and desired system response

• Dynamic characterization through chirp-sine testing

• Programming of PID position control based on dynamic characterization of the device

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Entry, Descent, and Landing Intern

Description

I was not allowed to leave the internship with images of my project, so unfortunately they are not included here.

As an intern at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I was tasked with prototyping foot-inspired landing gear for the Europa Lander. The surface topography of Europa is almost entirely unknown, but scientists believe that it could be covered in a non-cohesive granular material and/or consist of a rocky rough ice, so this design was inspired by animals that live in these kinds of terrains. It is designed to spread apart and increase its surface area passively on granular surfaces, and also provide traction on icy terrain. It has several different configurations to test a variety of possible implementations of this type of foot with one prototype. I designed it in NX and then had it 3D printed using SLS 3D printing.

Contributions/ Skills Used

I worked on this landing gear prototype under the supervision of my internship mentor, and did the following.

• Mechanical design of goat foot inspired landing gear (in NX)

• iterative prototyping and redesign of the landing gear

• testing the landing gear in various types of terrain scientists anticipate the robot may experience on Europa