Sebastián Roa-Prada

Autonomous University of Bucaramanga | UNAB · Ingeniería Mecatrónica

This research work presents the design and development of a ball throwing machine using the V-methodology. The machine aims to automate one of the most common exercises in martial arts for the development of anticipation speed. Samples were taken from different athletes performing the exercise to determine the response requirements of the machine....

During well drilling processes, the accumulation of cuttings downhole can cause several problems such as stuck pipe, increased torque, bit burnout and, most importantly, a considerable decrease in the drilling penetration rate, all leading to prolonged operating periods and increasing costs of up to 10% of the forecasted budget. Therefore, it is ne...

A review of advances in laccase enzyme immobilization techniques for application in biosensors to detect and quantify phenol in produced waters of the oil and gas industry is reviewed. Phenol is a toxic compound widely used in the petrochemical industry, and its presence in produced waters represents an environmental and public health concern. The...

Smart pumping systems of tomorrow will feature pumps and drives that respond to real-time changes downstream to keep operations at high efficiency and meet growing performance demand. A key component of a smart pumping system is its digital twin, an exact 3D digital copy of the facility. A digital twin enhanced with Augmented Reality (AR) encompass...

Harvesting tasks in coffee crops in Colombia are conductedmanually. Un-fortunately, at the moment there is a low supply of labor to carry out these tasks. That is whythis article describes the process of designing a mobile platform to help mitigate the aforementioned problem.There are many ways to design the platform, therefore,choosing the most su...

Due to the growth in the amount and types of information that surrounds us, it is important to explore other areas and ideas and ways to interact with information. Haptic systems with their tactile, kinesthetic and motor capabilities, together with the associated cognitive processes, present a bidirectional channel of information to our brain. This...

Flying radio controlled, RC, planes has become both a sport and a form of entertainment that attracts an increasing number of practitioners worldwide. RC plane hobbyists design and build reduced-scale airplanes, unmanned aircrafts or replicas of existing full-scale ones, and fly them as often as possible to develop the necessary skills to go from b...

Sustainable development throughout the world depends on several factors such as the economy, quality education, agriculture, industry, among others, but the environment is one of the most important. Industrialization and new land use plans have caused the proliferation of pollutants in water resources, which poses a serious public challenge. As out...

Resumen: Debido a las condiciones particulares del cultivo de café colombiano, sembrado en pendientes pronunciadas, donde a la maquinaria grande ya existente le sería imposible llegar y realizar sus funciones. Por lo tanto, se hace necesario la concepción de equipos que se adecúen a la topografía colombiana y las particularidades de los cultivos de...

Este documento presenta el diseño, construcción y validación de un prototipo a escala para la automatización de una estación de trabajo de un proceso de manufactura. En el proyecto se usaron programas como SolidWorks para el diseño estructural, y código en Python o Matlab para la conexión con el brazo robótico comercial utilizado y funcionamiento e...

This paper presents the development of two dual-loop control strategies for an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle, ROV. The first strategy consists of two PID controllers while the second one features a LQG controller in the inner loop, and a PID controller in the outer loop. The transient response of the two strategies is compared when an anti-w...

Colombia is the biggest producer of palm oil in Latin America. The production of palm oil alone makes up for 6% of the agricultural gross domestic product of the country. However, growing oil palm trees is a risky business since this kind of tree only starts producing its fruits when it reaches the age of three years, and during that time the trees...

Predicting the dynamic response of key processes that take place in industrial biochemical systems such as the measurement of operating parameters by means of biosensors, before the biosensors themselves are prototyped, is of utmost importance. The advantages of performing mathematical modeling of biosensor systems in their development stages inclu...

La arquitectura empresarial permite armonizar los componentes tecnológicos de una organización definiendo un norte acorde con los objetivos y estrategias corporativas. En el grupo de geomecánica y perforación del ICP se quiere contar con elementos que sean de apoyo para generar desarrollos de herramientas software que permitan monitorear la perfora...

The levels of pollution present in the air have been dramatically increasing over the years due to the continuous emission of greenhouse gases such as CO2, CO, NOx and H2S, among others. The main source of these emissions is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation. This represents a tremendous risk to the populations loc...

Gimbals are mechatronic systems well known for their use in the stabilization of cameras which are under the effect of sudden movements. Gimbals help keeping cameras at previously defined fixed orientations, so that the captured images have the highest quality. This paper focuses on the design of a Linear Quadratic Gaussian, LQG, controller, based...

Este proyecto consiste en el modelado, construcción y control de un vehículo tipo “Rocker Bogie”, el cual funcionará como robot cooperativo para la ayuda en el proceso del cultivo a los campesinos y contará con tres modos de trabajo, el transporte seguro de cultivos a través de terrenos irregulares, fumigación del cultivo en las respectivas zonas y...

The mail office of Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga, in Bucaramanga, Colombia, receives and sorts all the incoming correspondence and delivers it across the campus. The university is located in the Andes mountain region; therefore, mail office staff spends time crossing the campus which is full of steps and steep routes. So, an autonomous delive...

This document describes the objectives, research methodologies, ongoing activities, pending implementation schedule, theoretical references and partial results of the ongoing research project on an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) for the internal cargo transportation in the facilities of a company in the industrial sector of Santander (Colombia). Th...

This article focuses on the development of an algorithm for a Quadrotor-type Drone that allows it to recognize the environment and move around in it by avoiding obstacles. This article covers the simulation phase that takes place in the MATLAB software, where algorithms for planting trajectories in known static environments were created in two stag...

Centrifugal pumps are devices commonly used in countless industrial and residential applications, from water supply systems to oil and gas processing plants. These rotatory hydraulic machines have a strong impact on the energy consumption of industry worldwide, not only because of their vast amount but also because of their continuous operation. Th...

There are almost 9 million motorcycles registered only in the United States, while in other much smaller countries such as Colombia, this number can exceed 8 million. However, the population of Colombia is about six times smaller than the population in the United States. This demonstrates that for many people around the world, motorcycles are a gre...

Remotely operated vehicles, ROV, are highly versatile robotic systems, which are currently the best alternative to carry out deep-sea tasks, that otherwise could compromise the safety of human lives. These vehicles are commonly used by several industries such as offshore oil companies, offshore wind energy companies and environmental organizations....

Besides oil, coffee is one of the most traded commodities worldwide. Colombia is known as the producer of the highest quality coffee in the world, thanks to its smooth taste and aroma. One of the key elements that are responsible for the quality of Colombian coffee is its harvesting method, in which it is enforced that only mature fruits are harves...

The presence of phenol in industrial wastewater is an issue of great relevance for petrochemical and energy companies, among others. The high toxicity level of this substance requires polluting industries to continuously monitor the concentration of phenol in their wastewaters so as to comply with environmental regulations and to minimize environme...

Wastewater treatment plants help removing organic matter from wastewater, and at the same time, generate digester gas as a useful byproduct. Digester gas is rich in methane, which can be used to generate electricity. Fuel cell systems are the cleanest technology for power recovery from digester gas, since all other technologies generate electricity...

The suspension is a very influential system in the performance of the vehicle, giving safety and maneuverability to the passengers in the usual movements (acceleration, braking, curves, irregular path, etc.). Since there are different types of suspension systems, a criterion must be stablished to determine which is the best or most suitable type fo...

Remotely Operated Vehicles, ROVs, are useful devices that can greatly assist humans in the development deep-sea exploration and underwater tasks. These unmanned vehicles require human intervention for the realization of its underwater jobs and have the ability to carry multiple instruments, sensors and actuators according to the application. There...

Axial piston variable displacement pumps (VDAP) are the heart of every hydraulic system, and are they commonly used in the industry for its high capacity, efficiency (volume and total), and good performance in the handling of high pressures and speeds. Faults are usually associated with wear and leakage processes, which cause significant decreases...

Pumping processes often require different operating conditions for the same pipeline. The conditions downstream in the pipeline can change in such a way that the pressure at the discharge of the pump may vary, which automatically introduces changes in the flow supplied by the pump into the pipeline due to the head vs flow characteristic curve of th...

Monitoring the integrity of structures in the oil and gas industry is a mandatory task to prevent both natural disasters and economical losses. This paper presents the optimization of the geometry of a magnetic circuit for the detection of defects in pipelines by the magnetic flux leakage method. The main goal is to perform a sensitivity analysis o...

The magnetic flux leakage technique is a widely used method for non-destructive testing of pipe-lines. The inspection of pipelines is typically performed with the assistance of a robotic tool called PIG, which is equipped with an array of magnetic circuits responsible for inducing a magnetic field in the pipeline wall. This magnetic field leaks out...

Quadcopters have become a mass consumer product thanks to their ability to transport and deliver different loads, from online book orders to first aid kits, although their primary market comes from the hobbies and entertainment enthusiasts. In academia, quadrotor helicopters are also a great platform for teaching flight mechanics, control principle...

Fuel cells are sources of clean energy which have become a key enabling technology in a wide spectrum of applications, ranging from automotive and aerospace applications to power supply for off-grid communities. The adequate functioning of a fuel cell requires permanent electrical power delivery to its load, operating at its maximum possible effici...

The optimal performance of a micro-power piezoelectric generator for power harvesting from ambient vibrations strongly depends on the appropriate coupling among its components such as the piezoelectric element, the electrical circuit interface and the load. This coupling is governed by the different types of physical interaction phenomena occurring...

One of the most popular types of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAV, is the quadrotor helicopter, commonly known as quadcopter. This work seeks to document the lessons learned by the authors while attempting to build their own quadcopter for further studies of stability control, instead of using a commercial quadcopter for the same purpose. The article...

Ultrasonic waves at 1 MHz are used to send information across solid walls without the needs for through wall penetrations. A communication channel is established by attaching a set of three ultrasonic transducers to the wall. The first transducer transmits a continuous ultrasonic wave into the wall. The second transducer is mounted on the opposite...

Piezoelectric devices are among the most efficient and reliable solutions for power harvesting from environment vibrations. Considerable effort has been devoted recently in the engineering community towards reducing the size and increasing the power density of these generators at the micro level. The objectives of this paper are to identify commerc...

In many sensing applications that monitor extreme environmental conditions within sealed metallic vessels, penetrating vessel walls in order to feed through power and data cables is impractical, as this may compromise a vessels structural integrity and its environmental isolation. Frequent servicing of sensing equipment within these environments is...

In many commercial, industrial, and military applications, supplying power to electronics through a thick metallic barrier without compromising its structural integrity would provide tremendous advantages over many existing barrier-penetrating techniques. The Faraday shielding presented by thick metallic barriers prevents the use of electromagnetic...

Ultrasound at 1 MHz is used as a carrier of information across solid walls without penetration. A communication channel is created by bonding two transducers on either side of a solid wall. The outside transducer transmits a continuous wave generating an acoustic field. The inside electronics are powered by harvesting the electrical output of the i...

Traditionally, power transfer through thick metallic barriers has required physical penetrations and wire feed-throughs, which reduces structural integrity and limits the environmental isolation provided by the barrier. The Faraday shielding presented by these barriers, however, prevents efficient transfer of electromagnetic power, limiting many RF...

A finite element simulation of a through-wall ultrasonic communication system which permits data to be transferred from the inside of a sealed metal vessel to the outside without the need for physical penetrations is introduced. Two transducers are aligned axially on either side of a thick solid stainless steel wall. The outside transducer is force...

Electromagnetic "wireless" techniques are ineffective for communicating through a solid steel barrier due to the shielding effect of the metal. Although holes can be made in the barrier to allow wires to pass through, they are often undesirable because they can reduce the integrity of the barrier. In contrast, ultrasound propagates readily through...

This paper discusses the use of ultrasound to convey data from one side of a metallic wall to the other side. A communication channel is established by attaching a set of three ultrasonic transducers to the wall. The first transducer injects a continuous ultrasonic wave into the wall. The second transducer is mounted on the inside and operates as a...

Wireless communication is ineffective for communicating through a solid steel wall due to the shielding effect of the metal. In some cases, holes can be made in the wall to allow wires to pass through, enabling the transport of electronic data. However, holes are often undesirable because they can reduce the integrity of the wall. This paper descri...