Research Symposium

BIO

I am from the Tampa area and am currently in my Junior year here at FSU pursuing a Biological Sciences major. I am pursuing a career in medicine with hopes to graduate on to medical school. I thought this program would be a great way to introduce me into research and it in-fact was. I joined a project that was totally different from my career interests and found it rewarding and rather eye-opening, especially to see its possible connections to medicine in more ways than one. The my peers and mentors at RIDER Labs were amazing and I wouldn't have changed my first research experience at all, as I learned a lot and had a wonderful experience.

Small-Scale Experiments For Building Demolition

Abstract

Excavators have a wide range of uses in many different kinds of projects, but our research primarily focused on their role in construction demolition. More specifically, we have been examining the current models of excavator buckets, which have raised concerns about their work efficiency and environmental safety. We have found that these buckets do not meet modern-day expectations, especially in regards to time, cost and environmental concerns. At the RIDER Lab, we are working to bridge the gap between expectations and reality. We are using small scale excavator prototypes, shown in photos, that are managed by a game-like controller to move debris in a more efficient and timely manner, making debris recycling more achievable and economically reasonable. Our focus also remains on ensuring the amount of time being used to separate debris is cut down so recycling debris is more likely in real-world situations when time is costly. Additionally, we are using light and pressure monitoring to identify and track the best approach to quickly recover debris after a tragedy such as building collapse or detonation or even after a simple building demolition as stated before. The future of this research is promising, as it not only aims to improve efficiency and economics but also works to ensure the safety of our plant and population.

Keywords: engineering, demolition, sustainability, small-scale experiments