QuakeCaster Earthquake Simulator Project

Background + About the Lab Experiment

The QuakeCaster is an interactive laboratory model that simulates earthquakes and plate-boundary faults. Current faculty members at Georgia Tech have historically used the model as a way to demonstrate in real-time the impact of earthquakes and strike-slip faults on the stability of the Earth's crust.

• 🔴 The Problem: There was constant human error resulting from cranking a fishing reel (or winch), which was needed to pull the mass that, when slipped on the ground, would simulate the faults.
• 🟢 Our Solution: In order to optimize the lab for students and gather useful data, we decided to automate this lab setup and create a new model using Arduino boards and an interactive GUI created using Python's tkinter library.

Here is our in-class presentation, detailing our previous work and MVP result.

I decided to take this project further, adding new enhancements to further enhance the usability of this model within the classroom. You can check out the new tools being added to the project in the Features section below!

User Setup

• Download bipolarDataSender\bipolarDataSender.exe and bipoarDataReceiver\bipolarDataReceiver.ino.
• Load bipolarDataReceiver.ino to your Arduino board, if you haven't done so already.
• Run bipolarDataSender.exe to start the GUI. From there, you have the required information to complete the lab.

Developer Setup

• Install the following software:
  • Arduino IDE - required for Arduino + hardware integration.
  • Python (version 3.10.* or above).
  • tkinter library (instructions here): required for GUI manipulation.
  • matplotlib library: required for data visualization.
  • serial library: required for sending and receiving serial input/output with the force sensor.
    • (matplotlib and serial can be installed through pip on the command line.)

Main Features

• Ability to customize motor speed and direction of rotation.
• Live updation of force vs. time graph, based on values sent from the Vernier force sensor.
  • Pausing/resuming live updation of the graph.
  • Restarting data recording/clearing the graph.
• Data export to CSV/Excel formats.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Notes

• Here is the Full Lab Set-Up Guide.
• If you would like to be added as a code contributor to this project, please email me at [email protected].

Contributors

• Archie Goli (August 2022 - Present)
• Reiden Webber (August 2022 - December 2022)
• Hayden Narey (August 2022 - December 2022)