This past week, I continued to work on the software to get it to build on the Nvidia Jetson Nano and also helped on the building side of things. For the software, I was finally able to get the iRobot Create 2, the Intel Realsense Camera, and the OpenCV computer vision code all running together on the Nvidia Jeston Nano. This involved finding a workaround to building the Intel Realsense Python library from source as well as fixing some other issues related to transferring the code from a Windows implementation that was running on my laptop to a Linux now for the Jetson Nano. Now, when running the code, the Create 2 robot turns towards the closest tennis ball in view of the camera until the tennis ball is centered. To better test this, we need to power the Jetson Nano from a battery instead of the wall port. This will allow the entire system to be portable instead of tethered to the wall.
On the hardware side, I helped Ryan construct some of the wood parts of the Tennis ball launching system. More specifically, we worked on building the sides of the ramp that the tennis ball will go over, as well as the pieces that the motors are connected to. To connect the pieces of wood, we decided to use wood glue instead of screws so that we were free to cut however we needed.
Next week, I plan on trying to power the Jetson Nano with a battery and seeing if there are any issues with that. Also, I will try to get most of the code written to control the motors. I will help Ryan continue working on the building side of things so that hopefully the motors are ready to be tested along with the rest of the hardware.