This week has set me behind a lot in my intended schedule as mentioned in the Gantt chart. I had intended to have Django all up and running on the RPi, but I have yet to do that after falling sick this past week. Due to my work being stagnant, I have adjusted my schedule and have laid it out as the following: By the start of fall break, I intend to download Django and all other software needed onto the Raspberry Pi. I also intend to create a dummy web server with the finalized design that has no actual functioning components yet but looks how we want it to look. I have read up on a lot of documentation regarding Django and what might end up becoming future challenges for me, so I have taken note of that. I have decided that everything related to the web application will be written in Python for simplicity. After recovering, I am hoping to catch up to my Gantt chart so that my component is completed on time. Unfortunately, this might lead to some work being done during the break.
Team’s Status Report for 10/01
This past week our team finalized our design for our project. We got our Raspberry Pi and set it up and ordered our STM32’s for each of our nodes. We mainly spent the week figuring out components of our design and working on the design presentation. One of the main tasks completed this week was looking into routing and networking protocols to use. We settled on a combination of spanning tree protocol as a MAC protocol, and time-division to ensure that nodes are transmitting to listening nodes (not in low-power mode). We’re basing our protocol on Koutsonikolas and Salonidis’s paper on TDM MAC Protocol Design and Implementation for Wireless Mesh Networks. However, we’re simplifying the node TX/RX scheduling, and have replaced Dijkstra’s algorithm for creating a tree out of the mesh network to using STP to create a tree, and then using source-routing from the gateway to route packets to the nodes. We’re also currently working on testing the VOC sensor and the temperature sensor to determine whether they can detect the presence of lit match (we will demo the sensor network with this method). We also now have our Raspberry Pi setup and are able to ssh into it to download any software necessary. We are hoping to have the materials we ordered soon to start testing and working on implementation.
Ankita’s Status Report for 10/01
This past week has been really busy for me with other classes, so I haven’t done as much as I set out to do and am planning on adjusting my next week’s schedule accordingly. I got the Raspberry Pi 4 from the inventory and have been trying to find the best software for web application development to download. After doing lots of research, I decided on using Django as there are lots of tutorials/references as well as an easier learning curve. I wanted to choose a platform with easy management and this seems to be the best option. I also met with Professor Mukherjee regarding the issues I was having with the Raspberry Pi; now I am able to ssh into the Pi and am planning to download any software that our team needs onto the Pi. I did draw out a design of what the ideal interface should look like, with a map of all the nodes and a system that sends text alerts to the general public regarding the location of a fire. The rest of the time I have been working on the design presentation slidedeck. For the upcoming week, I am hoping to get a simple version of a web application up and running before adding special features.
Ankita’s Status Report for 9/24
Since we have just pivoted to a new project, I have spent the last few days researching how to develop a web application. As a group we have decided to use a RPi to host the web application so I have been doing some personal research on how to set that up. I think that the best option to host the web application is to use Heroku so I have been looking into using that. For simplicity and convenience, the web application’s code that I will be writing will all be in Python. I have also been drawing out designs of what the web application should actually look like. I know that I want to have a graphic that looks like a heat map that will change colors as “fire” is detected at a specific node. I am planning on creating a sample web application just to familiarize myself with the platform in the upcoming week as well as coming up with a drawn out design of what the desired web application should look like. So far, with our adjusted schedule, I am on track and will discuss with staff about ordering a RPi in the upcoming week.
Team’s Status Report for 9/24
After realizing the flaws in the project proposal for our plant soil pH maintenance, our team decided to pivot into a different project. This week we focused on coming up with a new project and figuring out the details of what we wanted to accomplish. We ended up settling on the idea of building a wireless sensor network that is used to detect forest fires. We drafted a mock project proposal with our idea with our initial design. We met with Professor Mukherjee and our TA Adnan to present our idea. As a group, we have decided to start working on researching our parts of the project separately and in depth so that we can get a good sense of what our design should be. Since we are starting a new project a month into the semester, we are working efficiently to research project specs (Proposal).