Author: zhixihua

Zhixi’s Status Report for 10/05/2024

Personal Accomplishment

What did you personally accomplish this week on the project? Give files or photos that demonstrate your progress. Prove to the reader that you put sufficient effort into the project over the course of the week (12+ hours).

  • Prepared and practiced for the design review presentation earlier in the week as it was my turn of doing the presentation for the team.
  • Picked up components that arrived this week, performed the wearability unit test together with teammates by weighing the components individually. Verified that the vest is about 1kg which is under our quantitative design requirement of less than 3kg.
  • Set up the starter code for radar data analysis for obstacle detection.
  • Started on design review report due the following week.

Schedule

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule?

Currently, we are slightly behind schedule due to the recent submission of our orders. The delivery timeline is uncertain, which has caused some delays in setting up hardware. However, with our well-defined design and clear component choices, we are confident that once the items arrive, we will be able to proceed with the setup quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, nothing was planned during the fall break previously, however, I will utilize the time as a mid-semester slack time to catch up on schedule.

Upcoming Deliverables

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

In the upcoming week, I plan to focus on setting up the radar with the starter code I set up. I’ll also do unit test on the radar after setting it up to test its capabilities to make sure it meets our requirements. This would include moving our radar at approximately 1 m/s to detect static objects, and holding our radar still to detect moving objects such as people passing by in different directions (towards radar, horizontally in FOV, etc.). Another thing I will complete is finish the design setup of the button hardware circuitry.

Zhixi’s Status Report for 9/28/2024

Personal Accomplishment

What did you personally accomplish this week on the project? Give files or photos that demonstrate your progress. Prove to the reader that you put sufficient effort into the project over the course of the week (12+ hours).

This week, I spent my time mainly on preparing the design review slides. I will be presenting next week so I spent time practicing my presentation skills and finalizing the logic flow of our slides.  I also finalized our component orders and decided to go with KLD7 radar and a power bank instead of Position2Go and a battery adapter. Additionally, I designed the system specification block diagram by hand and sent it to my teammate to finalize using draw.io for inclusion in our slides.

Schedule

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule?

Currently, we are slightly behind schedule due to the recent submission of our orders. The delivery timeline is uncertain, which has caused some delays in setting up hardware. However, with our well-defined design and clear component choices, we are confident that once the items arrive, we will be able to proceed with the setup quickly and efficiently.

Upcoming Deliverables

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

In the upcoming week, I plan to focus on setting up the radar once the ordered components arrive. I’ll also do unit test on the radar after setting it up to test its capabilities to make sure it meets our requirements. Additionally, I will start to work on assembling the components to RPi4 via the specified communication protocol in our design.

Team Status Report 9/21/2024

Team Accomplishment

What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready?

Most significant risk: Uncertainty Regarding Radar Sensor Performance

The primary risk facing our project this week is the uncertainty about whether the selected radar sensor will meet our specific needs. Despite thorough reviews of datasheet for multiple radar options, we are not entirely sure if the radar we choose will function effectively for our intended purpose. Specifically, there’s a risk that the radar may not accurately detect static or slow-moving objects, or provide the precise distance and angle information required for the walking aid designed for visually impaired individuals.

Risk Management Strategies: Extensive Testing

To address this uncertainty, we plan to conduct extensive testing of the selected radar sensor. This will involve setting up experiments to evaluate its performance in real-world scenarios, particularly focusing on its ability to detect objects at walking speeds and provide accurate positional data. Through rigorous testing, we aim to verify whether the radar meets our project’s technical requirements.

Contingency Plans: Possibly adjusting Final Project Goals Based on Radar Capabilities

If testing reveals that the radar cannot fully meet our initial objectives, we are prepared to adjust our final project goals accordingly. This may involve modifying the functionalities of the walking aid to align with what the radar can reliably deliver. Our priority is to ensure that the device remains practical and beneficial to users, even if it means refining our original plans based on the radar’s actual capabilities.

 

 

Were any changes made to the existing design of the system (requirements, block diagram, system spec, etc)? Why was this change necessary, what costs does the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward?

One potential change we might make is that we might need a separate GPS hardware component connect to the microcontroller for the system. We realize that we could utilize the GPS on phone since we are already using cloud service to send alerts via phone. However, this change still need to be tested because we are not sure if the GPS location sent will be the location of the cloud service or the actual location of the user. Therefore, we will still purchase the GPS hardware component as a backup.

Schedule

No update on the current schedule so far as we are still on track.

 

Zhixi’s Status Report for 09/21/2024

Personal Accomplishment

What did you personally accomplish this week on the project? Give files or photos that demonstrate your progress. Prove to the reader that you put sufficient effort into the project over the course of the week (12+ hours).

  • Started system design: I started designing our system at a high level. This includes examine the size of each component and decide where should the component be placed on the vest.
  • Submitted Orders for radar and battery: I researched the most suitable radar and battery for our project and submitted  the orders through canvas google form. While choosing a battery that is portable and recharge is not difficult, hunting for a suitable radar that is within the budget is more challenging.
  • Reviewed the starter code the radar: I reviewed the sample starter code for the radar we chose to further evaluate the radar.

Schedule

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule?

My progress so far is on schedule. I have completed all the tasks I planned for this week. To ensure I stay on track, I will begin working on the next phase, which involves integrating the ordered components with the backend once they arrive. We will also start to work on the design presentation together.

Upcoming Deliverables

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

  • Refine the design of our whole system and prepare for the design presentation.
  • Set up the radar and microcontroller once items are received.