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Team Status Report for 9/27/2025

This week our team decided on which sensors we believe will be the best fit for our project. We have not yet purchased them as we are hoping to receive feedback on our design during the design presentation this week. Additionally, we found a pre-existing frisbee physics model that we are hoping to test out and decide if it will make sense to use with the project.

During this week we decided to try and use open pose to decide where the frisbee is thrown in relation to the person. This will have no negative impacts on our project yet as we are not too far into it.

A was written by Frances, B was written by Michael and C was written by Alex.

A. The Whee! Frisbee game directly contributes to public health by promoting both physical and psychological well-being. By requiring players to simulate throwing a real Frisbee, the game encourages physical activity that supports health and overall fitness. While many students face academic pressure and lack opportunities to exercise in large outdoor spaces, this game provides an excellent opportunity for them to exercise indoors. Additionally, the game’s interactive design and engaging in-game maps foster enjoyment and stress relief, which are important for maintaining mental health. By combining exercise with entertainment, the solution offers a comprehensive contribution to public health, improving both physiological and psychological well-being.

B. Oftentimes, many people use a competitive setting to bond and relate to each other. Many sports teams or sports fans are socially connected, and this is due to a mutual love and appreciation around a single team’s wellbeing, or love of the game. In the case of inclement weather, or reduced access to spaces, or even a lack of numbers, our project, Whee! Frisbee, can be used to bond and unite those with a love of disc sports. Not only that, but Whee! Frisbee can also allow users with limited athletic capabilities to still participate in the competitive nature of a sports game. Because the actual throw is simulated, the user does not need to be physically fit and able to throw a frisbee, however they are still getting the immersive experience of playing disc sports through the physical mechanics of simulating a throw. Our hope is that through Whee! Frisbee, those with an interest in disc sports will have more ways to connect with each other, and those who are interested but have limited resources may still maintain their social connection to the community

C. Within our Whee! Frisbee game, economic factors played only a minor role in our project. We had to decide how to allocate our $600 budget effectively, but beyond that, economic considerations were limited. However, if this product were to be mass-produced, it would likely be expensive for consumers since the controller alone costs over $50 to manufacture, and the computer/Raspberry Pi adds additional costs. A more practical approach might be for a frisbee coach to purchase one device for team use, allowing multiple players to practice on it at different times, or for it to be offered as an attraction at a frisbee simulator venue.

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Alex’s Status Report for 9/27/2025

During the course of this week I was able to work on deciding on which sensors we are going to use for the project.  I ensured that each of the sensors can use the same communication protocol that way the microcontroller on the frisbee can connect to both easily. Additionally, I made sure that they each have a voltage that can be created using the Arduino Nano. Another task I worked on was creating some of the slides for the design presentation for this week. These included making the new gantt chart that is more detailed week to week.

I believe we are on schedule this week and will purchase the sensors this week once we receive feedback during the design presentation. That way we will be prepared to test next week before we go into the integration process.

Next week I hope we purchase the sensors and I hope to understand OpenPose and how we can implement it into the project.

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Songting’s Status Report for 9/27

This week, I focused on exploring a viable physics model for Frisbee and disc games. I reviewed several academic papers on these models and attempted to implement one particular model (https://web.mit.edu/womens-ult/www/smite/frisbee_physics.pdf) using C# in the Unity Engine. There is still much that needs to be fine-tuned, as the mathematical model must align with the Unity Engine’s physics model and the shape of the Frisbee. However, I believe this is definitely a good start.

Additionally, I have been working on the design presentation and preparing for it. I put a lot of thought into the block diagram and our detailed implementation methods, which have been very helpful for planning the entire project.

Overall, I feel that I am on track this week. My goal is to complete the presentation by next week, receive feedback, and develop a concrete and comprehensive implementation plan. After the design presentation, I believe we will have enough information to order the necessary parts.

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Frances’ Status Report for 9/27/25

A majority of this week was researching the parts list and fleshing out how the frisbee controller would be implemented. We have settled on using a RPi 5 and an Arduino Nano ESP32 for our microcontrollers, a BNO085 Smart IMU for the IMU, and a VL53L8CX for our ToF sensor. We have also settled on using OpenPose to get spatial information that is critical to our design. I have requested the RPi 5 from the 18-500 Parts List, and I have an Arduino Uno at home that I have started tinkering around and writing code with. We are planning to order the sensors and the other microcrontroller later next week, after our Design Presentation.
The other majority of my week was used on putting together the presentation slide deck and creating our block diagrams.

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Alex’s Status Report for 9/20

This week I spent time looking into the sensors we are planning on using for the project. We decided on using an IMU sensor to calculate the angle of the frisbee and the acceleration, a Time of Flight sensor to find how far off the ground the frisbee is and a camera to see at where the player’s body is. We are still looking into how to decide when the player release’s the frisbee.

This next week I hope to have decided on which sensors to purchase and buy them that way we can begin testing the sensors. This will allow us to figure out if these sensors are the ones we want to use for the project.

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Team Status Report for 9/21/25

This week, our team successfully created our Proposal Presentation, and presented it. We spent much of our time researching the needed requirements and finalizing the preliminary solution approach, therefore giving us a good idea of what parts and setup we need to being working.
We also spent a good amount of time reviewing our peers’ Proposals as well, giving constructive critiques.

We are currently still on schedule, as this upcoming week will include more research into parts needed as well as the setup required to start working.

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Frances’ Status Report for 9/21/25

This week, I spent time creating and practicing our Proposal Presentation. Because I was in charge of presenting, I spent time rereading our abstract as well as reviewing the critiques we had previously received from our capstone advisors to make sure I had a good handle on what our use-case and use-case requirements were. Similarly, I also spent time researching on the specific quantitative metrics that we wanted to meet for our use-case requirements, making sure that they were reasonable and  achievable goals.
I spent the rest of my time this week reviewing the proposals that other teams presented, and critiquing their proposals as well.

In this upcoming week, I hope to finalize the parts for the initial parts order, by researching different sensors and finding those that will match our weight requirements.

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Songting’s Status Report for Sept 21

This week, I successfully set up Unity Engine on my MacBook. I registered for an educational account, granting me access to the full range of Unity features. I created a dummy project and explored various functionalities. Following a brief tutorial on YouTube, I built a simple model in Unity and added physics properties, such as Rigidbody and Gravity. Additionally, I linked the object to a C# code file that allows me to apply force and move the object around.

I feel like I’m making good progress this week; understanding the basics is crucial. For next week, I plan to collaborate with my teammates to finalize the game UI and start searching for resource packs online or in the Unity Asset Store that we can utilize.