Author: mehaans

Risks & Contingency+Design Changes and Schedule:
This week the team focused on completing the design report while simultaneously working on the Rover and RESQUBE subsystems. On the rover side, the exploration system implementation began using ROS2, Nav2 and a custom exploration layer. On the RESQUBE side, development and testing with the ESP32 continued. The enclosure for the RESQUBE has also been designed and pushed to printing, with alternatives depending on RSSI benchmarking and validation made. Alternatives currently include configurations using the onboard antenna, external patch antenna, external rod antenna, and a RF power amplifier for external antenna.
No major system level changes. The team remains on schedule.

Part A was written by Mehaan, Part B was written by Raghav, Part C was written by Ishaan

Part A – Global Factors:
RESQ is designed for emergency response environments that vary across regions. Disaster sites may have different building layouts, construction materials, communication infra and responder resources. The system we are building is agnostic to all of these factors. While we are not testing across different disaster locations, we will be testing in various unfamiliar indoor environments.

Another global factor that we considered is that responders might have different technical expertise when it comes to operating specialised equipment. Our system addresses this by being autonomous when it comes to rover navigation and node deployment for the mesh network. All that the responders would need to do is deploy the rover, and have a device to view all the information.

Part B – Cultural Factors:

The main relevant cultural factors held in common by many nations is that they have a dedicated system for ensuring the preservation of their citizens lives. They do that through the establishment, legally, behaviorally, and morally, of various first responder branches, such as firemen, paramedics, and policemen. RESQ serves the moral aspect of saving lives, as countries value the lives of not only their citizens, but those of their first responders, and our creation aims to reduce the time spent by both victims and first responders in harms way. RESQ serves the legal cultural aspect of saving lives by having our system work with legally established organizations within a government. Finally, our system works with the behavioral aspect of cultural factors by leveraging the widespread use of smartphones, laptops, and other internet enabled devices, as well as their proximity to people, to help with the localization of victims in emergency situations.

Part C – Social Factors:

One of the primary social factors considered in RESQ is improving public safety by reducing the risks faced by first responders. In disaster scenarios, locating victims can be dangerous and time-consuming. RESQ addresses this by autonomously exploring hazardous environments and identifying potential victim locations before responders enter, reducing their exposure to dangerous conditions.

Another social consideration is the accessibility of emergency response technology. Many smaller communities lack the resources for expensive robotic systems. RESQ aims to address this by using low-cost, commercially available components, making search-and-rescue technology more affordable. Additionally, leveraging victims’ existing smartphones reduces the need for specialized equipment.

 

Work Completed this Week:
This week, I moved from architecture planning to building out the navigation software. I implemented the initial frontier based exploration algorithm that uses an occupancy grid to identify unexplored regions and select exploration targets for the rover. I also began building the ROS interface for the exploration layer. Initial navigation has been merged to the team’s repo.

I also spent time working on the design review report, working on the use case requirements and design requirements sections.

Schedule Status:
I’m on schedule. I was supposed to start on implementation, which has been done. Full rover integration is will only begin at the end of this month.

Deliverables for next week:
Testing the exploration software with ROS2 and connect it to a simulated navigation pipeline. I will also begin debugging the interaction between the SLAM generated maps, our exploration logic, and Nav2.

This week I focused on finalising the core libraries that works well with our defined hardware. I decided to use ROS2 with Nav2 and SLAM Toolbox as the core navigation infrastructure. Nav2 provides the planning, and obstacle-avoidance infrastructure, while SLAM Toolbox provides mapping/localization and integrates directly with Nav2.

Rather than implementing the entire navigation stack ourselves, our plan is to configure these libraries for RESQ and implement our own BFS exploration layer. This layer will use the generated occupancy map to identify unexplored  areas, select the rover’s next exploration target, and send that target to Nav2 for safe path planning and execution. I also began defining how LiDAR data, encoder odometry, SLAM, exploration, and motor commands will interact through ROS.

Schedule status: I am currently on schedule. Since the physical chassis is not expected to arrive until after fall break, the navigation system will initially be developed and tested in simulation. Most of the high level navigation software should be developed before integration with physical sensors and the chassis.

Deliverables for upcoming week: Establish initial ROS2 navigation development environment and get a simulated rover navigating a simple indoor environment. This will use simulated LIDAR and odometry data feeding into SLAM toolbox, generate an occupancy map, and use Nav2 to command the simulated rover.

 

This past week I worked on trade studies for our BOM. Specifically for our LIDAR and chassis. I evaluated the LIDAR on metrics such as cost, sampling rate, range, and compatibility, while I evaluated the chassis on metrics such as cost, speed, layout, compatibility and weight constraints. I also researched different SLAM libraries and compatibility with our hardware.

Additionally, I worked on preparing the design presentation slides. I worked on the contents for the use case and success criteria and the technical risks and mitigation slides, and structuring the rest of the slides. Since I am presenting this time around, I will also be working on the presentation for the rest of the weekend.

In the coming week, I hope to finalise all the libraries that we will be using and start working on path planning.

Please write a paragraph or two describing how the product solution you are designing will meet a specified need with consideration of social factors. Social factors relate to extended social groups having distinctive cultural, social, political, and/or economic organizations. They have importance to how people relate to each other and organize around social interests.

RESQ is designed to help emergency responders share information when regular communications are unavailable during search and rescue ops. This matters a lot when we are looking at crowded buildings where residents might be hard to reach and account for. The cooperating phone, however, should only be used as a signal, since some victims might have a dead battery. Therefore, responders can treat the signal as a clue, and still go in after preliminary scans to search for more victims.

This past week we completed the proposal presentation. I specifically contributed building up and quantifying the use case requirements as well as the scope. I also helped Raghav practice presenting on Tuesday (9/15). Apart from that, we started working on the design for the RESQUBE. I assisted in conducting trade studies for the processor and batteries – dimensions and run time. During our weekly meeting, I ended up placing the order for the XIAO ESP32C6, after concurrence on communication capabilities. I am currently on schedule. Over the next week, I will help in formalising the design presentation, as well as look to finalise the RESQ BOM. This would include researching and identifying the chassis, sensors, and other motor control components.