After completing the design presentation this week, I worked to implement and think about the questions and feedback I had been given at the end of our presentation. Specifically, the question about our current vest design and how we will properly and securely connect all of our components to it. As a team, we were not worried about attaching all components to the vest, however, ensuring the IMUs are correctly aligned with each vertebra and adjustable for every user is. As a result, I spent a large amount of my time this week refining our vest design, specifically how we will edit the vest to be adjustable and attach relevant components to it. Our working design now includes the use and reconstruction of two vests, in which we will use their original mesh components to enclose and secure our IMUs and PCBs, as well as use the various adjustable straps of the two vests to make the location of each IMU flexible for users. I then ordered our vests, and our updated parts lists and order status of each item can be found below.
Once our first round of parts was delivered this week, Allison and I began assembling and testing the pieces we had received, for example, soldering the MCU. Once the vest has been delivered, my goal for next week is to begin editing it so that the assembled parts can be easily attached and removed for iteration. Specifically, editing the vest to allow for adjustable IMU integration and PCB placement. As of right now, I feel like my work is on schedule; however, I am worried about my progress for next week. Once everything has been delivered, I would like to make good headway on my work so I feel confident about what I have completed for the project as I come back from Fall Break. Finally, I received a response from a CMU professor I contacted about their past research in posture monitoring, and they connected me with a CMU PhD researcher on the topic, who my team and I have a meeting with next week.
