This week, I primarily worked on the PosturePal design report and generated graphs and figures to support the explanations of our system. I revised the hardware architecture and implementation sections to describe how the IMUs, I2C multiplexer, microcontroller, and haptic driver connect and work together. I also helped clarify how the system measures regional posture changes relative to a calibrated baseline and how our design requirements will be evaluated during testing. A significant portion of this work involved making the report understandable to someone unfamiliar with the project, including explaining our component choices and the tradeoffs behind them. I worked on organizing the report in LaTeX, formatting equations and figures, and reviewing the text for consistency between the requirements, implementation, and validation sections. The updated design report and accompanying graphs and figures document this week’s progress.
Overall, I think our progress is on schedule. This week was focused heavily on completing the design report, so most of my work involved documenting and refining our design rather than advancing the physical hardware. Writing the report also helped identify details that need to be checked before finalizing the PCB, particularly the connections between the sensing, power, and haptic subsystems. My next priority is to translate those design decisions into the board layout and keep hardware development moving forward over break.
Over break, I plan to work on routing the PCB. I will first review the schematic and component placement, then route the power and signal connections while accounting for connector access, cable organization, and how the board will fit into the wearable. I also plan to check the layout for routing errors and review the connections against our prototype before preparing it for fabrication. My goal is to have a routed PCB ready for team review so that we can address any remaining issues before ordering the board.