This week we worked together on finalizing the design of our AutoCart. We first worked creating slides to convey our design during the presentation. After getting feedback, we worked on modifying our design and putting it down in words in a design document. During the process, we also delved deep into the sensor interfaces and Roomba api to make sure as much as possible that there are no compatibility issues.
Looked into how the user interface would communicate with the Raspberry Pi. Studied the python interface web socket (https://websockets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/intro.html). Decided to keep the user interface local on the Raspberry Pi, and have it displayed to user through a touch screen (Pi Foundation Display – 7” touchscreen). Researched the rangefinder and load sensor. Decided on load cell amplifier hx711 and ultrasonic module hc-sr04 in the end. Looked into how the hardwares listed above could be connected to the Raspberry Pi. Added the…
Researched and understood how to connect the Raspberry Pi to the iRobot Create 2 in order to control the robot using Python API on raspberry Pi. Learned how to make a 5v to 3.3v stepper since the Create 2 Serial Port uses 5V logic-level asynchronous serial communication; but the Raspberry Pi is a 3.3V devices. Updated our Bill of Material to include all the necessary parts for both the connection between Raspberry Pi and iRobot and the stepper. Looked into…
After speaking with Jiaqi (TA), we got a better understanding of how the Raspberry Pi would communicate with the User’s device. He told us to look into websocket (https://websockets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/intro.html). It can establish an asynchronous connection between the system that the webapp is on and the Raspberry Pi. It is easy to use with templates provided. He suggests that we can work towards an user interface with an lcd display (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2718) for MVP, which is easier to implement and does not…
We have found 2 separate iRobot Create API python wrappers that we want to test on the Roomba in order to verify that all of the listed functions work as intended. The first API that we found is: https://github.com/simondlevy/BreezyCreate2 . And the second is: https://bitbucket.org/lemoneer/irobot/src/default/ The second API claims to provide all of the functions from the original iRobot Create API (linked below) and is the one we will choose if it truly has all of the functions implemented. Otherwise,…
This week we focused on the design of the webapp interface with the Raspberry Pi and the Roomba API that will let us interface the RPi with the Roomba.