This week, I worked with the team to refactor the project in order to meet or our goals. We are in different locations, and I am the only one in Pittsburgh. Therefore, I would be the only one having access to the robot hardware. Keeping this in mind, we decided to make the following changes:
– We want to limit robot assembly and in person testing. To do this, we removed the CV portion of the project. This includes door detection and text recognition, as well as assembly of the camera module.
– We added more features to the web app hosted on the server. This would enable the team to work on these components remotely.

These changes have been recorded in the statement of work document. In particular, I would handle aspects of the robot including –
– implementing Cartographer / SLAM packages
– Adding path planning algorithm
– Sending data to server
– testing the robot around my apartment

Since the SLAM and path planning make up the core of our project, Alex and I will pair program these parts. Additionally, we will coordinate the implementation of a simulation so he can work on parts of the navigation without the hardware.

This week I wanted to get cartographer set up on the raspberry Py. I initially thought that I would be able to walk over to CMU and pick up the parts. This was not the case, and I will have to wait until the parts can be shipper over to me. As a result, I am a little behind and will have to find something else to work on while I coordinate the shipping of the parts.

Next week, I plan to:
– Consider working on the server with the other two until parts arrive
– Research simulations methods with ROS cartographer, and whether it is possible to do this on a mac.
– Once I receive the parts, I hope to have cartographer/other SLAM software working on the RPI.
– Finding a suitable way to attach the Lidar/PI to the roomba (since we do not have the assistance of techspark).