Kushagra’s Status Report for 05/08/21

  • Got the servo code working, attached servo to 3D printed gate. Servo is accurate enough and powerful enough. No noticeable jitter, even when fruit makes contact with gate.
  • Spent a long time integrating the different parts (servo+gate mechanism, conveyer belt, cameras) of the design together. Got the integration working, project looks fluid and has a high classification accuracy.
  • Got started on the poster.

Kushagra’s Report for 05/01/21

  • Finished integrating the code for project. So, we are now able to place banana on the belt, take picture as the fruit is moving, and get an output from the nano.
    • We realized the algorithm was slow, so we also sped that up
  • Almost done getting the servo working; didn’t realize the PCA9685 board needed power. We are waiting on the power bank, but in the meanwhile, i’m trying to find a battery.
  • Designed and printed gate

Kushagra’s Status Report for 04/24/21

  • Started integration test. Currently, we have been able to take pictures from the cameras, and pass them along to the algorithms and get a final result.
  • Almost done with servo + shield (should have the system running by monday). After which, we will have full system integrated (i.e from taking picture to controlling gate via the jetson nano). This is the next major step for me.

Team Status Report for 04/24/21

  • Implemented image segmentation for good and rotten apples and oranges. Started testing the algorithms on datasets for apples and oranges (to good success).
  • Worked on fruit detection (i.e differentiating between rotten and good apples, bananas and oranges) using different models (yolo and pixel analysis).
  • Started integration test. Currently, we have been able to take pictures from the cameras, and pass them along to the algorithms and get a final result. Working on tweaking the threshold values and experimenting with lighting and physical surroundings.
  • Almost done with servo + shield (should have the system running by monday). After which, we will have full system integrated (i.e from taking picture to controlling gate via the jetson nano).
  • Getting close to finishing the project, just need to finish up some physical integration and tweak parameters.

Kushagra’s Status Report for 04/10/21

  • Wrote a program that streams a video from both the cameras (usb and csi) simultaneously. Pressing ‘j’ takes a picture from both cameras, ‘k’ from csi camera and ‘l’ from usb camera. q quits.
    • left is csi, right is usb.
  • Quality of csi is severely lacking. I’ll look more into how gstreamer works since that’s what i’m using for csi. usb cam was able to connect directly, so quality is better for that reason?
    • Also will try to play around with framerate
  • Assembled conveyor structure (now only missing the belt)

Kushagra’s Status Report for 04/03/21

  • Got the CSI camera to work in burst mode, with the timing of the burst being configurable.
  • Trying to get the usb camera to take a picture, but it’s proving to be a lot harder. It’s possible that the usb camera isn’t compatible with the nano, in which case we need to order another usb camera. Because of this setback, I’m slightly behind on schedule, but am confident I can make up for it this week.
  • 3D printed the parts for the conveyor belt, now we just need to assemble the whole thing.
  • Goal for next week is to get the usb camera working, and make sure that the motor controller board and the 12V power adapter works with the conveyor belt (and to assemble the belt itself).

Team Status Report for 04/03/21

  • Fabricated all the parts required for the conveyor belt. We decided to 3D print the motor coupler and the shaft couplers instead of using a piece of wood. The couplers seem very sturdy and we are confident they will work.
    • The above picture shows the motor shaft embedded in the motor coupler (yellow piece), which is in turn embedded inside the roller. The 3 black pieces are the other couplers. The whole system is tight and sturdy.
  • The CSI camera is able to take pictures in burst mode now, with the timing of the burst being configurable. Here is a sample image taken from the CSI camera. We’re in the process of getting the usb camera to work, but it’s proving to be a lot harder. It’s possible we might need to order a second usb camera since the one we have might not be compatible.
  • Ordered the 12V adapter for the conveyor belt and the DC motor speed controller board. We plan to finish constructing the conveyor belt by middle of this week.
  • Made a lot of progress on the pixel classification, and the algorithm is now very robust. We have also started looking into AlexNet, but we might not need it since the fine-tuned pixel classifier is working very well.
  • We’re making good progress, and are on track to finish the project by the due date!

Kushagra’s Report for 03/27/21

  • Got one camera working with the jetson nano. Able to take pictures now automatically. Next step is to process livestream as was recommended in the feedback.
  • Picked up the rollers for the conveyer belt from Home Depot, and tweaked the design for installing the motor into the rollers (we will now use a wooden piece, glue it to the inside of the pipe, and secure it to the shaft of the motor).
  • For next week, my main goal is to continue working on the conveyer belt (hopefully have it finished), and to order the second USB camera and instill it.

Kushagra’s Status Report for 03/13/21

  • Worked on getting camera to take pictures every 4s and saving on disk
  • Worked on design for the conveyer belt more. Finalized dimensions, materials (including parts that need to be 3D printed such as bearings), and how different parts will fit together. Also, sketched different views of the conveyer belt as per the advice of the people in the machine shop. Next step is to prototype the design with cardboard and glue.

Kushagra’s Status Report for 03/06/21

  • Finalized the conveyer belt design to some extent .  1) rack and pinion and 2) treadmill are contingency plans.
  • Ordered the Nvidia Jetson Nano 2GB and the raspi camera. Started playing around with them, but haven’t gotten hello world to work yet. Ideally, want to have the camera take pictures and save on disk in the next week.
  • Made design choices for the non-mechanical parts and helped write the design presentation.