This week our team made great progress on individual components for our project. A lot of our hardware parts arrived so we were able to do a lot of hands-on work with them; time was devoted to installing the proper drivers and setting up the new hardware parts. Soon enough we will enter the integration stage of our project, but next week, we will be tying up loose ends in the specific project areas we worked on (detection, mechanics, communication).
In regards to our detection system for our lead car, we experimented with the intel RealSense camera (previously we have been testing our detection algorithm using OpenCV and our laptop camera), We were able to extract RGB values and use them to classify objects detected. Additionally, we tested robustness and how moving the camera around would affect the image feed + process speed of MobileNet v2 and the observed behavior is meeting our expectations.
In regards to our communication architecture, we were pleased to find that after obtaining Bluetooth adapters which integrated with the Jetson Nanos successfully, connection was established easily. We found that stable connection is maintained within 3m and that when a connection was formed it did not break (we need to ensure this is true when both Jetsons are moving in the upcoming week with further tests). We found useful information about the Bluetooth connection and will work on making the Bluetooth software between boards as robust as possible.
In regards to the vehicle mechanics, we received new batteries and UEBC device to power Jetson and we are pleased that they last more than an hour under a stress test ! Additionally, a new CAD design was made to accommodate the new hardware components. The IMU component we are using does give us an sub-optimal sense of displacement and localization so we will be adding an optical wheel encoder for the 2 rear wheels so that our vehicle localization will improve. The drive system is almost done, along with refined code for the vehicle (the serial communication now works such that the Jetson can signal the vehicle motors on how to move).
In the upcoming week we are looking to ensure our specific project areas are functioning as expected and are robust, in order to begin integrating components.