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Advaith’s Status Report for 5/1/2021

  • Accomplishments for the week:
  • We  have been field testing this whole week, trying to get consistent deliveries across campus. This is our biggest problem now, the GPS sensor is erratic, which causes our heading to change, which makes our robot go into the grass and get worse localization.
    • Our biggest problem is localization. GPS has been inconsistent, but surprisingly has worked well a few times. I still think it is worth doing it, but we are working on some mitigation plans for a backup.
      • Jumps in the GPS cause the controls to go haywire. We mitigated this by moving things into a continuous odom frame, but we found little difference. we think the error lies elsewhere and need to go through recorded datasets to discern it.
      • Mitigation plan 1: try sidewalk following using some basic feedforward into the controls. Still yet to try this
      • We tried the roof of the East Campus Garage, and had some GPS errors there. We may try again after analyzing the data from that run.
    • Worked with michael on the data association, this works well with multiple pedestrians. The perception part of our project is done now.
  • Progress:
    • /not much progress from last week, we are still field testing and working out our kinks in our local planners
  • Next week’s deliverables:
    • Make sure the robot drives properly
      • Localization
      • mitigation plan: do everything in the odom frame and hardcode the map
      • Sidewalk following
    • Final slides
    • Final video
    • Final report
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Advaith’s Status Report for 4/24/21

  • Accomplishments for the week:
    • Integrated Kalman filter to work in 3D and tested on live data: Kalman 3D
    • Debugged the GPS localization on campus and took datasets for analysis
    • Below left is the GPS readings integrated with IMU/wheel odometry. On right is the raw GPS data. This is only one trial but we need to retry this when weather permits.
    • Modified the local planner with a new get_next_subgoal function
  • Progress:
    • We have a lot of integration to do during this last week
    • We need to get the localization up and running soon and perform a few basic waypoints on campus
    • We must pray to the robot gods for a smooth finish for this project
  • Next week’s deliverables:
    • Robot drives itself with global waypoints
    • Pedestrian data association and tracking
    • Integrate robot state machine and local planner
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Advaith’s Status Report for 4/10/2021

  • Accomplishments for the week:
    • Integrated the local planner to test basic waypoint functionality
    • Took measurements to determine sensor placement/added transforms for localization
  • Progress:
    • We have accomplished our interim demo goal of getting the robot to follow a waypoint.
    • We have extended this to having the robot follow multiple waypoints in different shapes/orders. This is a small scale test of following waypoints on campus.
    • Next we must have it localize within the map and execute multiple waypoints.
  • Next week’s deliverables:
    • Localize using GPS
    • Pedestrian tracking/avoidance
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Advaith’s Status Report for 4/3/2021

  • Accomplishments for the week:
    • Got the pedestrian detection on yolo to run on the Xavier at 30fps
    • Got depth detection on Xavier
    • Debugged the roboclaw until it worked
    • Worked with sebastian to get the joystick code running.
  • Progress:
    • We are slightly behind schedule, but should be able to catch up soon. Next steps are to get localization and local planner running.
  • Next week’s deliverables:
    • Get SLAM running with GPS, IMU, and odometry
    • Get a basic local planner running for the interim demo
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Advaith’s Status Report for 3/27/2021

  • Accomplishments
    • Got the Roboclaw running the motor and getting encoder values
    • Shortly after, the Roboclaw we had stopped working. I suspect that the USB port is messed up, or that we accidentally damaged it during our testing, but we weren’t able to connect to the software to update the firmware/debug either (so I suspect it is a USB port issue). We have ordered a new one arriving 3/31.
    • To prevent any further damage to the new roboclaw, we are following the instructions on the manual for operation strictly.
    • I finished the mechanical part of the robot, including sensor mounts, wiring,electronics mounting, etc.
    •  
    • Wrote a ROS node that can perform object detection using the YOLO CNN
    • Tested the RTABMAP algorithm outdoors using the robot’s compute. FPS runs fine, however, there are some issues with tracking when it viewed sidewalks with not many features. We believe this problem might get better if we include the IMU, GPS sensors as well. We will retest once we have the motor controller so we can drive around.
  • Schedule Progress
    • We are slightly delayed on our first milestone (joystick moving the robot) because of some issues with the Roboclaw motor controller. However, we tested on the previous one before it failed, so we are confident we can integrate it quickly.
  • Deliverables for Next Week
    • I wish to bring in all the sensors for state estimation, and make sure the visual slam works properly
    • Finish the pedestrian detection and tracking pipeline.
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Advaith’s Status Report for 3/13/2021

  • Accomplishments
    • Finished initial implementation of the local planner in simulation. The robot can avoid obstacles while still going through waypoints
    • Assembled robot base hardware.
    • Helped test the motors and motor controller
    • Tested the GPS sensor’s raw data output on campus sidewalks
      • This looks promising, as GPS is usually accurate to 3-5m. These data are within the sidewalks most of the time, and I think combining this with wheel odometry and IMU data can lead to accurate localization.
  • Schedule Progress
    • We are on schedule for our project. We got the parts and have made good progress this week on our deliverables
  • Deliverables for Next Week
    • Run the localization algorithm independently using the IMU, GPS, and camera
    • Integrate motor controller using UART
    • Fine tune the collision avoidance algorithm.
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Advaith’s Status Report for 3/6/2021

  • Accomplishments
    • This week was spent really finishing the design and making changes to the requirements. We spent a majority of the time massaging the budget constraint and choosing parts that would satisfy it.
    • Performed calculations for parts finalizing
    • Finalized the CAD design and finished the BOM for the chassis
    • Ordered all the parts on our BOM
    • Finished the design presentation and have practiced
  • Schedule Progress
    • We are on schedule for our project. We ordered parts and they will be arriving by the end of next week.
    • While we wait for parts we will begin to build out the software systems in simulation.
  • Deliverables for Next Week
    • Finish proof of concept for collision avoidance algorithm
    • Finish the design presentation and practice giving it using the feedback from the last presentation
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Advaith’s Status Report for 2/27/2021

  • Accomplishments
    • Tested the SLAM algorithm on campus.
  • Finalized the CAD design
  • Tested out the SLAM algorithm under different lighting conditions
  • Wrote a PD line following algorithm in ROS using Gazebo
  • Installed ROS on the Xavier with Michael
  • Brought the IMU into ROS using pyserial.
  • Schedule Progress
    • We are on schedule for our project. We will be working on the Design Presentation in the following week and ordering parts.
  • Deliverables for Next Week
    • Finalize the parts list and order parts
    • Begin working on the collision avoidance algorithm
    • Finish the design presentation and practice giving it using the feedback from the last presentation.
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Advaith’s Status Report for 2/20/2021

  • Accomplishments
    • This week, I worked on the CAD model for our robot. I am using Solidworks and bringing in models of motors, wheels, and 8020 aluminum rods to get a better spatial idea of our robot design. This will help us plan for materials and make it easier to change our design based on our requirements.
    • I tested RTABMAP using an Intel Realsense camera using ROS. This is to test if it is a viable algorithm for our project. These tests should be done before buying parts, as the perception sensor is a significant investment.
    • I tested a basic Pure Pursuit controller in MATLAB with simulated differential drive robot.
    • Worked with team on Proposal Presentation
  • Schedule Progress
    • We are on schedule for our project. We have completed the majority of the Proposal Presentation.
  • Deliverables for Next Week
    • I wish to complete the CAD model with all boards, actuators, and sensors so that we can finalize our BOM.
    • Full testing of perception algorithms including ORBSLAM, RTABMAP, and HectorSLAM
    • Bring the IMU into ROS
      • I have a Bosch IMU that I want to test using ROS
      • Involves getting the driver running through a Teensy, then writing a ROS wrapper node.
    • Write a basic waypoint following robot in ROS using a simulated robot
      • Will shed some light on the controls aspect of the project