This week, I did a lot of research into the kind of technology we will use for our project. I looked into the benefits of using a Jetson Nano vs. a Raspberry Pi, and decided that a Jetson Nano is probably the better tool for us since it has more CV capabilities that the Raspberry Pi. I also looked into how we want to interface the Jetson Nano with all the motors and the other hardware we intend to use, and I found that it’s relatively easy to interface the Jetson Nano with an Arduino (which all of myself and my teammates are familiar with), which I think we will use because that is an easy interface for us. I also did research on the right kind of camera to interface with the Jetson, and a touch screen that is also compatible. I also did research into the kind of motors we want to use for the strainer, looking specifically into linear actuators, since they have the up and down movement we are looking for. In conversing with my teammates, we decided linear actuators might be a little too expensive for our tastes, so we started talking about screw replacements or other replacements. Lastly, we also started filming some of the videos we will use for the CV to help identify ingredients, so we had a hot pot night where we filmed ingredients being dropped into the pot. We made sure to place the ingredients in the pot using different angles and different speeds, to hopefully mimic the actual hot pot event itself.
I think we are still on schedule for our project. We scheduled the first few weeks to mainly do research on various aspects of our project, so it is still a little hard to be so far behind. We did also meet a few times as a team, so we are all on the same page and keeping in constant communication. It also helps that we are all located in Pittsburgh, so we are able to meet in person and talk about what we have done. Overall, I think we are all making good progress on our individual parts of the project, and I expect us to keep up the pace in the next few weeks.
In the next week, I hope to order at least some of the parts that we will need (the Jetson Nano, maybe the Arduino, some LEDs, etc.). The ordering will depend on what tech is already available to us, and what tech we already have. I also think we will finalize the motors we will use, so we can get started ordering that. Concretely for the next week, I will do research on how long the ingredients we plan to use will take to cook, so I can make a database for that. Also, even without the tech, I can refamiliarize myself with Arduino and start to generate code for activating the motors we intend to use. Depending on when we get the motors in, I may be able to actually start connecting things together as well.