This week, I spent time working more on the mechanics and helping out on the software model side. On Sunday, I worked on assembling and testing out a temporary set up that would allow me to perform end to end testing from the capture to platform turning. This setup was not completely built, with temporary parts such as a taped paper platform and the camera capture mounted on a separate table, but showed me what the results would look like once the mechanics were fully built. I then ran multiple tests to get last minute records of our device’s time and accuracy performance to put in our presentation slides.
Later in the week on the mechanics side, I connected the acrylic door to the axle, powered the hardware, and ran tests to make sure everything was working. I also tested this set up with the newer clamps and ended up going with the older one as that was easier to integrate in terms of alignment. After testing the acrylic door, I found that it was definitely on the heavier side, and the clamp setup is not very stable. However, it works, and hopefully should be enough if we are not able to further develop the setup by the demo. I also worked with Ting to cut and build the camera mount, which was attached to the back of the servo frame, giving that frame some additional support at the same time. The overall structure of the device is not very stable, with the wooden parts often warping/disconnecting from the acrylic. Now that I have a better idea of how to assemble the frame, I have been thinking about redoing the connections and using bolts instead of screws to connect the wooden parts to the acrylic if there is time before the demo.
On the software side, our model implementation has not been performing well. Therefore, I spent some time helping out with debugging, looking for newer datasets, and sorting through them to integrate into our current implementation.
Schedule wise, I am somewhat on track in the sense that progress is being made, and our device is almost fully constructed and integrated even if the individual parts are not developed to their optimum levels. In terms of mechanics, the only crucial part that has not been implemented is the installation of the locks, which as a last resort solution we might end up taping to the system.
Given the remaining time in the course, next week I plan to try and finish off the required finishing touches for the mechanics, help out with the software, go back and see if any mechanic parts could be improved, and work on the final submissions.