- What did I accomplish?:
- This week I have begun researching SLAM and related algorithms, specifically I am interested in combining lidar depth data with visual landmarks (April tags) to improve mapping.
- Additionally, my group mates and I discussed the benefits/challenges of using a 360 deg. lidar system vs. a fixed lidar system. (It also may be possible to filter the 360 deg. lidar system?)
- I helped fix our website to properly display weekly status report posts by category/team member.
- Am I on schedule?: Yes, no direct tasks where assigned this week.
- What deliverables do I want to complete next week?:
- If I get access to the roomba next week, I would like to have basic movement control when tethered to a PC complete.
- If I get access to the LIDAR camera early next week, I would like to attempt implementing SLAM using a premade library (Maybe MATLAB or slam_toolbox)
- If I get access to a camera, my goal is to implement local bin identification.
George’s Status Report for 2/11/2023
Progress
- Worked, Practiced and Presented Proposal Slides
- Talked about design trade-offs for docking mechanism and software challenges
- Worked with Team to pick out parts, and started putting a spreadsheet together for what parts to order
- Downloaded, installed SQLite3 in linux (Xavier) environment.
- Started designing Schema for SQLITE database for bin tracking system
Schedule:
- I am on Schedule
Next week, hope to complete the SQLITE db set-up milestone with schema working, as well as start looking into path-finding algorithms.
Team Status Report for 2/11/2023
The most significant risk for our project at this point is acquiring a LIDAR camera from the ECE parts inventory that’s suitable for our needs. We’re choosing to use an Intel RealSense camera as opposed to a 360-camera since any trash bin will cause a significant obstruction that we have to process away as not being a wall or other flat obstacle. Based on background research, we think mapping with a fixed FOV camera will provide acceptable performance.
Another risk at the moment is going to be the docking mechanism, which we discussed in detail on Wednesday following the proposal presentations. We’re thinking about using an omnidirectional system to avoid alignment complexity with the robot’s movement. We believe this will save time and help us to meet/exceed our design target.
We didn’t make any design changes this week, and are on schedule with respect to the timeline in our proposal.
Our project includes considerations for economics and general welfare. The automated system is intended to relieve the workload on janitorial staff, and allows them to focus and invest time in other tasks. Regardless of the system, bins must be emptied to maintain a private and healthy office environment.
We started putting together a parts list and submitted our first request from the ECE inventory! Yay!