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Team Status Report for March 23rd, 2024

What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of theproject? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready?

One of the biggest risks as we get close to finalize the 3D printing is ways to prevent jams and smooth transition between different braille patterns. To mitigate these possibilities, we are experimenting with different sizes of braille fonts as Ziyu is testing with different dimensions of the braille caps and sliders on his 3D printer and to complement that, Samay is looking into more motors and ordered a variety of them with different stepping levels and ranges. In terms of the software, the testing has reached 100% with grade 2 braille and is ready to be implemented to the whole as soon as the hardware is finalized.

• Were any changes made to the existing design of the system (requirements,block diagram, system spec, etc)? Why was this change necessary, what costsdoes the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward?

Even though we are switching through motors, the price changes were minimal and not causing any changes to our planned budget. The schedule remains the same from last week where we had made changes to expedite software testing and 3D printing process. We are sticking to this schedule and it is our current priority to have the braille actuators and 3D design run smoothly by the start of the next week  so we can put it together with the software.

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Samay Sahoo’s Status Report for March 16th, 2024

This week, I ordered, received, and began testing all the parts for our actuating subsystem. First, the ordering process was a little tricky since despite having finalized the motor model and type, there were various unknown vendors and distributors with wildly varying pricing and delivery times. As a result, this process took longer than expected. Upon receiving the parts, I have been able to get the micro stepper motors to function and control using Arduino and the motor driver. I still need to program the precise positions along the linear output. My progress is still a little behind, but compared to the previous week’s state, I have been able to make significant process this week.

I also decided to significantly adjust our team’s schedule since the whole team has been behind schedule. The consequence in that the upcoming two weeks now requires parallel progress on various subsystems + testing.

At the end of this week, I hope to have a fully working motor and sliding mechanism, ready to attach to our 3D printed actuating components. Additionally, if this is accomplished, I will assemble all motors and drivers. However, I need to purchase a different motor driver IC in order to properly support our software-controlled motor control for actuating.

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Team Status Report for March 16th, 2024

What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of theproject? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready?

Currently, the most significant risk is the mechanical functionality and reliability of our sliding actuator system. Specifically, as we finalize our CAD design this week and last, we need to add components to mitigate the slider slipping when users physically run their fingers over the braille pins. We are also ready to mitigate issues with the motor in incorrect positions with a homing sequence. We plan on having a physical button/sensor at the end of the linear gear such that our code will be able to simply direct the motor to spin in that direction until the sensor is activate, which can then a reference “home.” Finally, there were not many changes to the system except for a decision between two different motor models that were ordered.

Here is an updated schedule for our team, given that our progress was behind the previous iteration:

 

 

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Yujun Lee’s Status Report for March 16th, 2024

What did you personally accomplish this week on the project?

  1. After finishing the braille translation algorithm. I created Test cases and tested the braille translation. The translation was able to reach 100% accuracy based on 70 different test cases. Grade 2 braille translation is still on the work, and it will be finished by Sunday.
  2. Created a braille display function which allows us to visualize the translation encoding output to see whether the algorithm is outputting the correct output to the board before we start to implement the software to the hardware. Example of the algorithm displaying the encoded output of the text2braille algorithm with the input “Hello World”. 1 denotes actuation, 0 denotes the opposite, “x” denotes new word.

Is your progress on schedule or behind?

Our progress was behind this week, but we were able to make amends by placing all our orders immediately on Monday, and having the braille translation algorithm be ready for implementation. We were able to test the braille algorithm in a speedy fashion. Since the progress this week went through in a fast pace, I am planning to run more test cases in my free time to make sure I didn’t miss any edge cases. 

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

For next week, I will code the arduino which we ordered this week so that the braille encoding are properly mapped to the motor. Furthermore, I will implement the speaker library to the arduino code to read out the arduino input.

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Samay Sahoo’s Status Report for March 9th, 2024

A significant amount of time was spent on developing our team’s Design Review document, including the accompanying research and design decisions for the content of the paper. Specifically, I refined our design requirements significantly based on the feedback received from prior coursework. I made sure to make a clear distinction between engineering design and use case requirements, which was not as clear from our previous work. I integrated the TA feedback on battery life requirements, as there was concern about the device lasting a school day while we were aiming for only 1 hour of life. This was altered and new calculations were made for the battery capacity required to achieve 6 hours of use by the intended users (students). Further, the research for our trade study and bill of materials sections made for much better clarity on the specific parts and materials needed. Preparing the detailed bill of materials allowed our team to advance our progress from the design stage towards implementation. My progress was behind due to issues with the design review document, however I will mend this before the new week. I also plan to help order parts to begin my portion of the hardware implementation and testing, according to the schedule.

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Yujun Lee’s Status Report for March 9th, 2024

What did you personally accomplish this week on the project?

  1. After finishing the planning and structuring for the braille translation algorithm, I finished a initial version of the diagram representing the user-flow of the web-app.
  3. Design report writing.

Is your progress on schedule or behind?

Our schedule ended up being behind due to a teammate’s incompletion of the report, yet the set back is trivial and we have finished the final version of the design report. To make sure none no more set backs are in the future, we plan to communicate more effectively over slack and make sure to have a meeting an hour or two before any deliverable due date to ensure that we are all on page and everyone is on track with the work division requirement for the specific deliverable.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

Even though it is not a specific deliverable, I plan to familiarize myself with web development through reading through flask libraries and web-app implementation tutorials. Moreover, I plan deliver a test plan for the braille translation algorithm, including the test cases, and the tester python file to ensure its robustness before integrating with the hardware.

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Ziyu Li’s Status Report for March 9th, 2024

What did you personally accomplish this week on the project?

  1. I detailed the layout of the device in CAD to get a better sense of how different parts will fit into each other. I also cleaned up the CAD a lot to make it fabrication ready.
  3. Design report writing.

Is your progress on schedule or behind?

The progress is on schedule as long as we can start 3D printing on Monday.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

3D printed design with different size / slope / … (every CAD parameter mentioned in the last report) and a report of how well each is functioning.

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Team Status Report for March 9th, 2024

What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project?

This remains the same as last week. As we carry out our fabrication test next week, we will have more detailed insights to this question.

Were any changes made to the existing design of the system?

Same as above.

A: Global Factors

The development of an open-source, DIY-able refreshable braille display represents a significant advancement in making reading and digital communication more accessible to visually impaired individuals globally. By prioritizing affordability and ease of construction, this project addresses a crucial gap in the market, where existing devices are often prohibitively expensive, thus limiting access for many around the world. This initiative not only empowers individuals with visual impairments by providing them with the tools to build their own reading devices but also fosters a sense of community and innovation through shared knowledge and resources.

B: Culture Factors

The integration of cultural factors is essential for ensuring its accessibility and usability across diverse communities. Through our open source software, user can easily import customized characters set and text2braille converter, allowing the access to braille education to a diverse community of the visually impaired population. Our project’s braille converter mechanism and translation software also utilizes the unified standard grade 2 braille structure, making sure all the blind communities are benefited. One of the goals of our product is to address the comparatively low literacy level among the blind population.  As our project attempts to bridge the gap in literacy level between those who are blind and those who are not by teaching braille through technology, it allows the blind community to have access to language as much as the others. To add on, it is to be noted that culture for the blind, especially those who are innately blind, is under represented due to their lack of access to written verbiage. By providing them a tool to develop their command of written language, it strengthens their cultural interactions and representations to the world.

C: Environmental Factors

The environmental impact of creating a DIY refreshable braille display is significantly mitigated by its open-source and locally producible design. This approach reduces the carbon footprint associated with manufacturing and global distribution of commercial devices, since materials can be sourced locally and devices are built on-demand, minimizing waste. Furthermore, this product will allow for users to input any text file and subsequently be able to read the braille translation, as compared to depending on physical, paper print. This will reduce the dependence on paper for the visually impaired population and further contribute to mitigating environmental waste.

A: Written by Ziyu

B: Written by Yujun

C: Written by Samay

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Ziyu Li’s Status Report for Feb 24th, 2024

This week I spent a lot of time in CAD software designing our new actuator.

Since we need to rapidly fabricate and test these actuators in different configurations (slider slope, material, lubricate method, form factor of actuator), great care is taken account to parameterize the design (which is both time consuming and rewording for me as a first timer).

One additional thing to emphasize in this report is the original source of this clever mechanism. During this week’s design presentation, I cited the original video from Ulmas Zoirov in the presenter’s note, but not on the slide itself, and this created unintentional confusion about the source of the idea. I apologize for this major oversight, and wanted to emphasize that this is Ulmas Zoirov’s idea, and we mainly want to iterate on this and engineer his vision in real life (since no physical device of this design is ever made, and we could not find further information on the future of his project).

For next week, I will be fabricating these CAD parts using resin 3D printers and experiment with the actuation by hand, to provide an initial feasibility analysis. I will also work on a much more formal and much more in depth design document.

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Team Status Report for Feb 24th, 2024

What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project?

Since we have switched to a slider based actuator, the biggest worries are 1. the durability of the actuator, which despite optimization in the design iteration, might still be limited by the nature of the slider mechanic. 2. How do we recover consistently from a slider jam?

How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready?

For our existing slider actuator, we will rapidly iterate over the course of next two weeks to try out different motors, slider slope, material, lubricate method, form factor of actuator, sliding speed, etc., to try and find the best combination that can result in the fastest and most consistent actuation of the braille dot patterns. We are cautiously optimistic that this plan will work, but if not, we have back up plans where a group of push-pull solenoid will activate individual ball-pen-like latches.

Were any changes made to the existing design of the system? Why was this change necessary, what costs does the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward?

As reference in our design presentation slide, we significantly changed our block diagram to accommodate for the new actuator design. This change is motivated by our quest to find the cheapest and easiest way of actuate a large amount of bi-directional dots.

There are no scheduling changes. For an updated visualization of the actuator, please refer to Ziyu’s status report for this week.