We recently encountered an issue that could jeopardize the success of our project—our Jetson appears to not be able to receive any serial input. We are currently troubleshooting and trying to figure out a workable solution to this problem without replacing the unit entirely, although we have accounted for the slack time that we may end up needing in case we do need to reorder the component. We will make sure to seek a replacement component from the ECE inventory.
Our original plan did not include a Jetson; we had originally planned to use a Raspberry Pi component. Over this past week, we made the decision to deviate from our plan, and we opted for the Jetson instead. The Jetson is CUDA accelerated, and one of our group members (Harshul) has existing experience working with the Jetson. In addition, we have swapped out the active illumination LED with an existing piece of technology. The considerations for this were mostly based on the fact that the component that we chose was affordable, and that we would have to spend a significant amount of time designing our module so that it would be safe for the human eye.
Our schedule has not changed, but with the time that it has taken to perform setup and acquire working hardware was longer than expected which was accounted for in our slack time. Going forward it is important for us to remain on task, and we will do so by setting more micro-deadlines between the larger deadlines that Capstone requires. It is also essential that we work in parallel with getting ARkit floor mapping working, so that the hardware issues we face are not blockers that cause delays in the schedule.
Our product seeks to maximize the coverage and cleanliness that can be achieved through the mundane household task of vacuuming a room. By building a map and then tracking the user’s movements through it coupled with our module for detecting dirt left behind in an area recently traversed by the vacuum our solution leads to a cleaner living environment. This has multiple physiological and psychological benefits. People who have sensitivities to dust/allergens that can accumulate as particulates on the floor of a house can leverage this enhanced coverage and particle detection to minimize respiratory discomfort/distress. Furthermore, our system enhances psychological well being by improving the cleanliness of the environment as outlined by this CNET article there is a strong correlation between clean environments and improved mental health.
The initial project idea of mapping a floor for vacuuming has been discussed in developer communities, typically in the context of VR headsets. Some of the most notable ones in the market right now are the Apple Vision Pro ($4,000) and MetaQuest ($600). Obviously this is an extremely hefty price tag for an action that is both routine and mundane. One of our goals with building this project is to remove access barriers to new state-of-the-art technological advances. The action of vacuuming should not be restricted to the wealthy, and we want to increase access to novel technologies across economic backgrounds. Our hardware components can be mounted on any already existing vacuum, rather than requiring the purchase of an overpriced headset.
The product that we designed is meant to be easily integrated into existing vacuum products, eliminating the need for people to entirely replace their existing systems. The purpose of doing this was so that we would minimize the waste that we generate and the amount of resources that would be consumed as we push out this new product. In addition, many of the components that we need for our product to work are already in a user’s existing inventory, which further decreases the amount of material consumption that we would create.