Significant Risks and Contingency Plans
The most significant risk to our project right now is getting the PTZ Camera to work. The past week, we worked extensively on downloading libraries and debugging dependencies to get the software API of the PTZ Camera to work to display video feed. We still have to get this functioning correctly, and are working extremely hard to get it done. We are optimistic that we can get the camera to function correctly, as 3/4 of the libraries have been installed correctly, and we are planning on getting the last installed latest by tomorrow to get video feed. In the scenario where the camera doesn’t work correctly, we might consider changing the MCU to the NVIDIA Jetson Nano, which has a lot of easy to use cameras available for cheap. However, this is a worst case scenario and is unlikely to occur.
We also made progress on the rover, and the code to control the search pattern of the rover is complete. We will now focus on tuning the search pattern. As all of our individual components are nearing the end of their implementation, a significant risk is the communication between components and how to use the WiFi module to relay information. A lot of online documentation exists on this, so we plan on conducting a lot of research to identify the best way to handle communication between components. We also have some recommendations from our TA Aden to use scp to transfer information to/from the computer (communication hub) to the rover as well. If WiFi doesn’t work, we have a contingency plan of using bluetooth communication on the built-in RaspberryPi bluetooth module to relay video data to a central hub (computer) that handles communication. Again, however, this is an unlikely scenario as preliminary research shows that WiFi communication should be feasible to implement.
System Changes
As of right now, no major system changes from the last Team Status Report exist. There was a decision to switch from hacking the web app to using the RPi and UART communication to send JSON commands to the rover. Other than that, we still plan on continuing to implement the system with the PTZ Camera and WiFi communication, and would only consider a pivot from these to alternate technologies mentioned above if absolutely necessary. We would know of these changes as we work more on the communication protocol of the rover.
Other Updates
There have been no schedule changes nor any other updates. Potential schedule changes may occur after we work on the communication protocol of the rover next week. We plan on having a working interim demo with communication between the rover and the server where the rover would stop and turn towards a human if detected in its search pattern by the end of next week.