The most significant risk right now is whether or not the hardware for the hexapod works well and whether our current search algorithm is effective for the use case. As contingencies we have other hexapod models that we can order if our current one does not function well and we also have looked into alternative search algorithms for our swarm.
Upon further design discussions, we realized that we would need to implement some sort of SLAM algorithm to ensure that each hexapod can know where they are within the search area. This is important because internal tracking of distance can be erroneous due to any slippage on the hexapod. We also need SLAM in order to guarantee that our hexapods can find each other if there are cases where a hexapod carrying first aid needs to reach a survivor that a separate hexapod has located. This adds a bit of time cost to our project and it also may require us to purchase a better camera module or a lidar. We believe that we can still get these parts within our budget and we will do more research into finding the most cost effective solution.
This change means that we need to add an extra week of research and testing on SLAM into our schedule. We will all be working on this during an upcoming week within February.