This week, I spent time researching components and defining design constraints for our design. In continuation of the use case requirements we defined in the proposal last week, I came up with several new design requirements that helped aid in constraining and defining the product in greater detail and finalized certain parts of the product. The new requirements include a motor speed requirement (for pick-up mechanism), an extension on the power requirement (new considerations of batteries in existing street robots), and the weight requirement. We finalized on using Meccanum wheels for the product (work well on paved roads and provide traction and stability) and the roller mechanism after significant consideration. Tracked wheels can damage paved surfaces (current scope of project), hence we chose to use Meccanum wheels.
In terms of the pick-up component, we considered which mechanism to use as a group and also consulted our TA, Aidan, to decide which pick-up mechanim to use. The primary consideration for the roller mechanism was the speed with which it collects trash – this was much higher than the speed with which a scoop/ grabber mechanism collects trash. In addition to parts and pick-up mechanism, I researched a number of existing trash-collecting robots, to consider new pick up mechanims and to see how path planning was used in existing products. This research was used to finalize how our roller mechanims will work and the rest of the design sketch for the product (dimensions, frame, materials, power required, and other components).
This week, I also worked on reviewing articles and existing instruction guides on how to download and develop ROS on a raspberry pi. I plan on continuing this reserch into the upcoming week. My primary tasks for next week include setting up ROS on the raspberry pi and defining software requirements for motion and obstacle avoidance. My progress is on schedule and I would like to continue this pace in future weeks.
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