Team Status Report for 2/8/2025

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

The most significant risks that currently exist are making design decisions which would lead to more costly or difficult integration later on down the line. In order to mitigate this risk, we plan on buying duplicates of sensors, as well as purchasing backup plan sensors in advance in order to prevent any delay between switching to a secondary plan if it needs to occur. We also plan on meeting with our TA and advisor in order to discuss our design choices and understand the risks and challenges associated with our current design. This will allow us to make any necessary pivot we need before beginning to create the project. 

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

No changes were made to the existing system so far, we have not yet solidified our design plan and thus any changes being made now are just us working our way towards a viable MVP. We have better solidified which sensors we will be using — Kaitlyn found the sensors for the chair, while Lilly researched gyroscopes for the neckband — and Cora completed research on which permissions will be necessary for our design to work on the Google Chrome extension platform. 

Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred.

No schedule changes have occurred, we plan on creating the BOM and ordering parts this Monday, so we can begin to create and test our MVP as soon as possible. While the parts come in, we will work on setting up the RasPi and coding it in order so it can host a local server. We will then ensure we can connect to this server from an external network.

Lilly’s Status Report for 2/8/2025

This week I focused on researching components for the neck angle measuring system, mainly the gyroscopes.

While we were initially talking about using a gyroscope for tracking neck angle, I also researched inclinometers as another option since they can be used for angle measurement too, especially in steadier conditions. It seems that inclinometers on the market are mainly intended for industrial applications and are too clunky (I’m looking for something relatively flat to avoid disturbing the user) and expensive relative to our budget. So, for something wearable I continued to focus on gyroscope sensors.

As I researched, I looked into the potential of biaxial angle tracking, as forward neck posture is not the only way a user can experience neck strain after extended work periods. Most gyros have this capability anyway. I focused on options that allowed for angle tracking along at least 2 axes (sagittal and coronal) and researched the circuitry each sensor would need to work, with the aim of selecting a sensor with minimal circuitry and accuracy within our requirements, ideally much tighter as our initial goal of +/- 5 degree measurement accuracy is quite wide. Drift in the gyros also came up as a problem, which could be mitigated by doubling up the sensors – and would allow the band to be more symmetric in terms of weight on the user. I also researched/tested the range of angular velocities that our sensor would need to handle – a maximum speed of 200 deg/sec is what I looked for. Further, while an analog gyroscope would be nice so we can control the sampling rate/resolution better, I found that digital gyroscopes will be easier to find and use. A potential option is the L3GD20 gyro, which is small, has low input voltage requirements and a good-enough range.

I am on schedule for now. Further research on wearable batteries and gyroscope part selections will be completed tomorrow before our team meeting on Monday.

Deliverables for the next week:

  • Make purchases for neckband components after cross-checking with the team (Monday).
  • Research wireless connection between ESP32 + RPI.
  • Finalize design for how the neckband will be worn by the user.
  • Start drafting code for angle calculation with gyroscope data for the ESP32.