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Erika’s Status Report for 04/12/2025

Progress this Week:
This week, I redesigned the model house structure to incorporate finger joints. After observing structural weaknesses during our interim demo, I realized that the original flat-edge design was not sturdy enough, especially when using acrylic sheets for the inner walls that lacked sufficient support. I also met with my team to finalize where we want to include the electronic components so I can include holes for those wire feedthroughs. To address this, I modified the CAD models for all the walls to include finger joints and feedthrough holes for better structural integrity and easy integration. I then regenerated the corresponding DXF files for laser cutting.

Following these updates, I re-laser cut most of the acrylic and wood sheets. This process included completing the full assembly in CAD to ensure the finger joints fit together cleanly.

Challenges
My progress is currently on schedule. While redesigning the house model and re-cutting parts was not initially planned, this adjustment was necessary for the long-term stability and success of our prototype. I have built in buffer time for tasks like this, so I’m confident we are still aligned with our project timeline.

We also placed a lot of orders this past Wednesday, so I hope those arrive early next week so we can continue wrapping up the final pieces of our project.

Next Steps:

  • Finish laser cutting the remaining few acrylic sheets

  • Assemble the redesigned model house

  • Begin integrating the LLM chatbot using the Ollama setup that Maya worked on

  • Set up wiring and begin coding the LED ring to simulate the passage of time in our simulated reality environment (where 1 simulated day = 5 minutes in real time)

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Erika’s Status Report for 03/29/2025

Progress This Week:

  • Planned the integration of sensors and components into the model house

  • Designed initial wireframes for the user interface, focusing on an intuitive layout that allows users to monitor usage and set preferences for their household energy consumption optimization algorithm.

  • I will be assembling part of the model house tomorrow in preparation for the interim demo.

Challenges:

  • Acrylic sheets took longer than expected to arrive, so I was not able to laser cut them.

  • Balancing UI simplicity with the need to display comprehensive energy data in a user-friendly format.

Next Steps:

  • Finalize sensor placement and integration within the model house after assembly.

  • Continue refining the UI design, focusing on real-time data visualization and interactive elements.

  • Begin initial integration of whole system

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Team’s Status Report for 03/22

Significant Risks & Mitigation Strategies

Potential Risks:

  1. Material Delays: The arrival of the acrylic sheets is critical for completing the assembly of the model house. Any delays could push back integration.

    • Mitigation: The order was placed early this week, about two weeks before the interim demo to allow enough time for laser cutting and assembly.

Contingency Plan: If the acrylic sheets do not arrive on time, we will use tape to secure the wiring and move forward with integrating the electronics.

2.

Risk: Optimization does not accurately reflect the assigned priority levels of individual devices, leading to suboptimal or unfair load scheduling.

Mitigation:

  • Integrate device priority directly into the optimization objective and constraints as weighted penalties or scheduling preferences.

  • Validate post-optimization results by checking if higher-priority devices are scheduled within their preferred windows or receive preferential treatment.

  • Implement unit tests to ensure the priority values are parsed and utilized correctly in the solver.

Design Changes & Justification

  1. Change: Slight modifications to the DXF files were made to improve the fit between the basswood and acrylic layers. I have also decided to not place acrylic sheets over the wooden floors. This reduces materials, lowers cost, and removes unnecessary complexity with laser cutting.

  • Reason for Change: Initial design testing revealed minor misalignments in slots for acrylic insertion. Adjusting the DXF ensures a more precise assembly.

  • Costs Incurred: Additional time spent in CAD revision and verification.

  • Mitigation Strategy: These changes were made early enough, before laser cutting the wood and ordering the acrylic, that they do not impact the schedule. The updated files are ready for cutting as soon as materials arrive.

2. Instead of relying on API requests to interact with Home Assistant, we will use a Dockerized container to deploy and upload the optimized scheduling code directly into the Home Assistant environment. This approach improves modularity, simplifies integration, and allows for more consistent control and updates to the system.

Progress:

  • Testing validation loss and training loss for LSTM for load prediction
  • Frontend developed for device scheduling
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Erika’s Status Report for 03/22/2025

Accomplishments This Week

This week, I laser cut all of the basswood sheets for the exterior of the model house. I also designed the DXF files for the acrylic sheets that will form the inner layer of the walls. To ensure timely progress, I placed an order for all required acrylic sheets. Ideally, they arrive in time for the interim demo, but if not we can just tape up the wiring to the wood as a quick solution.

Project Status

Currently, my progress is on schedule. The next steps depend on receiving the acrylic sheets, but designing the DXF files and laser cutting the basswood keeps the timeline on track.

Next Week’s Deliverables

In the upcoming week, I plan to:

  • Laser cut the acrylic sheets once they arrive

  • Assemble the exterior and interior walls of the model house

  • Begin integrating electrical components if time permits

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Erika’s Status Report for 03/15/2025

Accomplishments This Week

This week, I worked on the CAD model for the house, adjusting the design and dimensions to ensure we stay within our material constraints. I refined the layout to optimize material usage. I have also added slots in the back walls to easily and neatly slide in the acrylic sheets and sandwich the wires and electronic components within this two-layered wall.

Additionally, I researched laser cutting techniques and prepared the DXF files, ensuring that the design is ready for an efficient cutting session in the Ideate workspace next week. This preparation included:

  • Finalizing the vector paths to avoid unnecessary cuts.
  • Ensuring the scaling and material thickness were correctly accounted for.
  • Organizing files to minimize waste and speed up fabrication.

I have chosen a low-power approach with multiple passes to minimize the risk of charring the wood. This will hopefully result in a clean, polished look.

Finally, I reached out to IDeATe to request access to the laser cutters. Hopefully, my request will be approved and I can get in there early next week to cut all the basswood sheets needed to assembly the house.

Progress:

Kitchen

  • Floor: 20” x 8”
    • 20” x 12” -> cut off 4 inches from one side
  • Left Wall: 8” x 9 ⅞”
  • Right Wall: 8” x 9 ⅞”
  • Back Wall: 19 ¾” x 9 ⅞” (cut out slots)

Garage

  • Floor: 8” x 8”
  • Left Wall: 8” x 9 ⅞” 
  • Back Wall: 7 ¾” x 9 ⅞” (cut out slots)
  • Roof: 8” x 8”

Bedroom

  • Floor: 12” x 8”
  • Left Wall: 7” (diagonal to 7.09”) x 8”
  • Back Wall: Refer to design -> Max Height: 12”, Width: 11 ⅞”
  • Roof: 9.4” x 8”

Laundry

  • Floor: 8” x 8”
  • Left Wall: 8” x 10”
  • Right Wall: 8” x 7”
  • Back Wall: Refer to design -> Height: 10” to 7”, Width: 7 ¾”
  • Roof: 8” x 12.71”

Full Assembly:

 

Material Usage Planning

Project Schedule Status

My progress is on schedule with our project timeline. The CAD model and laser cutting preparation are key steps before fabrication, and completing them now keeps us aligned with our milestones.

Goals for Next Week

Next week, I plan to:

  • Laser cut the house components and assess fit/assembly.
  • Make any necessary adjustments to the CAD design based on cutting results.
  • Order colored acrylic and create DXF files to laser cut these sheets.
  • Begin assembling the physical prototype to test structural stability.
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Erika’s Status Report for 03/08/2025

1. Accomplishments This Week
This week, I focused on two key tasks:

  • Design Review Report: I collaborated with my team to write and refine the design review report, ensuring we clearly outlined our project scope, system architecture, and implementation plan.
  • CAD Model for Demo House: I continued developing the CAD model for our demo house. Specifically, I designed a two-layer wall structure featuring wood on the exterior and acrylic on the interior. This design allows us to sandwich wires and electronic components between the layers for a cleaner, more organized prototype. I also worked on integrating component placements within the model to facilitate efficient wiring and sensor integration.

2. Progress Status
I am on track with my individual tasks for the week. The design review report was completed on schedule, and progress on the CAD model is aligned with our timeline. However, I will need to start laser cutting soon to ensure I do not run into any issues later on.

3. Next Week’s Deliverables
Next week, I plan to:

  • Finalize the CAD of the demo house and determine kerf to verify fit.
  • Laser cut the wood
  • Order the acrylic sheets

This will ensure we stay on track for upcoming milestones and allow us to refine the system before final integration.

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Team’s Status Report for 03/08/25

  • Risk: Hardware Integration Challenges
    • Issue: Ensuring seamless communication between sensors, microcontrollers, and the backend system is critical. Incompatibility between components or unexpected electrical issues could cause delays.
    • Mitigation: We are testing each hardware module separately before full integration and maintaining thorough documentation for troubleshooting.
  • Risk: Energy Monitoring Accuracy
    • Issue: If the system fails to accurately track and optimize energy consumption, the value of SmartWatt is diminished.
    • Mitigation: We are calibrating sensors early in the process, running validation tests, and comparing data against trusted benchmarks..

Contingency Plans:

  • If hardware integration delays occur, we will simulate system behavior in software to continue progress.
  • If energy monitoring accuracy issues arise, we will refine our algorithms and conduct more extensive testing.

2. Design Changes and Their Impact

This week, we made the following adjustments to our system design:

  • Change: Updated Physical Model Design
    • Reason: To improve wiring organization and ease of sensor placement, we modified the demo house’s wall structure to include a layered design (wood exterior, acrylic interior).
    • Costs: This change requires additional material procurement and minor CAD redesign work.
    • Mitigation: We are sourcing materials efficiently and ensuring that fabrication remains within our timeline.

By proactively managing these risks and changes, we aim to keep SmartWatt on track for a successful completion.

ARIMA models from sklearn have been added to the load forecasting module as they have better accuracy on testing data.

Progress

  • Frontend of webapp scoped out
  • ML models working with simulated data
  • API and communication requests between backend and ESPHome and Home Assistant established

Additional Weekly Questions

3. Considerations of Global Factors:

SmartWatt addresses the growing global need for energy efficiency and sustainability by optimizing household energy consumption. As the world transitions to renewable energy, challenges such as grid instability, peak demand management, and high electricity costs are becoming more pressing. SmartWatt provides a data-driven solution by integrating smart meters, IoT-enabled devices, and AI-driven analytics to monitor and optimize energy use in real time. This system empowers homeowners to reduce their carbon footprint, lower electricity bills, and contribute to overall grid stability—an issue that affects both developed and developing regions as energy demands rise.

Beyond local energy concerns, SmartWatt aligns with broader global initiatives such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy. By enabling users to shift energy consumption to off-peak hours and integrate renewable sources like solar, SmartWatt helps reduce reliance on fossil fuels and supports cleaner energy adoption worldwide. Additionally, in regions where energy access is limited or expensive, SmartWatt’s optimization algorithms can help households maximize their use of available power, ensuring more efficient distribution of resources. As energy prices fluctuate due to geopolitical and economic factors, SmartWatt provides a scalable, intelligent approach to energy management that benefits users across diverse global contexts.

Part B (written by anyab)

Cultural differences influence energy consumption behaviors, regulations, and sustainability priorities. In Europe, where time-of-use tariffs are common, the system automates energy usage during off-peak hours (we use Nordpool API which provides spot electricity prices in Europe) . In regions with flat-rate pricing, it prioritizes renewable energy and battery storage. These region-specific energy insights make the system adaptable to diverse communities, ensuring relevance and effectiveness. Beyond energy consumption habits, cultural attitudes toward technology and automation play a significant role in system adoption. In regions where smart home technology is widely embraced, users may prefer fully automated energy management, while in areas with privacy concerns or skepticism toward automation, the system can offer manual control options to align with user preferences.

Part C (written by sdoshi2)

Environmental factors play a crucial role in the development of SmartWatt.
It is expressly designed to reduce household energy consumption. By optimizing energy usage and promoting demand-side management, SmartWatt helps lower reliance on fossil fuel-based power generation, which remains a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, by integrating renewable energy sources such as solar panels, the system encourages sustainable energy practices and reduces strain on non-renewable resources.

We also take into account the fact that the users environment will discate the renewable power production and the power consumption based on climate/weather

Beyond energy reduction, SmartWatt also considers energy efficiency in hardware selection. The sensors and microcontrollers used in the system are also chosen to lower power consumption to ensure that the monitoring and optimization processes do not inadvertently contribute to excessive energy use.

Furthermore, SmartWatt aids in environmental conservation by mitigating energy wastage. By identifying inefficiencies such as poorly insulated spaces, users can make informed decisions to enhance their home’s energy efficiency. This proactive approach not only saves money but also reduces unnecessary energy demand, contributing to a broader reduction in environmental degradation. In regions where power generation relies heavily on coal or other environmentally harmful methods, SmartWatt’s ability to shift energy consumption to cleaner energy sources can make a significant difference in reducing ecological impact.

By addressing these environmental factors, SmartWatt aligns with sustainability goals and contributes to a more energy-efficient future, making it an essential tool for environmentally conscious consumers and policymakers alike.

 

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Erika’s Status Report for 2/22/2025

This week, I completed the design of the model house, ensuring it is manufacturable and fulfills all the requirements of our project design, including a variety of loads and a solar panel energy input suitable for energy optimization analysis. I also made significant progress on the user dashboard web app, setting up the basic framework and integrating initial features for visualizing household energy consumption.

I am on schedule with the project timeline. Completing the model house and starting the user dashboard are tasks planned for upcoming weeks, but it is great to get a head start.

Next week, I plan to integrate real-time energy consumption data into the user dashboard. I also aim to enhance the dashboard’s UI to improve user interaction and clarity. Furthermore, I plan to determine additional materials for the model house such as acrylics for walling and small decorations or toys to simulate a real home with active appliances.

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Erika’s Status Report for 2/15/2025

1. Accomplishments:
This week, I worked on:

  • Design Review Presentation: I created the slides for the following sections:

    • Testing and Verification Methodology: Outlined our approach to validating system accuracy, including sensor calibration tests and data integrity checks.
    • Implementation: I included a visual of what our user dashboard will look like.
    • Project Management: Developed the Gantt chart, task assignments, and bill of materials for the team.
      [Include a screenshot of your slides or the presentation document]

  • User Dashboard Web App: I started building the front end of the user dashboard using Next.js. I implemented the homepage layout and began integrating basic components such as energy usage graphs and a real-time energy savings counter.

This image is serving as the inspiration for my own dashboard.

  • Model House Demo: I designed the layout for our model house, which will be used to showcase SmartWatt’s real-time monitoring capabilities during the demo. I determined the dimensions of each rooms and the placement of each load.

  • Materials Planning: I determined the quantity of wood and acrylic needed to build the model house. I have ordered the wood so I can start laser cutting as needed. However, I plan to wait until later in the semester to assemble the model house since we don’t currently have a large enough storage space.

2. Progress Status:

  • I am currently on schedule with my tasks. The design review slides are complete, and I made significant progress on both the web app and model house design.

3. Goals for Next Week:

  • Web App: Complete the first iteration of the front-end visualizations and user input interface.
  • Model House: Receive the balsa wood and cut each piece to size. I will also order wood glue to assemble the pieces in the future.
  • Design Review Submission: My teammate will present our design review on M/W.
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Erika’s Status Report for 2/8/2025

This week, my team presented our proposal to the class. Taking what I learned from the presentation’s feedback, I wrote up an overarching plan for my capstone project. Then, I researched components and implementation ideas. I spent time refining my approach, identifying key technical considerations, and ensuring the feasibility of my design. This foundational work helped me map out the next steps for development.

My progress is on schedule, as I focused on planning and research to ensure a smooth transition into prototyping. If any unforeseen delays arise, I will allocate additional time to testing and debugging to stay on track.

Next week, I aim to finalize my component selection, begin ordering necessary parts, and start initial circuit and system design.