Author: eanand

Potential Risks and Risk Management
The potential risks remain the same. As we begin the process of building the mechanical belt, we may potentially run into unforeseen circumstances with respect to compatibility during the integration of all our individual mechanical parts. However, we are confident that our risk mitigation strategies of purchasing components that are rated for loads greater than those for our purposes and thorough mechanical planning will not compromise the structural integrity of our project. 

Overall Design Changes
No major design changes have been made since the last Team Status Report.

Schedule
We are slightly behind schedule when it comes to the mechanical portion of the project. To get back on track, we will be building the mechanical belt and sorting mechanism this week. 

Schedule – Gantt Chart

Progress Update
We have obtained the camera, Jetson, and Arduino from the course inventory. Additionally, we ordered the remaining mechanical components necessary for the project’s completion. The items should arrive following Spring break, in time for us to begin both construction and programming the cohesive system. 

Applications of Product Solution

Part A (Written by Erin)
The main premise of our project is a scalable solution to the global issue of recycling. Different regions have different approaches to handling waste categorization; some of these solutions are more labor-intensive or machine-intensive than others. A consensus, however, is that these solutions are expensive and in need of refurbishment. Our solution takes into consideration these factors and proposes a simple approach with a short-range camera and a system equipped with a CV model and robust sorting mechanism. This approach considers global factors that tackle the availability of labor across different regions, technical expertise, and various economic factors that inhibit large-scale automation of categorization processes. Through our thorough selection of widely available and affordable parts, we are able to accommodate these economic factors. Moreover, the simplicity of this 4-fold approach eliminates the requirement of technical expertise for operation, allowing the product to be used in regions where this may not necessarily be available. 

Part B (Written by Mohammed)
In terms of cultural factors, the project may impact laws as well as the culture surrounding recycling. As the project aims to minimize recycling laws relying on public awareness of efficiency, perhaps government bodies and institutions can place less of an emphasis on spreading awareness regarding what is and what is not recyclable waste. This may also cause a culture change in the different waste bins present (e.g., trash, plastic, paper, and metal) as the trash will be re-sorted through the product afterward regardless. The difference for the everyday person will be that they can simply dump their waste and forget about it rather than doubt themselves when attempting to recycle. This cultural impact can spread at both a local and national level depending on the frequency of the product’s implementation. 

Part C (Written by Mohammed)
A large aspect of our project is its environmental impact, of course, as we aim to integrate more efficient recycling. The designed product will separate recyclable material from general waste before further categorizing it. The increase in recycling will be naturally accompanied with a reduction in pollution. Furthermore, an increase in recycling will result in a decrease in the demand for natural resources such as paper and metals, thus conserving natural resources. The project’s impact will also extend towards living creatures and wildlife by removing harmful pollutants in their natural habitats in addition to minimizing habitat destruction in favor of obtaining more raw materials. Additionally, reducing the amount of waste in landfills will contribute to decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted, such as methane, which will, in turn, help combat climate change, offering yet another environmental benefit. 

Potential Risks and Risk Management
Most of our risks remain the same however, after our design review presentation, we realized that our DC motor would be under a certain level of stress, so to mitigate this, we are making sure to purchase one that is rated for purposes that are slightly more involved than ours. We are also ordering multiple to prevent any roadblocks later in the project. 

Overall Design Changes
No significant changes have been made to our design since the recent change to our sorting mechanism. We did make slight changes to the mechanical parts picked while we finalized the parts to be ordered. Our design report will show the final draft.

Schedule
Currently, there are no major updates to our schedule; however, we have updated it to indicate our progress on ongoing tasks. Since we will be placing orders for parts early next week and anticipate a slight lead time for some of our components, our schedule, specifically the portion corresponding to the conveyor belt assembly, will need to be pushed back by half a week. 

Schedule – Gantt Chart

Progress Update

After John finalized the CAD models for the conveyor belt and sorting mechanism, we collectively finalized the parts to be ordered for the conveyor belt, sorting mechanism, and object detection. We hope to submit the appropriate forms at the beginning of the week. 

Potential Risks and Risk Management
The most significant risks we anticipate for this project are the same as last week. In a nutshell, servo load rating, and mechanical failure are the biggest risks. We do have risk management mechanisms in place, and these were hashed out in the previous team status report.  

Overall Design Changes
We made a change to our sorting mechanism. Previously, we chose to have mechanical sweepers that push materials (glass, paper, plastic, metal) into their respective bins. However, after John started designing the conveyor belt, we found this mechanism to be slightly less feasible. Instead, we decided to pivot to using a swivel mechanism wherein all objects fall off the conveyor belt’s end and are then sorted. The sorting is done with a custom ramp that rotates and drops each object off in its appropriate bin. To accommodate the time it takes for the swivel to transport the objects, we will be modifying the object detection sequence. The design changes will be elaborated on in our design report. 

Schedule
Currently, there are no major updates to our schedule, however, we have updated it to indicate our progress on ongoing tasks.

Schedule – Gantt Chart

 Progress Update
As mentioned in Mohammed’s status report, we experimented with a few pre-trained models and settled to use a YOLOv5 implementation. Fine-tuning will be necessary due to the model recognizing trash as recyclable material in addition to miscategorizing other recyclable waste.  John’s status report indicates the substantial completion of a majority of our mechanical design, and it will soon be ready for manual assembly.

Applications of Solution
Part A (Written by Erin)
Our product is tailored to ultimately impact the welfare of society through efficient recycling mechanisms. Our research has shown us that a lot of times, batches of recycled items are contaminated with debris causing these items to no longer be eligible for recycling purposes. Through our solution of automated trash sorting, we’ll be able to reduce the amount of recycling that is rendered ineligible and eventually contribute towards cleaner living environments for all. This result is possible due to less trash ending up in landfills, and subsequently fewer contaminants in the air. Good recycling mechanisms will also aid in maintaining resource availability for future generations. Our product is designed to be efficient, and scalable, and we believe that its incorporation into material recovery facilities will help streamline and improve the recycling conundrum that is ever present in our world. 

Part B (Written by Mohammed)
A particular societal factor our solution targets is ignorance to recycling requirements and regulations. In many places and cultures, what constitutes recyclable waste is not immediately obvious, which leads to people inappropriately categorizing their trash. Our project reduces the reliance on individual awareness by automatically and efficiently sorting the miscategorized trash. Furthermore, we intend on solving the potential challenge of product accessibility by designing an affordable and scalable system that can be accessed by both the public and private sector. That way, our solution can be deployed in not only wealthy governments and sorting facilities but also relatively poorer ones. 

Part C (Written by John)
The economics of our project are kept in check with our requirement of a low cost to prototyping our system. The product will also consist of a lot of off-the-shelf parts so it will be more feasible to connect with suppliers to reasonably assemble our project. The few parts that are custom-made are only custom to lower costs in our prototyping phase, but they can be reasonably fitted with other off-the-shelf parts to ease production. Since this project is meant to be used by larger bodies such as companies and government entities, which are typically more regulated, it will not hold the concerns of wide-spread distribution with other products that would be marketed to individuals and civilian consumers. The use case of the project designates it to be stationary throughout its usage and life cycle, so it would be feasible to distribute and deploy the product to specific facilities in a controlled manner. The product will solely contribute towards the goals of the facilities it is owned by, so there are likely little to no consequences of its use long-term.