Risks:
There are no major new risks at the moment. We are proactively mitigating the primary risks associated with full robot assembly by continuing our strategy of modular integration testing. For example, this week we successfully wired up both the IMU and the TF-Luna LiDAR to run simultaneously on the ESP32-S3 using the same shared I2C GPIO pins. This important step confirms that our data interconnects and initial module interactions are stable before committing to final assembly. Looking ahead, we still need to begin soldering components directly to the PCBs and attach the buck converters to the remaining battery connectors. Therefore, our main remaining risk is the potential for unforeseen hardware or power distribution issues arising during this final, permanent physical integration phase.
Design and Schedule Changes:
There have been no fundamental changes to our overall design path or timeline. However, we did introduce a highly effective architectural enhancement: utilizing a micro-ROS middleware layer encapsulated in Docker to better bridge the raw, hardware-level sensor data with the live UI. This architectural enhancement solved a difficult integration problem without altering our core design. We remain on schedule overall; while UWB trilateration is still being finalized, we have successfully gotten the motors, H-Bridge, IMU, and LiDAR operational.