The biggest risk, which I (Varun) only realized while testing, was whether or not the suction cups could even hold up an iPad. Thankfully, that risk was provably mitigated. Currently, the most significant risk is the kinematics. We’ll need to update the previously thought-out kinematics to be slightly more robust (described in our design report). I hope to figure that out this coming week.
We changed the block diagram of our system a bit, to account for said kinematics. We’ll need fast encoder feedback, which can really only be done on bare metal microcontrollers, rather than the OS-stuffed Raspberry Pi 4. We updated our block diagrams to reflect this change. It adds the cost of the Raspberry Pi Pico, which is rather minimal. Varun’s status report has the progress of the suction system!
Part A – Varun:
Our target demographic is, by design, people who are not technologically savvy. As mentioned many times prior, the inspiration for this project came through Hayden’s grandfather, whose capability to move is rather limited. Also limited is his technological ability. As such, we decided to simplify the control sequence to ensure that people whose technological ability is at the same level can easily use HomeRover. Additionally, the automatic sequence to grab an object is easily reachable by the touch of a button, so users don’t have to spend a lot of time to learn how to use our system. The factor we want to touch is one that is not talked about much, which is recovery. Though recovery is extremely important, it is a part of the process that is hard to suffer through. We aim to ease that suffering just a little bit, with HomeRover.
Part B – Hayden:
In regards to different cultural factors our design is robust in a manner that does not require a written language. Our control center uses four buttons for controls which will be labeled with arrows and two buttons for interacting. The two buttons will be labeled with icons that can be translated in a user manual to make the design usable by all cultures. The monitor will display when the rover is in the proper range to pickup the item using colors; red and green are seemingly universal for good and bad so we are employing these colors on our display. As far as moral values in religions our design uses ethically sourced materials and we are mitigating waste by using our modular design. As far as traditions and laws, the only groups I can think of that we are violating their beliefs with our design are the Amish and Mennonite communities; these groups are not in our target demographic so our design is sufficient culturally.
Part C – Nathan:
Considering environmental factors, especially when pertaining to our design’s relationship with living organisms and natural resources, we are primarily concerned with the sourcing of our parts. Because our design utilizes LiPo batteries on both the user side and control side, we have to be cognizant on the origins of the lithium, and by extension the cobalt, that goes into these rechargeable batteries. According to Siddharth Kara, “roughly 75 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the Congo”, and oftentimes this is by the hands of child labor. If we are not aware of the origins of the cobalt that go into our batteries, we are directly supporting these brutal mining practices that are causing both human and environmental catastrophe through the exploitation and exhaustion of the natural resources of the Congo land. This is an environmental consequence of utmost importance and it will be considered heavily when purchasing the parts for our system.