This week, we met to work on integrating the mechanical aspects of our project with our software. We worked on putting together the mount that will be attached to the stand to hold the motor and tested the motor code with the Arduino and the motor which proved to be successful. We are continuing to work on integrating the OpenCV programs and height adjustment process with the firmware for the interim demo.
Currently, the most significant risks we are facing with our project is the mechanical design and making sure that the modifications we made to the screw of the jack will allow the platform to raise smoothly and not break. Additionally, the mount we created to hold the motor will need to be sturdy and securely attached to the beams of the jack to allow the motor to be joined with the screw in order to automate the height adjustment process. To mitigate these risks, we have thought of modifications that may need to be made to our CAD designs in the case that there are issues with the stability and size of the mount.
Due to the incompatibility of the Arduino Uno Rev4 with the L293D motor driver that we had previously purchased, we made a change to the design of the system by switching the Arduino with an older version, the R3. This is a component that we already had on hand, so no additional charges are incurred.