What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready?
RPi may overheat with constant use, and constant use also requires a large battery capacity, which increases device weight.
Plan: Have the RPi only be responsible for pre-processing the camera data and compiling it into a package with any necessary metadata to be sent to a server. This makes it so that the RPi is not doing the bulk of the processing and only acts as a channel to the server. The implementation will require us to set up a server on the cloud that runs our object recognition model and have it listen for incoming packages from the RPi. The RPi will periodically (every 1 second, for example) send an image to the server. This allows for real-time detection while minimizing the load on the RPi.
Were any changes made to the existing design of the system (requirements, block diagram, system spec, etc)? Why was this change necessary, what costs does the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward?
There is a change made to the existing design regarding the change in the functionality of the ultrasonic sensor. To help reduce data latency when the user confronts an obstacle in the way, we plan on directly connecting the sensor to the vibration module rather than integrating the sensor with the recognition model. The cost will remain the same, but the purpose of an ultrasonic sensor has reduced from estimating the distance of an object and detecting an object to simply detecting that an object exists in front of the user. Then, there will be a change in plan to include the distance estimation model from a single source camera. Preferably, we will aim to integrate a single model that can take on both roles to relieve the workload of integrating two different models.
Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred.
Updated schedule to accommodate design changes and the need for further research:
2/10-2/16: Continue testing detection models to decide which ones to integrate
2/10-2/14: Continue research into camera modules, TOF cameras, and depth detection without ultrasonic sensors
2/12: Contact LAMP and set up a time to get feedback and suggestions for features
2/14: Order parts this week (RPi and potentially camera modules)