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Team Status Report 2/22

Risks:

Our most prominent risks right now are setting up the RealSense SDK, and troubleshooting any connection or compatibility issues that we may have with the Jetson.

Changes:

We initially had Maya and Kaya working together for most of the hardware components, but we are going to have Kaya and Cynthia work on more of the Computer Vision together as we changed our implementation to use a more challenging algorithm, and Maya will continue working on the hardware components. We are in a better spot with the Jetson than the RealSense and we are realizing that object detection is likely going to take longer than we planned, so we are giving that aspect more attention because many other aspects are reliant on the object detection being completed.

 

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Maya’s Status Report 2/22

Accomplishments:

This week, we completed our design report, so we only have a few small details and tables to add and change before it is due on 2/28. My specific role in this was use-case requirements, part of design-case requirements, and a large part of the implementation plan. I also worked with Kaya to flash our Jetson for the first time.

Progress:

We are ahead of schedule in terms of our design report, and we are technically still on schedule for our technical advances, but it feels like we need to make a lot of progress with the jetson this week to stay on schedule.

Future deliverables:

In this upcoming week, we will be finishing our design presentation and finalizing all of our tables and diagrams that go with that. We will also be working a lot on the Jetson and hopefully beginning to look at the FSR and haptic motors if they come in this week. This week needs to be much more tech-focused than documentation focused so that we are in a good place after spring break.

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Cynthia’s Status Report for 2/15

Accomplishments:

This week, I worked mainly on our Design Review presentation.  I worked on the Use Case Requirements, Technical Challenges, and Implementation Plan.  Specifically, I researched more into the differences between using CV for obstacles vs creating a simple algorithm utilizing the depth and distance detection of the L515 LiDAR Camera for object classification and added this differentiation to our presentation.  Additionally, I created the Top Level Design flow chart and the diagram for the cane.  I am additionally preparing to present our slides on Monday.  I also researched the main libraries I will be using to implement the object detection and to gather the distance information needed, specifically the libraries OpenCV, TensorFlow object detection API, RealsenseCamera, and pyRealSense2.

Progress:

Our project is on schedule.  We are meeting on Sunday to start initialization.

Future Deliverables:

I will present this week, then we will be working on the written report for the Design Review.  Additionally, we should have our Jetson Nano initialized by the end of the week and possibly pseudocode for the CV.

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Kaya’s Status Report for 02/15

This week, I worked on our design presentation and worked on the implementation plan, specifically finding specific devices for each of our components. I did research on various potential haptic device and various types of force sensitive resistor. Additionally, I was able to map out specific libraries we are going to use for our software integration and for our Jetson Nano programming.

Progress:

Our project is on schedule. We are planning on starting the technical tasks on Sunday by diving into the Jetson initialization.

Future deliverables:

In the upcoming week, we will be working on the Jetson Nano initialization and working on finalizing the design presentation. Our goal by the end of the next week is to have a better understanding of the Jetson environment.

 

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Team Status Report 2/15

Risks:

Only risk would be if the software libraries we choose are not compatible with all of our devices.

Changes:

No changes in the plan yet. We plan on starting the initialization of our technical devices this week.

 

A was written by Cynthia, B was written by Maya, and C was written by Kaya.

A: With regards to public health, CurbAlert can improve the mental well-being of our users by increasing their confidence and independence with navigation, along with reducing the stress related to mobility challenges when both support and a white cane is needed.  The safety of our disabled users will also be improved with CurbAlert, since its main purpose is to prevent falls and collisions by detection obstacles and providing feedback with enough time to take action.  So, the product will both provide support to help keep injured or elderly individuals from falling and warning and feedback to prevent collisions and other injuries with objects, walls, or stairs.  By being a practical, everyday tool that provides independence and accessibility, our project improves overall welfare, ensuring that individuals with mobility impairments can navigate more freely and safely.

B: Our inspiration for this project was a family friend of mine that was recently injured, and has to walk with a walking cane, but also has to walk with a blind cane. She was expressing to me how difficult it was for her to live a normal life because she can’t get around very well at all. After talking to my group about this project, I decided to call and get her opinion on possible design choices and what the most important features were for her. She said she wants the ability to navigate safely in unfamiliar environments without feeling overwhelmed or dependent on others for guidance. We believe our cane will be a form of advocacy for individuals who feel that they have lost their independence or ability to have any form of social life because of the limitations that 2 canes provide. We also believe that our cane can provide blind people with more workplace accessibility, and more opportunities for employment.

C.  Economically, most of the devices we are using are recycled devices from last semester. These recycled deices include the F515 Camera and the Jetson Nano. After these devices, we chose our cane based off of affordability and usability as we choose the cheapest cane that matches our needs. This will allow us to sell the cane at an affordable price. For production/distribution, we would plan on making these canes in bulk such that we could lower the price of these canes. Our main goal is to have our cane be accessible to people of any income.

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Maya’s Status Report 2/15

Accomplishments:

This week, I worked on our design presentation, and I specifically worked on the Gaant Chart, work distribution, part of the implementation plan, and part of the top-level design. Additionally, I did research on possible power supplies and the requirements of our prototype. I also did research on the haptics items we need, the pressure pad items we need, and how we are going to connect them to the jetson. I put in a purchase request for all of these items.

Progress:

Our project is on schedule, but we want to being making more technical progress, so we will be meeting on Sunday to make more technical progress. This will include initializing our Jetson Nano and familiarizing ourselves with the L515 Camera.

Future deliverables:

In the upcoming week, we will be making our design presentation, and we will also be clearing the Jetson Nano, which we have heard is not straightforward. As long as we work through that, we will hopefully be starting to set up the environment as well and familiarize ourselves with the layout.

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Cynthia’s Status Report for 2/8

This week my main two focuses were the quantitative aspects of the proposal presentation slides and the research behind the possible microcontrollers we could use.  For the presentation, I mainly worked on the quantitative Use-Case Requirements, Solution Approach, and Metrics sections, researching what we should base values such as detection range on.  For researching microcontrollers, I specifically did a comparison between Raspberry Pi 4, Raspberry Pi 5, NVIDIA Jetson ORIN Nano, NVIDIA Jetson ORIN Nano, NVIDIA Jetson XAVIER, NVIDIA Jetson Nano 4GB, and NVIDIA Jetson Nano 2GB to determine that the NVIDIA Jetson ORIN Nano is ideal for our project given our performance, weight, power supply, and power efficiency requirements.  We then received this microcontroller from the inventory.

I am on schedule, since our main plan this week was to obtain the individual parts needed for our project.

In the next week I hope to discover how the data from the LiDAR camera is formatted and I hope to determine the libraries I will use to process and analyze the photo stream.  I additionally plan to start researching existing object detection code and determining general pseudocode for my algorithm.

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Maya’s Status Report for 2/8

This week I worked on our presentation, specifically the use-case, use-case requirements, and technical challenges sections. During this process, we were able to flush out more specific details including our main testing points and determining what order they will be in. This presentation can be viewed under presentation 1 here. Additionally, I requested and received the LiDAR camera from the inventory, meaning we have the necessary hardware to stay on track.

Currently our progress is on schedule, and I will begin working with the Jetson Nano to get the environment set up and gather my bearings with this new computer. Kaya and I will be working together to learn this new technology since we anticipate some slow initial progress as we learn and set up our environment.

Specific deliverables for next week:

  • Set up Jetson Nano environment and troubleshoot any problems that come up.
  • Creating a log of errors and their solutions or other procedural notes that we will need in the future.
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Kaya’s Status Report for 2/8

Kaya’s Status Report for 02/01:

This week, I focused on the first presentation we had to give. The slides I specifically focused on were the testing, verification, metrics, and part of the solution approach slide. Additionally, I was the student who presented on behalf of our group so I made sure I understood each slide in depth and practiced presenting the presentation confidently several times (presentation: Team_A7_Akinci_Meah_Voelkl). After presenting, I listened to everyone’s feedback and factored in their input for the development of the cane.

After presenting, I focused on going through the parts document, helping my teammates navigate through the paper. As for this upcoming week, I plan on getting started understanding the Jetson Nano ORIN. I am planning to take a deep dive with Maya into the configuration of this Jetson. The specific deliverables I plan on having are:

  • Set up Jetson Nano environment and troubleshoot any problems that come up.
  • Creating a log of errors and their solutions or other procedural notes that we will need in the future.

As for our progress, we are definitely on track.

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Team Status Report for 2/8

This week, our team presented our first proposal, conducted additional research, and wrote a few requests for the equipment. Currently, the only risks that could jeopardize our project success are if we picked a type of Jetson that can’t configure properly later with our camera or if our power requirements are too high for the planned battery setup. We are managing the risks by ensuring we have backup equipment planned, including alternative options for the camera, sensors, power supply, and microcontroller. An updated schedule will be we will have to add an additional week just for finding and configuring any new equipment.