Progress Updates Part 3

This week was our reading week which meant that all classes were canceled and the group got to dedicate a lot more time towards the project. The team set a few major goals for reading week as follows:

Major Goals for Reading Week:

  1. Complete machining of robot lift, robot enclosure, and supporting brackets to assemble by the February 27th
  2. Complete integration of vision system with robot
  3. Implementation of LIDAR safety systems and real world testing
  4. Tuning of drive PID controller with load on the wheels
  5. Integration and final wiring on February 27th

Since the individual components are more complicated, the detailed overview of each part will have their own blog posts coming up. In terms of the overall progress for each of the goals.

Condensed Updates:

  1. Machining took longer than expected, even with 3 group members working on machining actively during reading week, machining of the lift, chassis, and supporting brackets have not yet been completed but it is scheduled to be completed by March 1st.
  2. Vision system integration was successful with robot arm, vision system can identify a point and the robot arm motion planner creates a path to the point. Further calibration is required but the two systems are able to communicate using ROS.
  3. Navigation LIDAR safety algorithms were implemented using simulations, real world testing has begun but is not complete
  4. PID drive system has been tuned with load, will need to tune again once the mechanical assembly is fully complete
  5. Integration is behind schedule and has not started as of Feb 27th

On the Radar:

There are three weeks left for the project, I will be watching the machining closely, the parts need to be finished by March 1st.