Spring 2017 Week 13

This week, I was assigned the task of testing out a second ultrasonic sensor on the pod car. During the Paseo Prototyping Challenge and Festival, there were instances where two pod cars would approach a merging point on the track and collide. Therefore, the team agreed that a second ultrasonic sensor would be necessary to avoid such instances. 

Initially, I had some trouble integrating the second ultrasonic sensor due to some complications within the code. Fortunately, I figured it out and integrated the second ultrasonic sensor such that it works exactly the same as the initial ultrasonic sensor. Now that I know that integrating an extra ultrasonic sensor is not a problem, the next step is to figure out how to utilize and position it. Once that is established, more testing can be conducted on the track with the new sensor. 

Spring 2017 Week 12

This week, I worked on organizing the code and creating header files for the functions at the request of the software team. The software team requested help from Luis and I in order to organize the code in camelCase such that the code can be easily read and deciphered even after the academic year is over. In addition, the software team requested that we help them create header files for each function in order to simplify the code and make it even easier to read. In other words, this week was focused on organization and simplification of the Arduino code so that it can be easily decipherable for both us and the future teams to come.

Rather than coding, there is not much left for my team and I to do now since a majority of the coding falls on the software team. Therefore, we are essentially taking on a support role until the project is finished. Fortunately, the project is almost done so I am confident that we will be able to finish by Maker Faire.

Spring 2017 Week 11

This week, the team was able to test the pod cars on the track one final time before the Paseo Prototyping Challenge and Festival. Fortunately, the pod cars were able to travel around the track with minimal binding. However, we were unsuccessful at getting the pod cars to run with the phone application. Therefore, for the showcase at Paseo Prototyping Challenge and Festival, the pod cars were hard coded to specific routes in order to give a demo of the project. Although the pod cars did not have all the functions that we wanted, they still worked. Therefore, by Maker Faire, I hope to have all the pod cars working simultaneously with the phone application.

Spring 2017 Week 10

This week, I met up with Chris, Luis, and the rest of the 1/12th scale sub teams on Friday in order to get more testing done. Fortunately, the software team and my team were finally able to get the pod car running on the track. However, there were many tight spots within the track where the pod car would significantly slow down or get stuck. Unfortunately, the track team had left the shop before we were able to identify any problems with the track. Therefore, more testing needs to be conducted before this Friday. As such, the team is fairly behind, but I am confident we will be able to get it finished by the Paseo Public Prototyping Challenge and Festival.