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.

Spring 2017 Week 9

This week is spring break so my team and I decided to meet up our own accord so that we could make more progress on the project, if not finish it. So far, we have met this past Sunday in order to see if we could test anything on the track. Unfortunately, the track improvement team had disassembled the track in order to make some fixes. As a result, my team was not able to get much done as our next steps are testing, but we are unable to test so long as the track is not ready. We plan to meet up on Friday and Saturday and the track should be ready by then so hopefully my team and I will be able to finally have something running on the track for testing.

Spring 2017 Week 8

This week, my team and I realized how many setbacks we actually have regarding the project. We had went to the warehouse in an attempt to get one pod car running on the track, but we were unable to do so and left with more issues. Therefore, I am not confident that there will be 5-6 pod cars running on the track at the same time because of all these issues we have.

What will most likely happen is that the team will be spending a lot of time over spring break trying to fix all the small issues and then actually testing the pod car on the track. Hopefully, we will have at least one pod car running on the track to display the concept of the Spartan Superway. In addition, Luis and I could also try to hard code 5 other pod cars to loop between a couple stations over and over so that the project does not look too bare. Other than testing and troubleshooting, there is not much else to do this week.

Spring 2017 Week 7

This week was focused on giving our first presentation and then attempting to finish up getting the rotary encoders to work. The presentation went well in my opinion and can found in my group's blog. Unfortunately, I was unable to figure out how to get the rotary encoders to work because the the soldering on the motor and encoder that I had broke off. Therefore, I had to wait until Wednesday in order to receive a functioning one from Chris. In addition, Luis was unable to figure out how to get the rotary encoders to work on his end. Therefore, we are behind schedule now. However, if it comes down to it, Luis and I will definitely ask Professor Furman for some assistance. Hopefully, Luis and I will be able to figure it out by the end of this week because we must begin testing very soon.