Progress report
Progress:
This week we researched different drones that could carry out the tasks needed. The drone must be able to carry a certain payload (stack of papers), and be able to maneuver through small spaces with ease. Most importantly, this drone must be able to be programmed autonomously using either raspberry pi or Arduino. Our drone selections must also meet the $1000 budget given to us.
Problems solved:
Budget was a problem at first, but with further research we were able to find a bunch of drones that met our financial limitations.
Lessons learned:
this week, we learned that our drone cannot be perfect. There will always be something (weather it be size, weight, or strength of rotors) that will limit us from having the drone fly at its greatest potential.
Problem:
At this point in our drone research, we have not encountered any problems except for a limited number of drones with reasonable flight times. Some drones only have 12-14 minute flight times, which may not be enough for a long range delivery if it were to be used in a warehouse or large office building.
Plan:
Our plan is to decide on a drone we like and order it. We are also going to move onto the research of our algorithm and hardware. Once the drone arrives, we can play around with the box building and other fun things like that.
More than one month (09/25/2014) ago, I leave the following request in the comment field of your first progress report post:
ReplyDelete"... can someone in your group make a table to summarize your findings? It is very important to approach problems in a systematic way in research. The table should include at least the following columns: model, manufacturer, weight carrying capability, size/dimension, sensors, control/communication mechanism, programmability/SDK, price, comments/decision/reason. The document can be a Word or Excel document."
Unfortunately, the request has not been answered, and I am not sure your group actually read it. Though the current progress report sounds promising, however, it lacks of solid technical information. Sometimes we do need to discuss concepts, but most of the time technical report needs solid facts, and detail info. Without clear information, people won't know whether you have looked through and compare 3 drones or 300 drones. Furthermore, after a few weeks, people in your group won't remember the details about how and why you made certain decisions. At the same time, you are unable to justify your request to your sponsor for buying the drone.
Progress report is not just a "necessary evil" you need to do weekly for the class. It's an important piece of document to record many things you have learned, tried, failed, and tested in a 7-day period. If one person spends only 6 hours a week (including class time), it will represent the work progress of 30 man-hours! When the report lack of solid information, for anyone outside your group, the reasonable guess will be: "your group has no real progress."