Home | Hardware Plan | Hardware | Graphical User Interface | Human Interaction | Design | Reflections
Reflections
Project One
When we decided to do this project, we had to decide what hardware we wanted to use so that we could order it as we knew it would take some time to arrive. While we were waiting, we setup our Github repository and collated all the tutorials that we thought we might need to connect a raspberry PI to the Roomba. We also planned out how Dot was going to look regarding size and what we though would be more appealing to users/customers. This included the location of the touch screen to allow users to communicate effectively.
Up to this point there had been talk of the Polytechnic closing due to COVID-19. This hadn’t affected us much except for the shipping times for parts from overseas. But once lockdown started the Polytechnic was closed forcing us to work separately from home via Teams. Due to the nature of this project, this was devastating to our productivity and motivation, and subsequently we were not able to work with any of the hardware. Because of this we had to get creative and do our best to just research and document this research. During this time, we started making a GUI in python for the user interface for Dot.
Once all the hardware arrived, we had to get it to a team member for them to work on. Since the Roomba was sent from the United States it had a different plug than what we use in New Zealand meaning we needed an adapter. Unfortunately, because of lockdown this prevented us from going and buying one since the shops were closed, meaning the project was delayed even further.
Once lockdown was taken down to level 2, we could access the building and the equipment. Because of health concerns we were not comfortable with extending our bubbles. Even so, we managed to have a play around with the Roomba and connect it to the computer. We found a program called Realterm that was able to connect to the port required by the Roomba and the correct Baud number. Once this was set up we were able to send number codes to the Roomba provided from the ICreate manual. To test the Roomba was communicating with the PC we used the number codes to set the correct time and get it to make noise. Additionally, we managed to get the touch screen communicating with the Raspberry Pi, so that we could touch the screen and interact with the Pi. However, this is pretty much all we were able to accomplish.
Our plan for next semester is to get the raspberry PI talking to the Roomba by following a tutorial online. Once this is working, we would have a better understanding on how we are going to achieve what we set out to do. Overall, we feel that this semester we tried our best considering the circumstances and we will start next semester fresh and ready to achieve greatness.
Project Two
Time management:
At the beginning we tried to get as much done as possible because we knew we were going to be busy towards the end of the semester. We always took advantage of our project time to get together as a team and work on our project. We tried our best at the start of the semester to do sprints, but after the first three sprints that started to trail off. When we stopped doing sprints, we were still making plans and ourselves timeframes to get things completed by.
Communication:
Our communication has always been exceptional as we use Facebook Messenger, so we are always in contact. If there was an issue it would be resolved quickly. We were always present at meetings and equally contributed. If someone was going to be absent, they would let the team know via Messenger.
Motivation:
We were always willing to work on assigned tasks.
Contribution:
Everyone contributed equally and everyone was a key member to the success of the team.
Conclusion
We are happy with what we achieved this semester even though we didn’t get as far through the project as we would have liked to. We feel that if we had more time on project and one less paper to work on, we would have been much further than we are currently. Regardless we feel we are leaving a good foundation for the next team to take our project to the next level in development.
References
Azarian, B. (2016, April 13). Designing Robots That Avoid The Uncanny Valley. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201604/designing-robots-avoid-the-uncanny-valley
Cherry, K. (2020, January 17). How White Impact Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/color-psychology-white-2795822
Cook, W. (2018, February 15). The designers helping us embrace robots. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180215-the-designers-helping-us-embrace-robots