Week 1

Project Decision

First order of business in week 1 was to form our group and determine what project we were going to develop over the course of the next 10 weeks.  We debated about different ideas we could incorporate into the development of the robot and a common theme of "shoot something" was tossed around.  This lead to the decision to create a SpyBot.

We want to create a robot that is able to navigate a building and locate sensitive information.  When it finds this information it will pick it up to bring back to the extraction point.  During the robot's time navigating the building and locating this information, it is quite likely to rouse some suspension.  When the robot encounters and identifies hostile targets, it will then eliminate these targets.

The overall function of our robot is to search a building for sensitive information and eliminate hostile targets along the way.  In an order to do this, we had to split our team up and assign certain aspects of the overall project so that we could accomplish many things at once.  Two people were tasked with designing and eventually creating the floor plan for the building that will be navigated through and the remaining three team members will be working on the development of the SpyBot.

The SpyBot is going to require an appropriate design that allows it to navigate the halls and rooms of the building quickly, being able enter doorways and avoid obstacles and running into walls.  It will also need a method for detecting the sensitive information and then acquiring this information.  The SpyBot will also need a way to identify hostile targets and have a means of eliminating them.

Project Assignments: Building Floor Plan Team

The building floor plan team is comprised of Joseph Grande and Jacob Sabu.  Initial designs will be generated using AutoCAD and then later assembled with foam board.  The floor plan design needs to large enough to have several rooms in which information and enemies can be randomly placed for the SpyBot to locate and needs proper hallway and room dimensions so that the SpyBot will fit.  Without a initial design concept for the SpyBot, the initial floor plan will not include dimensions.  Once the SpyBot concept is complete, proper dimensions can be assigned to the floor plan and then can be physically built.

Project Assignments: Designing the SpyBot

The SpyBot design has been assigned to Harsh Patel, Gina Medayil and John Rose.  Using the design concepts decided upon during the Project Decision phase, the team will need to design a robot that has the correct physical attributes to get the job done.  This includes being able to navigate hallways and rooms without running into walls or other obstacles and being able to identify its targets, the sensitive information and the hostiles.  

Project Assignments: Design Proposal

One of the first things that needs to be completed for this project is our design proposal.  The design proposal is an important document that outlines many aspects of what the team is building and how it is that we intend to accomplish our project.  We need to provide a clear indication of what the team plans to deliver at the end of the 10 weeks, the technical activities that will be used in completing the project, as well as developing an appropriate timeline and budget.  Team members were individually assigned sections from the proposal that best fits their part in the overall project.