Lots of CAD and Software Integration

Phase 4: Active Testing

Sprint 9, March 28 — April 11

What was the overall goal of this sprint?

The goal of this sprint was to continue pushing forward with CAD for Hawsepiper and preparing for fabrication, as well as integrating software to get Git Boat ready for water testing.

What did the mechanical subteam accomplish?

The mechanical team continued to make advancements in the Hawsepiper CAD and building a test rig for the sail. Half of the mechanical subteam continued to work on fabricating the test sail, while the other half worked on further developing the CAD. Most of the subteam also got trained to use the composites bay in preparation for full hull fabrication later in the year. They initially planned on fabricating the outriggers to get a sense of working with the newly acquired foam, but faced a few setbacks coordinating times to use the shopbot. Overall the mechanical subteam has been pushing forward in order to get the Hawsepiper CAD completed and ready for fabrication.

Mechanical fabricated and tested a small wing sail (and learned how to shrink wrap it) for Hawsepiper. Their test results were quite promising, with the aerodynamics working out as planned.

What did the software subteam accomplish?

The software subteam worked on rearchitecting the path planner to integrate with ROS, and now they are about ready to start testing its behavior in the ROS environment. They also tweaked a few odds and ends to make the ROS system easier to work with.

The software system consists of various ROS nodes running on a Raspberry Pi Zero W. Each node is written in Python, and the telemetry server is written in Node.js and runs on Heroku for use with the web app monitor.

Additionally, software brought on a new member to assist in the development of a close-range small obstacle detection system. They began by looking at the IntCatch AI waterline detection project, in the hopes of maybe using that to spot obstacles below the waterline. The two members working on this were able to get the code up and running on Olin’s supercomputer by the end of the sprint and are now working on developing a means of detecting obstacles.

Lastly, more work was done on the remote monitoring web app. Specifically, it is now possible to start and stop rosbags, set a goal position, and view waypoints generated by the path planner on the map.

The remote monitoring web app (written using React) allows us to keep tabs on the boat and modify its behavior if the need should arise. This sprint we added integration with the path planner.

What did the electrical subteam accomplish?

The electrical subteam received their order of the new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (released last month), which will be used for Hawsepiper, as well as a drybox and random peripherals for the computer.

Where do we stand as a team and where do we see ourselves going next sprint?

As the end of the semester draws closer, we are all preparing to water test and start fabricating. The next steps for the team are to complete the detail CAD for Hawsepiper, get Git Boat completely ready for water testing, and start fabricating Hawsepiper.

Signed

Katie Thai-Tang (Mechanical Subteam) and Kyle Combes (Electrical and Software Subteams)