Committee Updates - February Progress

Hello everyone! Our team has been super busy this past month leading up to the Mid-Grant Review, making a lot of progress in preparation for the presentation! Here are some updates!

 

Communications:

Communications has spent a lot of time creating invite lists and drafting and finalizing invitations for the Mid-Grant Technical Review. They created lists of fire liaisons and community leaders they wanted to attend to give us feedback on Hydra. On top of the Mid-Grant Technical Review, Communications continued to run all of our social medias. From our new weekly Instagram updates to our weekly features and announcements, our Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are filled with information on Hydra. Finally, Communications is working on designing business cards with Hydra’s new logo. These business cards will hopefully provide a quick and easy way to let people know about our device! In March, Communications hopes to finalize their business cards, keep our social medias active, and reach out to more fire stations and news outlets to spread the word about Hydra!

 

Programming Motion:

Programming Motion spent February adding to their code. They were able to integrate OpenCV's KCF tracking functionality into Hydra’s code. This means that instead of tracking the white pixels, they are tracking embers, so they can calculate the ember’s trajectory and shoot water at it more accurately. Programming Motion also built a stepper motor class, consolidating code so that they can use the same structure for both of the stepper motors (one that turns the base horizontally, and the other one that turns the nozzle vertically). Finally, Programming Motion and App Design are working closely together to connect Hydra and the app via an MQTT server. Although they struggled to differentiate between servo and stepper code, and have had trouble sorting out their MQTT file, they have accomplished a lot and are still hard at work. In the upcoming months, they hope to create code to send commands and receive information from the server control two stepper motors (and maybe a servo motor) simultaneously using a raspberry pi, simulating how the actual device will work, and do more testing with the KCF tracking feature and raspberry pi.

 

Programming App:

Throughout February, Programming App’s interface sub-committee worked to perfect the app’s design, and Programming App’s research sub-committee worked on linking the app with Hydra. The interface team completed the interface for pages such as their home page, their scenarios page, their notification page, and more. They worked hard to have an awesome interface to show off at the Mid-Grant Review! The research team focused on connecting Hydra to the app through an MQTT file. As mentioned previously, they worked super closely with programming motion to make this happen. So, they faced similar challenges sorting out the MQTT files, and finding ways to meet often with programming motion. The research team also worked on completing the wireframe for the app using swift UI. In the future, the interface team wants to perfect the cohesiveness of the interface, and the research team wants to finish connecting Hydra to the app, and continue to create their wireframe.

CAD:

CAD has made lots of progress on the design on Hydra. This month, they gathered more accurate measurements from the strobe light model, completed the 3D frame structure of the base and arms, and completed the sketch of the base where the water nozzle will go. Currently, CAD is working to turn the completed sketch of the water nozzle base into a 3D model, to create a physical model of Hydra. Finally, they are continuing to learn more about Fusion360, specifically tools such as extrude, constraints, joints, and more. Their goals for the next months are to finish the 3D sketch of the base, specifically where the nozzle will go, finalize the plumbing system of the base inside Hydra, and create an outer layer for the base.

 

Budget and Purchasing:

Budget and Purchasing continues to check with teams and order any necessary supplies. They have ordered items for lots of committees in the past few weeks, including Programming Motion and Engineering. For Programming Motion, Budget purchased stepper motors to help them test code, and for Engineering, Budget bought supplies for the plumbing of the device, such as solenoid valves, a spray sprinkler body, tubing, tube fittings, sealant tape, and more! In the future, they hope to continue to upload receipts to Team Access, ask committees what items they need to purchase soon, find the right items and order them!

 

Engineering:

Leading up to the Mid-Grant Review, the Engineering Committee has been hard at work completing and building the plumbing for Hydra. They did a lot of research and measurements on both the fan nozzles and the main nozzles in order to find the best tubing and adapters to ensure water can travel easily throughout the device. Besides tubing and adapters, Engineering also found the best solenoid valves and made sure that they had all the correct measurements to fit with the tubing and nozzles. The committee has also begun working with the CAD committee to create a 3D Fusion360 model of the plumbing, which they can use in their rendering of the device. In the coming months, they plan to complete the plumbing of Hydra, and get it working with the coding that Programming Motion is working on, and then begin focusing on building and designing the outer shell of our device.

All of the committees have been working very hard and we can’t wait to present our work at the Mid-Grant Technical Review this Thursday!