Another successful week has occurred for us working on our Roomberry Project. After successfully implementing our serial tether on Monday, we started putting together the rest of the pieces we had been working on. The biggest improvement came from the addition of our line following IR sensor. Our roomba now follows dark lines, specifically black electrical tape at the moment. The goal for this is for us to darken the lines between our floor tiles in the data center, and have the sensor follow that. The biggest hurdle thus far with that idea is the thickness, or lack there-of, of the space between the tiles. Owen will have to fine tune his code in order for it to stay on track. With the help of David and Eric, we were also able to successfully 3d print a new caster bin, replacing the vacuuming tray, in an attempt to have a spacious place for the hardware. After 3-4 tries, and a roll or two of ABS, it was printed perfectly. The main focus from here on out is to fine tune the IR, and continue to work on a feasible solution for the roomba to know when to take readings and upload them, as well as turn commands. We originally thought to use QR codes with the RPi NOIR camera, but decided we might have better luck with an RFID reader.
There is still much work to be done, but there will be continuous progression on this project the next 5-6 weeks.
