Overview of Status of Analysis, Design, Fabrication, Tests, etc.
The Parts needed to finish the assembly of the test bed have been ordered. Expect delivery by the middle to end of next week.
Completed CAD of tethered fly holder. This is a simple additional task given to us by the sponsor. He told us that he would like a better way of holding flies that had just been tethered. We brain stormed about potential designs with our sponsor and eventually agreed on a simple design that we believe can be easily 3D printed.
We dealt with some fly tethering issues last week and in response to these issues our sponsor put together a new tethering station for us to use in the future. This new station should be operational by the middle to end of this week.
Once the tethering station is operational we will begin tethering flies again so we can get a good video to use for coding purposes.
Due to the inability to tether flies until the end of this week, no further work has been done with the code.
Once the we have a functional tethering station, hopefully by late this week, we plan on getting some good videos so we can continue improving the code.
We have decided to pursue front projection as the means of displaying images on the spherical display. This decision was made due to the constraints of the virtual reality arena.
To achieve the display area needed to fill the fly's field of vision, we will be using a projection and mirror combo.
Accomplishments from Previous Week
Prepare and deliver a design proposal presentation for the class.
Agreed on a final design for the test bed that our sponsor approved.
Started work on CAD model of approved final design for the test bed.
Successfully tethered flies and generated pictures and videos for the presentation.
Proved that our preliminary setup of the test bed is capable of producing high quality pictures and video of tethered flies. (Really big deal)
Goals for Next Week (list names after each item). Use specific and measurable objectives.
Assembly of the test bed. (Dean and James)
3D print tethered fly holder. (James)
Design a way to attach the IR back light to the breadboard. (Dean)
Continue researching and learning about Open CV (All)
Incorporate wing edge detection code with one of our tethered fly videos. (Randy)
Begin wing amplification code. (Randy with help form James and Dean)
Sponsor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)
At the last meeting our sponsor expressed a desire to finalize our design for the test bed and get him a list of materials to order by the beginning of this week. In response to this we CADed a proposed final test bed design over the weekend and presented it to our sponsor at the beginning of this week for approval. After he approved the design we created a list of material and sent it to him for ordering.
Instructor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)
During the last meeting we presented our design proposal presentation to the class and instructor. He commented that he would have liked to have seen a more comprehensive overview of the project with a better explanation as to why flies are being studied. In response to this comment, we met with our sponsor to better understand why flies are being studied and the implication behind it. We have since updated our website's home page with an explanation of why fly research is important.
The instructor also commented that he would like to have seen a better explanation of key aspects of the code, such as wing angle measurements and how we are going to use the wing amplitude for fly steering. These comments have been noted and later presentations will strive to more clearly present our project.
Comments from Other Students in the Class (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)
The main comment that we received, via note cards after our presentation, related to why is this research important and how does it apply to people. As mentioned above, we talked to our sponsor about this to gain a better understanding and then updated our website. In our next presentation we will devote 1 or 2 slides to address these comments. (4-17-14)
Risks and Areas of Concern
Implementation of code now that we have proven that our preliminary setup is capable of producing good quality images of a tethered fly.
Projection method. Once we have all the parts, hopefully by the end of next week, we will begin testing to see how front projection with a mirror works.
Resources or Information Required but not Available
N/A
Schedule
Completion of test bed assembly.
Preliminary testing with projector.
Implement wing edge detection code on recorded video of tethered fly that we have produced.
Budget (list amount spent and amount remaining)
Point Gray USB 3, Flea 3 1280X1024 high speed camera. ($600.00)
Macro zoom lens ($1000.00)
Other parts are on order. Will update the budget once we have obtained the invoice from our sponsor.
Amount remaining ($3,400.00)
Progress on Report and Webpage
We have added a paragraph to the homepage about why fly research is important.
We have assigned tasks for the first draft of the report.