Assignment 2

Post 1: Project Ideas

Grocery Helper

Primary User

The primary users are individuals with limited mobility, particularly elderly people, who live independently and face challenges completing routine physical tasks like carrying groceries from the car and sorting them into the kitchen. This includes older adults, people with physical disabilities (e.g. poor eyesight), and those recovering from surgeries or injuries. For many, carrying heavy groceries (especially in poor weather or uneven terrain) and unpacking them can be painful, exhausting, or even dangerous.

Problems

Grocery shopping and carrying bags may seem minor, but for people with limited mobility, it presents several risks:

Physical Strain: Groceries can be heavy and can be hard to carry or even cause injuries
Navigational Hazards: Many elderly individuals feel unsafe moving through their kitchen or home, especially when carrying items, increasing the risk of falls or accidents.
Caregiver burden: Relying on caregivers or family members to go grocery shopping and put the food away can be taxing and increase feelings of dependency on others.

According to a study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 38.4% of adults aged 65 and older reported physical limitations such as difficulty lifting, reaching, or walking. These challenges can make carrying and sorting groceries not just inconvenient but risky. For older adults who live alone, even simple tasks like unpacking groceries can lead to strain or injury, especially when navigating stairs or reaching high shelves.

Current Solutions

Asking neighbors/family: Not always reliable and can make users feel like a burden
Caretaker services: Not always reliable and can be inaccessible
Grocery delivery services: Groceries only delivered to the door, still have the unsolved problem of unpacking them
Using rolling carts: Still requires them to navigate stairs or bumpy sidewalks and unpack the cart in the kitchen

Stretch Solutions

Stretch could bring grocery bags from the door and lift them up to the kitchen counter. Then, it could take all of the groceries out of the bag and organize them on the counter. In addition, it could organize groceries in the fridge. If Stretch does all of this, users would no longer have to worry about lifting heavy grocery bags and organizing the groceries.

If used in conjunction with delivery apps such as instacart, a grocery helper can help provide another level of independence for these individuals, as they will no longer be reliant on family members or caregivers for groceries.

User Recruitment Plan

We will ask each of our friends to see if they know people with limited mobility that may benefit from our project. We will also consult assisted-living facilities to get in touch with more users and identify their needs. We will check whether the users are willing to participate in interviews, their mobility limitations, and whether they are comfortable with testing the robot for this purpose.

Sources

Huang, D. L., Rosenberg, D. E., Simonovich, S. D., & Belza, B. (2012). Food Access Patterns and Barriers among Midlife and Older Adults with Mobility Disabilities. Journal of Aging Research, 2012, Article ID 231489. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/231489

Mail Fetcher

Primary User

The primary users are individuals with limited mobility who live independently and face challenges completing routine physical tasks like retrieving mail. This includes older adults, people with physical disabilities, and those recovering from surgeries or injuries. For many, walking long distances to the mailbox (especially in poor weather or uneven terrain) can be painful, exhausting, or even dangerous.

Problems

Fetching mail may seem minor, but for people with limited mobility, it presents several risks:

Fall risk: Outdoor trips, especially on stairs, icy sidewalks, or uneven terrain, can increase the risk of injury
Weather exposure: Rain, snow, or extreme heat can pose health risks to those with fragile immune systems or cardiovascular issues
Daily burden: The stress of daily physical strain adds to feelings of frustration and dependency on others

According to the CDC, falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among adults aged 65 and older. Many of these falls occur during everyday tasks like walking outside. For those who live alone, even a minor injury while fetching the mail can become a serious emergency.

Current Solutions

Mail forwarding services: Often expensive and impractical for short-term needs or daily deliveries
Asking neighbors/family: Not always reliable and can make users feel like a burden
Smart mailboxes with notifications: These reduce trips, but don’t eliminate the need to retrieve physical mail

Stretch Solutions

Stretch could serve as a reliable assistant in the daily task of mail retrieval. Stretch could go to the mailbox, use a key to unlock the mailbox, grab the mail and put it in a plastic bag, and bring it back to the user. This would ensure that users with mobility impairments don't have to risk their health to get the mail.

User Recruitment Plan

Sources

Kakara, R. (2023). Nonfatal and fatal falls among adults aged ≥65 years — United States, 2020–2021. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 72(35). https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7235a1

Post 2: ROS and Stretch Labs

When learning ROS, something challenging was understanding how different components like nodes, topics, and services communicate. It took us some time to understand how everything fits together, but the tutorial diagrams were definitely super helpful. We anticipate it may be tricky to debug message flow during our project.

When operating Stretch, something challenging was almost "fine-tuning" its motion to avoid jittery or imprecise movement when using our keyboard to control it.

Overall, we are excited to continue learning ROS and Stretch operation tools, and look forward to learning new concepts and connecting future labs together.

P.S. We weren't able to capture a picture of the ROS labs before the assignment 2 description was released but here are our group's notes. We have compiled a variety of syntax and conceptual details that we can refer back to throughout the capstone.

Post 3: Team Roles and Expectations

Since ROS is key for this capstone, will ensure that just one team member does not have the burden of learning the new technology. We all went through the ROS lab material both during and after class, taking notes on different sections to become familiar with the basic concepts of ROS. As we use it more for labs and project implementation, we plan to rotate the "driver's seat" when programming with ROS. This will ensure that everyone is engaged with the material that will likely take up large portions of time during sections of class and project implementation.

Similarly, hardware, design and fabrication tasks will be split up amongst team members with a lead point person to ensure group learning as well as progress in non-CSE areas that are new to us all :)

Additionally, for weekly blog updates, we will collaboratively discuss and write posts that require project decisions to ensure that everyone on the team is on board. Lastly, we will use our group chat as the main communication channel to discuss due dates, team meetings, splitting of work, and bugs we need to solve.

The individual responsibilities below can be updated as the quarter progresses if some members feel a stronger calling to them. We will also be flexible in roles and step in whenever help is needed (especially for skills that come with a higher learning curve, e.g. 3D design, sensors, hardware) and actively engage in all aspects of the robotics process.

Main Roles:

Afifah (user research lead & hardware guru) will ensure our project design is both user-centered and technically sound. She will prepare research materials, lead and communicate around user testing sessions, and analyze the resulting data to inform design decisions. She will also bring on hardware expertise (and learn where she doesn't know!) to ensure our design is operable from a physical standpoint. Additionally, Afifah will support all other group members, especially those whose roles integrate directly with hardware and user research, such as user interface, perception and design/fabrication.
Andrew (perception guru & design and fabrication) will ensure sensors are properly integrated into the project by leading the selection process and making sure the data they stream is effectively processed and connected to the system’s functionality. He will also take lead on outfitting the robot and its environment with the necessary augmentations to complete the given task. Andrew will support other team members as needed, especially in areas that intersect with perception, hardware integration, and physical design.
Heer (management, documentation and communications, hardware (partial), design and fabrication (partial)) will ensure everyone's voice is heard in team decisions and oversee writing and presentation materials. She will ensure that weekly blog posts are submitted on time with the input of the team for posts requiring project decisions (or with an extension in extenuating circumstances). She will document the team's execution of labs and robot implementation. For lab notes, she will manage the organization of them and distribute responsibilities as needed (e.g. ROS lab notes were split amongst team members to facilitate group learning). Heer will assist hardware and design & fabrication leads (Afifah and Andrew) in a joint effort due to their novelty.
Simran (user interface & ROS details) will ensure our interface is easy for users to understand and use. She will iterate on the interface design by collaborating with users and using their suggestions and feedback to improve the interface. She will also be the ROS "expert" for the team. She will ensure she is extremely comfortable using ROS so that during the implementation of the project the team is able to focus on building a good tool without getting hung up on technicalities!

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