Milestone 3 Report (Prepared by: Joshua Burkhart)
Intended Progress: Describe the features/components you wanted to complete by this milestone.
By this point in time, we had intended to have researched parts, order parts, receive parts, assemble the GPS shield, interface the GPS Shield with an arduino, interface the motor driver and motors with an arduino, work on a code library for the IR sensors, and begin working on navigation code.
Progress To Date: Describe what the team have been doing towards completing the tasks involved in realizing the current milestone objectives.
Progress since the last milestone includes successful construction of mobile power source, integration of electronic compass with arduino, and initiation of navigation code. At this point in time, a separate code library for IR sensors seems premature, as navigation code remains incomplete. The writing of an IR sensor library has not begun.
Projected Progress: What will you do in the next project phase in terms of code development, testing, integration and debugging. How will the team adjust its workload in order to compensate for current rates of progress in the chosen development areas, and how will work towards the next milestone be organised.
The next phase of the project will include finishing the navigation code, integrating the GPS shield, motor shield, and IR sensors with an arduino, and sufficient debugging. The team will most probably need to increase its workload in order to complete these tasks.
Problems Encountered: Comment on any significant problems with technical progress or group management. This is a chance to get input from the team's instructor on fruitful avenues for addressing technical problems or group management issues.
Both the GPS and motor shield were found to use the same pins by default. This poses a significant roadblock. Modification of the libraries may or may not resolve the issue. Underlying hardware differences in the pins may prevent nonstandard pins from use. Another possible method of avoiding this issue may be to use two arduinos (one mounted by the GPS and another mounted by the motor shield and compass) and implementing a communication protocol between them.
Conclusion: Brief overview of the status of the group and project overall.
In conclusion, we have made significant progress since our last milestone but now face a technical issue. This issue may be resolved with additional research.
