grayson_o
Project Title: Computer Vision and Autonomous Systems
Project Scope: Classroom attendance and hazardous military material removal
Project Duration/timeline: 2016-2017 school year, possibly into 2018 (autonomous golf cart subproject)
Project partners (internal and external): Ilan Naibryf, partner for swarm bots.
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Materials (tools, equipment, supplies, locations, remote resources-be specific):
Automated Attendance System
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Raspberry Pi 3 (rpi3-oliver-evil (pi)@10.14.254.6)
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USB webcam
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Phidget RFID reader
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RFID cards
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Eventually, access to the current HPA student attendance database
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Duplicates of all of these, when large-scale distribution is possible
Minesweeper Bots
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Arduino/Raspberry Pi (must do research into price and robustness)
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2 motors (continuous rotation servos?) prototype can use existing Elab parts
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GPS HAT
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Wifi Shield (unless Raspberry Pi 3 is used)
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Solar panels
People (include response email from each resource person, agreeing to your materials/support request):
Ilan Naibryf:
Online resources (web pages, wikis, online programs):
Proposal (latest version)
Abstract: This project will focus on first creating an automated attendance system using a combination of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and facial recognition software. Once such a system has been implemented, the project will branch out into using the vision system and communications for a secondary project - a distributed search robot system for finding hazards such as mines.
Project Name: Computer Vision and Autonomous Systems
Background: Working on this project, I would like to create an automatic attendance system that uses a combination of RFID tags and facial recognition with the Raspberry Pi. Initial prototypes of the RFID system for attendance have already been created by previous students such as Erin Evans and Miller White. I may use some of the hardware that they used, as it would be relatively simple to repurpose it for the system I have created.
Purpose: By the end of this project, I expect to have a working prototype of the RFID attendance system that can be deployed to select classrooms at this school. Some locations will also include a camera to improve accuracy via facial recognition. Additionally, I will have a prototype of the minesweeper bots.
What will you measure: I will teach my computers to identify people and other objects in the world with machine learning and image manipulation software. The minesweeper bots will also measure whether hazardous objects appear in the environment.
How will you measure it: I will test my programs by deploying them in various classrooms, including the Monlab Independent Science Research class.
Resources needed: For the attendance devices, my current prototype uses a Raspberry Pi 3, a USB webcam, and an RFID reader Phidget. Creating any more of these devices will require similar resources, although the Pi-specific camera “Picam” may be substituted to reduce price and more unobtrusive. The minesweeper robots (or at least their prototypes) will likely be based on Arduino or Raspberry Pi to reduce weight, complexity, and expense.
Impact: The attendance system will enable more class time to be used on actual class and not on attendance done by the teacher. If attendance is not something they need to consider, then the first 5 minutes of class can be spent on teaching, instead of the human teacher’s valuable time being wasted on making sure all the students are there first. Time may be saved in other areas of campus as well, such as check-in for boarding students - the process could be made more expedient (and thus more likely for all to participate) with an automated system. Instead of requiring central meetings and delays interrupting students' work or free time, a reliable video/RFID system with instantaneous updates updates would be much more effective.
The minesweeper bots will be able to save lives, if they are implemented in the real world. They will be able to remove deadly objects from locations in which people live.
Legacy: At the end of this project, a working automation system will be in place for attendance. While it is up to the school whether or not to use it in the long run, it will be available. Additionally, future students in Independent Science Research will be able to improve the system and make it more accurate, or faster, or change it to be more effective in some way I have not thought of.
I will most likely continue the minesweeper program next year, especially if I am able to get sufficient funding to distribute the bots and make them more sophisticated. This project may go further than Independent Science Research class.
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