Interpolated Data Maps & Cat Boats

Last week some more time was spent on adding a data interpolation feature to the data mapping software. The result turned out pretty good I think:

I would also like to create some mapping software for monitoring AMOS in real time or after the fact via a saved log file. It could be used to pinpoint exactly where AMOS was at any given point in time, the route that it took, what the diagnostics outputs were over time, etc. The mapping software I have done so far has used the ArcGIS .NET software development kit from Esri. I actually have a Webex conference with Esri on Thursday to discuss possibly joining a program for startups that they have. 

The other activity for this week was coming up with a basic layout / design for the catamaran version of AMOS:

I'm not really sure yet if I like it or not. It is shorter than the current version of AMOS (6 feet long instead of 8 feet) and approximately the same width and height, so that's good I guess. I'll think about it for a day or two maybe before cutting up a bunch of EPS foam with the new hot wire cutter (btw the new hot wire cutter works great, I tried it out on a few scrap pieces of EPS).

On a personal note, I am undergoing knee surgery this Monday to fix a small tear in the meniscus of my left knee. I'm not sure what it will mean in terms of mobility, so maybe next week will just be spent writing code in bed. 😊

Better Data For 2020

There are at least a couple of ways that AMOS could be updated to provide users with improved water quality data. One would be to add some industrial water quality probes that are capable of collecting calibrated data for a wide variety of parameters. Another would be to improve the data presentation software that is used to represent the data that AMOS collects. Some progress was made on both these fronts this week.

In order to continue updating the map-based data presentation software that AMOS uses, I first needed to get a new Esri ArcGIS license, as the free one I was using had expired. Luckily Esri offers a free account with some limitations for developers, which turned out to be good enough for my purposes. Using some temperature data that AMOS had collected last October, I was able to generate this nice color coded water temperature plot:

I think the color coded points on the data map look better than having blobs of varying sizes on the map. With color coding, you can also imagine a feature where data could be interpolated in the locations between sampling points by taking a weighted average of the surrounding points.

I have also been asking around and getting quotes from 4 of the major water quality probe manufacturers. Basically I would like to have a multi-sonde that comes with probes for temperature, turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen, and blue-green algae. All of the manufacturers seem to support communications interfaces with 3rd party dataloggers, typically using RS-232 or RS-485. So far I have gotten prices from a couple of the manufacturers, and am waiting for quotes from the other two. The sensors are not cheap, so I want to do my research and make sure that the ones I decide on will be able to provide AMOS with reliable, accurate measurements.

In preparation for an experimental catamaran version of AMOS, I found a hot-wire cutting device on Amazon that looks like it should be suitable for cutting through 2" sheets of pink insulation:

Hopefully it will help me to make more even cuts in the foam with fewer gouges and less time spent sanding.

Workation Time

The update at the end of last week's blog mentioned that the presentation to the Raspberry Pint club went pretty well; if you would like to see the presentation (and the other presentations from that evening) you can do so at the following YouTube link:

The slides from the presentation can also be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/12L3EXMMcrxIQD2Ic7eXweo_RAyHzjQuS

I find it amazing how much I say "ummm"  and "ahhh" when speaking. It's not something I'm actually aware of when speaking, so not too sure how to go about fixing it. Maybe hire a public speaker if AMOS ever takes off.

This week I had to travel down to San Diego for some meetings related to my job with Measurand. Luckily though, we got finished a bit early, so I was able to find some time to get out and enjoy the southern west coast sunshine and do a tour of this massive boat (the USS Miday):

I spent a few hours touring the boat, which was de-commissioned in the early 90's and converted to a museum about 15 years ago. Here's a nice pic of the San Diego downtown, taken from the flight deck:

Wireless Transceiver Design and Possible Blue-Green Algae Pilot Project

One of the projects that In Nature Robotics has been getting some assistance with through IRAP (Industrial Research Assistance Program) and RPC (New Brunswick's provincial research organization) is the circuit board and case layout for the wireless transceiver used by AMOS. The project is nearing completion and the 3D models that I have seen so far look pretty nice:

 There are some remaining issues to sort out about making sure that everything fits into the waterproof box, but these should be solved soon.

Yesterday I had a good meeting with a project manager at the City of Fredericton to discuss AMOS and the possibility of doing a pilot study this summer for measuring blue-green algae levels in the St. John River. A few years ago some dogs died after drinking river water that was contaminated by toxic concentrations of blue-green algae in the river, so the city has some interest in setting up a monitoring program to detect when and where blue-green algae might be a problem.

Later on today I'll be speaking to the Raspberry Pint club... I'll post a quick update afterward on how it went!

Update: The presentation to the Raspberry Pint club went pretty well I think. I was a bit unprepared for the slideshow not working as planned under Google Hangouts, but it seemed to work acceptably well when not presented in full-screen mode.and there was some good interest and questions from the people in attendance afterward. There were other interesting projects presented also; my favorite was a 3.5" floppy disk drive that a guy had rigged up to play individual songs through Spotify. Basically each 3.5" disk had some Spotify-related links and text written to file(s) on the disk which were read and would start playing the desired song after the disk was inserted.

Digging Through The Past

A large part of this past week was spent looking through old blog entries, photos, and data to come up with material for my upcoming presentation to the Raspberry Pint club (see https://www.eventbrite.com/e/raspberry-pint-raspberry-pi-and-other-digital-making-fun-tickets-80736249295 for tickets and details). I read on the club's Facebook page that something like 100 people have signed up for the event so far, so it should be some great exposure for AMOS!

It was interesting to look back on all the work that was done for visual image processing for the purpose of object detection. None of this work (which consumed a couple months of my time) proved to be very reliable for finding objects, but some of the generated camera images were kind of cool:

The above photo was taken by the original AMOS in July 2018. A 640x480 color image from the Pi camera was processed using the Canny Edge Detection method. At the bottom of the image you can see the edge of the boat's hull, and in the middle you can make out a person paddling a small kayak in front of a bridge. The trouble with all of the visual object detection stuff though was that the appearance of the water was too variable. Too many waves, reflections, and nuances in color that made it very difficult to use an algorithm to find non-water objects.

As a bit of a distraction from the presentation stuff, I also continued plugging away at the data visualization software for AMOS. There is nothing ready to show there yet, which reminds me of one of my all-time favorite Dilbert cartoons:

AMOS AirProp and Negative Feedback

This past week saw a new product addition to the In Nature Robotics website, the AMOS AirPop: https://www.innaturerobotics.com/product-page/amos-airprop.

The AirProp uses a waterproof servo motor for directional control and a 2200 kv brushless drone motor for turning a 10 inch plastic propeller blade.

More work was completed on the mapping software for AMOS, adding the ability to open text map files for editing the desired route. I've also started working on adding software for viewing sensor data files. I have lots of sensor data collected from this past summer and fall, so it should be interesting to try out some different mapping and graphing techniques with it.

I've been trying new marketing things lately, I watched this video https://marketingperformanceacademy.com/wrong/ last night that gave me some ideas on what I can try changing. I also recently tried a one-day $10 Facebook ad campaign for the A to D board, and got about 2000 views, 33 clicks on the ad's "Learn More" button, and this friendly feedback from a Facebook citizen:

Really, I think this was $10 well spent. The pieces I used for product shots really do need to be cleaned up. They have messy looking soldering, the 3D-printed parts have burrs and imperfections, there are some rusty screws, etc. Might have to see what online services are available for some of that.

I ordered a bunch of In Nature Robotics Ltd. T-shirts for Christmas and have some extras.... this could be your lucky day, as the first 2 people to comment on this post will receive a free T-shirt:

For your comment just tell me who (or what) is your favorite robot, fictional or real, doesn't matter!

Presenting AMOS to the Raspberry Pint Club

I was asked to present AMOS to the Raspberry Pi club in London, England on January 29, 2020 at 19:00 GMT. Unfortunately In Nature Robotics does not yet have a budget for overseas travel but I will be doing the presentation via Google Hangouts. A few of us will present our projects, and then the group (about 30 to 40 people I am told) will head out to a local pub for some beverages. If you happen to be in London at the end of the month, you can check out the details of the event at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/raspberry-pint-raspberry-pi-and-other-digital-making-fun-tickets-80736249295

During the last week of the Christmas break, I managed to educate myself a bit further about WebGL and Javascript programming, and now have some demo code completed for rotating a textured 3D cube in a web browser using the mouse. It's a long way from having a 3D online robot ordering system, but it's a start!

The automated anchor system now has its limit microswitches in place, mounted on the crane and a vertical post. These switches detect when the anchor weight is lifted up to the level of the crane and when the top motor rotates around to the vertical post respectively. Here is a short video showing how they work: