Week of October 3rd:

• briefly looked at vehicle platforms. We decided that we probably wanted to build our own vehicle platform so I looked for robotics kits that looked like they might make that task easy. Didn't find anything particularly interesting. Most robotics kits I looked at were expensive. It was also difficult to find something with just wheels and a body that would fit out needs...
• Poster for VIP poster session was completed
• Weekly meeting on Friday

  Total Time Spent:  ~1.5 hours

Week of October 10th:

• looked at possible options for mounting a camera on board the car without interfacing it with the microcontroller. Found this as one possible option: http://foscam.us/foscam-fi8918w-wireless-ip-camera-11.html. (30 mins)
• Attended weekly VIP meeting on Friday. Chose a development board to start prototyping with: Kiel MCBSTM32EXL (1 hour)

  Total Time Spent: ~ 1.5 hours

Week of October 17th:

• TASK: Install Kiel ARM-MDK software onto a VIP computer to start experimenting with the chosen development board (Kiel MCBSTM32EXL )
• looked at camera options. In particular this one: http://www.axis.com/products/cam_m1011w/index.htm and this one: http://foscam.us/foscam-fi8918w-wireless-ip-camera-11.html axis looks like it will be easier to interface with website. Also briefly looked at wireless transceivers suggested by Jason. decided RN-XV WiFly Module http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10822 might be a good choice to start with. Posted findings on the discussion page on Rhea (30 minutes)
• Team Meeting (Tuesday)(2.5-3 hours):
  • found potential parts to start prototyping with including a vehicle platform, wi-fi module, wireless camera to mount on vehicle, and proximity sensors/switches. see here for details on choices
  • Wrote a simple example program and loaded it onto the target development board that printed out names onto the LCD screen.
  • TASK: determine if the development board has A/D and D/A PWM ports because it is not obvious if those features are padded out on our development board. We had a very hard time finding documentation on how to use the general purpose IO as potential analog input/output. Needs to be done because we might have to find a new dev board if these features are not available.
• Set up a lab bench in EE 63 (wednesday) with a username and password. We will install the IDE for the micro on that machine. (10 minutes)
• Attended VIP poster session in MSEE (1.5 hours)
• Attended weekly VIP meeting. (1 hour)

  Total Time Spent: X.X