Clark Harrison Dy

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Projects - Table of Contents:

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Capstone for Final Year in University
For my final year in my Bachelor's degree at the University of Calgary, I was fortunate enough to work with such an amazing team in tackling our capstone project with our sponsor, Attabotics – a Calgary based company that designs and manufactures innovative robotic warehousing solutions.

The Team
This project wouldn't have been such a success without the hard work and dedication of the entire team, S.N. Group, which are all responsible for different aspects of this project. The team members (including our roles and LinkedIn) include:
Image of the Team Members
The Problem
Attabotics recently developed a new version of the ant, which comes with new technical capabilities. These new capabilities primarily enhance the routing behaviour, allowing new types of movements. Two new questions arose – how do they compare to the old generation ants, and what business impact will the new generation have on customers?

The tools available were unable to answer either of these questions. What Attabotics needed was a lightweight piece of software that could output quantitative data, and offer a visualization for new and existing clients.

Video Demo with Narration by Helen Tan
 Our Solution
We developed an application combining several different modules, each lead by an individual team member:
  1. Graphical User Interface (GUI)
  2. Routing Algorithm
  3. Simulator
  4. 3D Visualizer
  5. Data Output
The GUI allows a user to input several different parameters, which are then passed to the simulator. The simulator uses the routing algorithm with various different input options, ultimately generating a very large collection of optimal robot routes through the structure. These robot routes are analyzed to provide key metrics such as the average time it takes a robot to pick an item and return to the operator (cycle time).

With the completed robot routes, the user can launch a 3D visualizer from the GUI. This gives a high level overview of how the robots behaved in a given pick cycle, and offers the ability for high-level troubleshooting (such as robot congestion). Another option given to the user is the ability to output the robot routes into a large .csv file, which can be analyzed by other tools and spreadsheet programs.

All of these modules were integrated into a single lightweight application, which is demonstrated in the video below.

Attabotics is very pleased with the result of our project, and they have expressed interest in further developing it to solve other business problems.
A Special Thanks
We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our TA, Tariq Al-Shoura, for providing his wisdom, guidance, and support during project impasses and in our times of need. Thank you to our technical advisors Professor Henry Leung and Professor Norm Bartley for their feedback and input. And lastly thanks to Attabotics and our contacts Mr. Mark Dickinson and Mr. Gordon Paynter for providing us with such a unique opportunity and project.

Links
For a complete look at our project at the Engineering Design Fair 2022, you can visit our project link here!
Additionally, a higher quality version of the demo video above can be seen here.

The GDM
This project addresses the issue we all have halfway through our commute to work: "Did I leave my garage door open?" Forgetting is both stressful and a risk to the security of the house. The GDI allows the user to see the status of their garage door (opened or closed), as well as to control it, all from the companion app built in Java using Android Studio.

  Signal received by garage door from the development board

Demonstration of app to database interaction

How does it work?

The module makes use of the NodeMCU ESP8266 development board. The board is connected to the internet, reading and writing data to Google's Firebase database. With the help of the companion app, the user can control the garage door, receive the door's status via push notification, and customize the settings (how long before notified, password lock, add family members, door access log, etc.).


Individual components of the module as mentioned above has been tested and was ready to be implemented together into a single module and single standalone Android application. However, due to COVID-19, the project has been cancelled.

Project Presentation

Below is the final project presentation for the GDI, which includes more details such as the problem statement, engineering analysis, estimated costs, and so on.




Video Presentation with Narration by Helen Tan

The Generator
Inspired by the video game Oxygen Not Included, the generator was built in an attempt to make me exercise by having it generate power as an incentive. Using an old treadmill picked up for free from Kijiji, it is plugged into a homemade powerbank that stores the power generated from the treadmill.
                 
Generating stepped down voltage with treadmill


Charging phone using the homemade powerbank

 The Powerbank
With the generator ready, the next step was to store the power into a battery. This left me with 2 options, buy a powerbank online, or build my own. After considering how cheaper and easier purchasing one would be, I went ahead and bought the necessary parts to build a powerbank from scratch.
The powerbank includes 6 18650 cells arranged in a 3S2P configuration, this gives me a total of about 85Wh (12.6V at 6800mAh), and a Battery Management System (BMS) circuit for overcharge and over-discharge protection. Finally, we got a USB output for charging, and 2 separate inputs for both traditional wall socket charging and treadmill charging.

DIY or BUY?
After all is said and done, which one is more worth it? Well, it depends. It's so much easier and cheaper to just buy a powerbank online, but even trusted online sellers end up selling misleading powerbanks (ie. less capacity than advertised), so you might end up getting less than what you paid for.

On the other hand, building your own allows for more customizability in types of inputs, outputs, and battery configuration, and it is a pretty fun experience, but having to pay for all the parts, equipment, and the cost of making mistakes, especially if it's your first time, might discourage some people. Not to mention the need for an enclosure to be built or 3D-printed.

I'm pretty happy with how well my powerbank turned out to be, but I don't have plans of bringing it with me to an airport anytime soon. Not without an enclosure, at the very least.
Powerbank without an enclosure


Powerbank enclosure prototype
Purpose of D.A.R.T.
The Dexterity And Rehabilitation Team, or D.A.R.T., was assigned a task: find an engaging way for early-stage victims of stroke to rehabilitate and improve recovery outcomes than traditional methods. Thus, the DexAid was born. DexAid is a stroke rehabilitation kit built for the health hack competition "Innovation 4 Health," or i4h for short.

The problem
After a stroke, patients are required to wait for their physiotherapy appointment to begin rehabilitation. This contradicts the evidence that suggest that early rehabilitation results in better recovery outcomes. Additionally, current activities that patients can do for immediate rehabilitation are repetitive and boring, resulting in low patient compliance.
Sensor-fitted glove prototype connected to Arduino which receives and translates data for the Unity Game Engine
 
   
Testing the MPU6050 Accelerometer and Gyro sensor (Left) & flexing the index finger in Unity Game Engine with the flex sensor (Right)    


DexAid
The DexAid is a system designed to promote patient engagement by applying gamification to upper extremity rehabilitation. In other words, we made it more entertaining with video games. A lightweight and portable system, it requires minimal assembly. The system has 2 parts: the sensor-fitted glove, and a virtual web-based program that translates data for a variety of games to interpret.
I was tasked in choosing what type of sensors we were going to use, and how the glove will interact with the program. The glove was fitted with a accelerometer and gyroscope (using a MPU6050 breakout board) sensor for accurate movement detection, as well as some flex sensors that change resistance when stressed. The values of the sensor outputs are then translated into data that can be used with the Unity Game Engine with the use of an Arduino.

Summer Research in China
As part of my summer research exchange in Shanghai, my project involved researching on Autonomous Quadrotor Drones Landing on a Moving Platform. The quadrotor has a downward-facing camera and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) that accurately estimates the state of the quadrotor, while the camera estimates and predicts the motion states of the moving landing platform. The aim of the project was to optimize the planning for the quadrotor's landing trajectory.



 
Testing control of drone via wireless local access network

Demo of the computer vision program OpenCV
 My Task
My main tasks include completing numerical analysis of landing performance, conducting physical experiments, and completing a technical report.

Our goal was to make use of the cameras and sensors fitted in the drone to be able to land onto a moving platform. I assisted in researching on methods for image and color recognition using OpenCV, an open source library of programming functions for C and C++ aimed at real-time computer vision.
Outside of the lab
Since the research was abroad, of course I took the opportunity to explore China, from Shanghai to Suzhou. Together with fellow research exchange students from around the world, such as Hong Kong, Taipei, and California, we spend the weekends going to excursions and hanging out together, assuming we're not hunkered down for the weekend during a typhoon-induced flood.
Group picture in Suzhou Garden Museum
Group picture in front of the Shanghai Pearl Tower

The Hovercraft
As our final project for our Engineering class, 3 groups are tasked on building a hovercraft that can be ridden by one of the group members. That member is then timed and pitted against the other 2 competing teams.

Although all 3 groups are officially against each other, I assisted in the electrical work of the other 2 groups as they were falling behind as the deadline steadily approaches.

The Materials
The hovercraft was built using some plywood, tarp, a leaf blower, a large fan, 3d printed material, relays, switches, an LED lightbulb and some ropes
 
Testing with an individual riding the hovercraft

Evaluation of the hovercraft in the school's gymnasium
 The Results
After weeks of planning, testing, and building, the hovercraft was completed and ready to race. At the end of the semester, all 3 groups bring their final product to the school gymnasium. We take turns driving our hovercraft, and are timed from the starting line to the end of the basketball court, U-turn around a cone, and back to the starting line.

Our team has won 1st place* thanks to the efforts of the entire team. Regardless of how well the electrical work is done, it wouldn't have worked as well without the rest of the hovercraft being built properly and effectively.


*By default. Out of the 3 teams, ours were the only working prototype


The Competition
The theme of the FIRST Robotics competition in 2015 was the Recycle Rush, which involves picking up and stacking totes on scoring platforms, putting pool noodles inside recycling containers, and putting the containers on top of scoring stacks of totes.

The team, cleverly named the Hunchbacks (of Notre Dame High School), built the recycling robot made from scrap metal, plywood, and extra pieces of electronics. My role was to assist the other team members in the construction of the robot, dubbed by our team leader as "The Ghettobot."

Though we were in a clear disadvantage due to our budget, as opposed to our competitors, our robot was able to survive onto the quarter-finals, where we got absolutely demolished by high-end robots. Still, walking home at 8th place out of 31 competitors was a solid outcome for our beloved bot.

 
The team's robot, labelled with the team number 4591, in action


Loading the totes onto the playing field

The team watching the other competitors battle

Wiretap

Used to record conversations with companies and messing with scam calls. The left-half is the wiretap that connects to the phone line (labelled with a mini drawing of a phone), the middle part splits into either the 3.5mm audio jack for a recording device or speaker, or to a homemade recording device on the right-half side that starts and stops recording and saves the recording as a .wav file on an SD card in a push of a button. The homemade recording device is made using an Arduino Nano and an SD card reader module

Wiretap connected to recording device. The 3.5mm jack is not connected to anything

Alarm System

After realizing our alarm system was fitted with a shock sensor that requires potential intruders to be polite enough to knock first, I decided it was time to get a new alarm system in place. This simple alarm makes use of an active buzzer, a limit switch, and a 9V battery. This setup is very straightforward: once turned on, if the door is open (limit switch is not pressed), the alarm goes off. Otherwise, it just sits quietly. I haven't mounted the device in this demonstration, so I had to have it held in place.

Video demo of alarm system

Duplicate ID Watch Attachment

As a university student, we have access to different labs on-campus. In order to gain access, and for the university to keep track of who uses the facilities, we have to use our ID to scan ourselves in. However, since I have mine inside my wallet, I was not a fan of having to pull it out every time I had to enter a lab room. So I had the idea of duplicating my ID card into a small key fob, and place it into a 3D printed enclosure that is attached to my watch so that I can scan my wrist to unlock the door à la Tom Clancy's The Division.

Initially, I tried using different RFID readers for the Arduino, using either 125KHz or 13.56MHz, but after realizing it doesn't work for our ID cards, which was a type of HID Card, I ended up using a Proxmark3 RFID reader/copier.

      
Showcasing duplicate ID enclosure attached to watch

Disassembled ID enclosure

Emotional Robot

Have you ever wanted a pet? A dog? A cat? An emotionally unstable robot? Well, as part of our project, we built one of the above. With the use of the Parallax Activity Propellor Board WX, and apart from the servos and wheels, we fitted the robot with sensors that lets our pet, Phineas-bot, react accordingly. A passive buzzer was used to play music for different moods, and a reed switch allows us to feed him his favourite treat: magnets. An ultrasonic sensor lets him see, while a microphone sensor lets him hear.

Below is a list of emotions, its triggers, and a video demonstration:

  • Happy: Feeding him magnets make him spin and sing the Mario Star Power Up theme
  • Scared/Anxious: Suddenly jumping in front of makes him take a step back while humming the Super Mario World Castle Theme 
  • Shocked: Blowing/Shouting into the microphone causes him to shake in surprise and play the alert tone 
  • Angry: If you push his buttons, he'll spin and make a scene with a siren tone

Video demo of our emotional robot "Phineas"

AM/FM Generator with PWM & an FPGA Board

As part of our final project, we had to program our field-programmable gate array (FPGA) board using Intel Quartus Prime, a programmable logic device design software. Using Quartus, we programmed the board in Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHSIC-HDL; VHDL) and built a wave generator using Amplitude Modulation and Frequency Modulation. The FPGA outputs digitally using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), and so with the help of an DAC circuit we've built, we can acquire a smooth output as seen by the oscilloscope. We've also included an IR distance sensor that changes the wave output according to the distance, as seen in the demonstration where my hand is in front of the sensor.

Amplitude modulation with respect to distance sensor output

Electronic Die and Digital Clock

When you are unsure if it's the right time to gamble, or play some board games. Have no fear, as these 2 projects cover both the when and the how. As part of a kit to practice soldering and electronic schematic literacy, the digital clock makes use of a 4 digit 8-segment display, an 8051 microcontroller, 12Mhz crystal oscillator, and a buzzer. It acts as an alarm clock, stopwatch, and countdown timer.

The electronic die was made from an IDC-7 kit, and it's a nice and straightforward replacement for any die.

               
                 Showing off the clock at 8:04PM               Rolling with the electronic die

Remote Controlled Light Switch Flipper

In the winter, it gets pretty dark. Calgary only getting around 8 hours of sunlight. Imagine getting to bed in the dark, and waking up early in the morning and IT'S STILL DARK. Even worse, the bed is over *here*, and the light switch is waaaay over there! Forgetting to turn off the lights and having to get up just when you're already nice and cozy would be a drag.

Well, that's the problem I aimed to solve. Using a bunch of random electronics laying around, I made a very crude remote controlled light switch flipper. In hindsight, I could've probably invested more research time in order to make use of a lower powered MCU so I can make use of a coin battery, or an implementation of a sleep mode. Then again, this was a weekend solution to what could've been just getting up and flipping the switch by hand. And it just works so well! :')

RC Light Switch Flipper Attached to Wall


Going to Bed: RC Light Switch Flipper Demo

Rise & Fall Android Game

The game that started it all. When I was younger, video games are what brought me closer to my love for computers and programming. Written in C++ using Game Maker Studio, this game was a knock off of Rapid Roll, a game that comes pre-installed in those old Nokia phones. With 2 different game modes filled with dangerous spikes, and money for in-game currency to unlock skins, what more can you ask a 17 year old with no experience (at the time) to do?

Rise: Jump up from platform to platform, reaching as high as you can without falling off to your doom.

Fall: Drop down as the platforms continue to rise to the spike above. Be careful though, as some platforms are also rigged with spikes.

Rapid Roll Image
Original Rapid Roll Nokia Game

Rise & Fall Game
Main Menu and Game Over Screen of Rise and Fall

Rise and Fall Gameplay Test Run