Blog Posts

Presenting the PDR

Published:October 22nd, 2022
Category:Fall Semester

This week at InvestiGators, we had or Preliminary Design Review (PDR) presentation. During the presentation, we outlined our understanding of the project’s goals and our current plans on implementing the RFID sensor system. We described FPL’s problem and how our solution intends to solve the problem by showcasing the research process that lead to our concept, pictured below, including how each component will work together within the system. The event was a success, ending with FPL granting approval of our solution and prototype plans.

Alex’s presentation of our solution’s intended use on a drone

Our next step is to develop a prototype that can achieve the core functionalities of the system, mainly the transfer of data from the RFID sensor all the way to our database. We plan to do this with cheaper parts that won’t meet certain requirements, such as sensor range and scanning speed, but will still be able to perform the main functions we described. We’ll provide more info on prototype development next week, when we start putting components together.

Tagged as: ,

Preliminary Design

Published:October 17th, 2022
Category:Fall Semester

Welcome to Week 6 of the Investigator blog post. This week we met with our team multiple times in preparation for the preliminary design review presentation we have coming up. We got together and created a presentation that encapsulates the work we have done for this project so far. To practice, we presented to a group of our peers. We are currently adjusting our presentation to accommodate their recommendations.

Our team has also been conducting research to narrow down the possibilities of our product selection. While doing this we have been considering the functionality, cost, and physical characteristics. These comparisons allowed us to make a small list of microcontrollers, RFID readers, and RFID antennas that would best be suited for our project. The figure below shows our concept generation table as well as the choice we have made.

In our weekly meetings with our coach and liaisons we clarified more aspects of the project and brainstormed possible solutions. We also got their opinion of our concept choices and modified our selection accordingly. In the week ahead we look forward to presenting our preliminary design review to our liaisons from Florida Power and Light.

Tagged as: ,

Strides Forward with the Project

Published:October 7th, 2022
Category:Fall Semester

After quite the eventful week with Hurricane Ian passing through and school closing down, the team has gotten together to start planning the type of materials were will purchase for the prototype of the RFID system. Everyone got a different topic to research and we gathered together to make the flow of data coherent and clean. We hope to purchase these materials soon so we can get started on the prototype!

Dr. Lawrence Tinker

On the flip side, during class we received a visit from Dr. Lawrence Tinker. He taught everyone the structure of a proper elevator pitch. It was quite insightful, and I am sure it will help us as we continue talking to the members of FPL.

Overall, we are excited about the progress we have made thus far, and have more work to put it to be able to present the preliminary design report to our peers.

Tagged as: ,

Lean Six Sigma

Published:September 30th, 2022
Category:Fall Semester
Lean Six Sigma

Last Saturday our team attended the Lean Six Sigma team building workshop hosted by our sponsor, FPL. We learned how to reduce waste by streamlining processes and improving quality through problem solving. It was a lot of fun to practice by running and improving our own pretend car dealership. Now we are certified white belts in Lean Six Sigma.

During the week we drafted our first month design report. This included our project roadmap, risk table, and technical performance measures (TPMs). We continued our research on the drone which FPL currently uses, RFID reader technologies, and techniques for asset management.

Next week we will be preparing for our preliminary design report by giving a practice presentation to our class and receiving feedback.

Tagged as: ,

Building System Requirements

Published:September 23rd, 2022
Category:Fall Semester

This week, we built out a project roadmap and risk analysis using the research on RFIDs we had done. The above graphic shows how RFID technology, especially passive RFID tags, use a lot less energy than IOT sensors for other technologies, providing a strong rationale for why we should use RFID. We continued work on our project specifications and prepared an extensive list of questions for our sponsors to clarify the project scope and build out first steps. From this meeting, our current project timeline looks like this:

  • Research RFID sensors and determine range and power draw
  • Build prototype of sensor and validate functionality without drone
  • Build offline database with mock and sample data
  • Build drone mount and design while considering power, weight, and center of mass

In this upcoming week, we plan to finalize our project roadmap, continue doing research into RFID technologies and limitations, and draft our first month report.

Tagged as: , , ,

Let’s Get to Know Each Other

Published:September 18th, 2022
Category:Fall Semester

This week at InvestiGator, we had a ton of meetings. The team got to officially meet our liaison, Scarlett Luis, who was very enthusiastic about the project and helped clear up some of the questions we had about the Scope of Work FPL provided. After beginning work on the Product Design Specifications and brainstorming some solutions to FPL’s problem, we’ve come up with plenty of other questions about FPL’s current system that will need to be discussed in our next meeting.

On top of meeting our sponsor, we also got to have an official meeting with our coach, Dr. Christophe Bobda. He gave us some great insight on his understanding of the project and how we should be planning our design. We also showed him our new logo, including our team’s name and a drone all presented in some UF orange and blue.

Our plan for this coming week is to get some more information from our liaison about the existing solutions and the specifications involved with them. This will allow us to get a better understanding of what targets our design should be able to hit and how our solution should look. In the meantime, we’ll be continuing to research RFID and other methods for asset management.

Enter: Team InvestiGator

Published:September 9th, 2022
Category:Fall Semester

Welcome to the first blog post for the Investi-Gator team. Over the past week our team met and ensured everyone understood the scope of the task that we have been presented. We set up recurring meetings with each other as well as reached out to our coach and liaison to set up a meeting time with them. Part of the team had the opportunity to meet our sponsors in person before our first official meeting. They are a group of intelligent individuals from Florida Power & Light. 

This upcoming week we are planning to have official meetings with our coach and liaison to clarify some specifics of our project. We have been and will continue to research the new technology that FPL is trying to implement to provide the best possible solution. We are excited to see the solutions that we will create over the next two semesters. 

<< Newer