Our team began building a prototype this week! In preparation for Prototype Inspection Day, we started working on the many components we plan to present for adjudication. The mechanical sub-team worked on their designs for the physical mount of the system, including antennas, RFID readers, the laser system, housing for the Raspberry Pi, docking integration, and cable management. They presented sketches of this design, as well as the construction of an antenna to use with our RFID module since off-the-shelf components would pose a pressing budget constraint.

The software sub-team got their hands on a Raspberry Pi and began working to understand its operating system and capabilities when interfacing with other components. They successfully accomplished their goal of this week: a wireframe/mock-up of the user interface that will be incorporated with the database. Additionally, they were able to connect a basic RFID reader to the Raspberry Pi and use it to read and write to a single RFID tag. The basic functionality of the UI and RFID module will be instrumental in demonstrating our proof-of-concept at the Prototype Inspection Day.

Finally, the biggest win of this week was the discovery of materials in the IPPD lab. As mentioned previously, the design of an antenna was vital because of the cost associated with purchasing one. Our team, however, was able to find and check out an antenna from the IPPD lab that reads the exact frequencies we planned to use. We will apply the antenna research to the handheld device instead. Additionally, we found another Raspberry Pi, an RFID reader and many RFID tags. These items will help us to produce a higher quality prototype while still remaining within out limited budget.