Our software team has been working on 3 main components: threat detection algorithm, on-device alert logging and external access, and alert system-wearable communications. We are pleased to report great progress on all three fronts.

Crucially, our threat detection algorithm is able to accurately and consistently identify intrusion to an established parameter. As of recently, we also have an expanded, in-depth test bank to ensure the algorithm’s efficacy.

Our on-device logging process has changed slightly to a more efficient approach. Instead of storing an HTML file, the device will hold data in its raw form to be reconstructed into a user friendly format on the end-user device upon extraction. Our team has mapped the physical and software components that will be involved in this process to ensure proper implementation.

Lastly, our team has been working closely with the Awearable team on the development of our LoRa communication module. We have shared hardware requirements, both using the Adafruit RFM95W LoRa Radio Transceiver, as well as development libraries, primarily RadioHead. We have created packet structures for the two types of communication, heartbeat and alert, as well as transmission and receiver functionality. The latter is currently being tested by the Awearable team as our hardware is delayed. However, upon receiving our component we are ready for joint testing and, assuming all goes well, pivoting to security layer development.

Above is our preliminary design of the PCB. In the middle are two microprocessors and it will connect to a radar module.

We’ve been working hard on the radar device and the PCB is giving us unique challenges to solve. The first challenge is layer composition of our PCB. With high frequencies, we need a special material to maintain signal integrity. This material is a Rogers RO3003 and many fabrication companies don’t support this material because it needs advanced processing. Thus, we need to start emailing advanced manufacturers to get a quote that’s hopefully within our budget. Furthermore, our design contains eight layers that adds to the complexity.

The second challenge is tolerances, each connection in our design needs to be validated by a fabricator early enough to prevent design revisions due to inadequate specifications. This makes reaching out imperative to prevent redesign.

The final challenge is interference, with a completed board it can disrupt cellphone communication. Thus, we need to consider certain design elements to minimize interference. When the prototype is complete, we will test it for interference.

That is all for this week, more will be posted next week!

This week, our team spent time working separately on hardware and software development. The hardware team is working diligently on the radar PCB schematic, integrated antenna, and battery power specifications. The software team is working just as hard on improving the threat detection algorithm, creating a means to transfer real-time radar data to HTML, and establishing a communication interface via LoRa.

Figure 1: Altium Schematic of Radar Microcontroller

Additionally, the team has begun to prepare for the final design review. We’ve outlined the various volumes of the report, covering specifications from functional decompositions to legal evaluations. As we begin to finalize our product, we will further detail the contents of the final design review.

Overall, it has been a productive week for the team, and we are excited to share the future developments of our project!

This week was our first Quarterly Review Board of the semester! The team was excited to present our progress, and we received a myriad of valuable advice from our coaches during the event. Some of our most important takeaways are that:

• We need to order the parts for and complete the PCB as soon as possible because that is the biggest bottleneck in our critical path.
• We need to expand our test bank to evaluate the product’s efficacy in different environmental conditions
• And moving forward, we need to incorporate collaboration with the Awearables as a core component of our presentations

Over the next few weeks, we will focus on addressing this feedback and remaining on pace to complete our project by the end of the semester.

Figure 1: Project Critical Path

After a long winter break we have finally started getting back into the project. There have been a few challenges with the main one being the fact that we have a new coach. After a long team meeting with her we got her up to speed on where we are at and what we are planning to do in the future. As a team we are looking forward to the new perspectives she could provide for this project.

Other than that a new semester meant a new schedule for everyone. This means we have to reorient ourselves to everyone’s new schedule so that we can setup our weekly meeting times. We are waiting for the end of Friday to do this as we must wait until the end of drop add.

In some more exciting news we have narrowed down our choices for the longer range radar in our design. We are in the final process of choosing the best one from these options. Lastly we are hoping to buy our communication module by the end of this week so that the software team for the communication with the wearable can start developing and polishing up their code.