Gatormatix has been working on their preliminary design architecture, making great strides towards a prototype goal in preparation for the Preliminary Design Review Peer review coming up next week. During the research process, the team was able to home in on some good solutions for systems they will need to design and integrate together onto the drone platform. Further research is required to understand how this integration will happen, especially depending on which hardware pieces we select.

They are committed to prototyping quickly, breaking things, and trying again, as it will provide them with a baseline platform to design and test their sensors on before next semester. This is most likely going to be the most challenging portion of their project. 3D modeling and navigation is no joke, and there are many small details such as safety and reliability of the base platform that need to be flushed out before a final design is created next semester. Back to work!

As our project gets more complex, we need to become better at managing our tasks and assignments. As such, the team has begun filling out tasks for each other, allowing them to become much more efficient and independent in their work. The team has developed an initial draft of the Preliminary Design Review, and has also been brainstorming about different technologies that can be used in the scope of UF regulations.
Looking forward, the team is planning to design the overall system architecture for their drone platform, describing parts and functionality, as it will allow them to break the project into multiple smaller achievable pieces. As the team is following an Agile development approach, they seek to having a working ‘prototype’ with added value at the end of each of their 2 week sprints. The team is very excited to begin work on this prototype to be showcased in a couple of months!

Week 4 featured another exciting meeting for the Gatormatix team and coach with Stephen and Ted Belser. The team has decided to pursue a LiDAR-based navigation approach, while also using it as the primary method to generate 3D models of an indoor scenario. In addition to this, cameras will be used to map real images onto a 3D model, making it look real. As the team continues to research, they will continue to look into ways of creating a primarily Made in America design, ensuring safety of critical components in the future platform.

The team completed the Product Design Specifications, which allows us to prioritize needs, set target values, and set technical performance measures that they hope to achieve. The team has begun working on the Project Roadmap and will be organizing tasks on Jira for week 5 to reflect these goals. In addition, the Meet the Team page is ready!

Gatormatix is born! We decided to name our team Gatormatix, combining ‘Gator’ for UF, with ‘Geomatics’, the study of geospatial data. It combines the two primary aspects of our identity as a team and our project. We finally had our first meeting with our liaisons, which was very productive, and we have gained good insight into the project we have ahead of us. In the coming days we are planning to look into the current available approaches to 3D modeling and compare their strategies with our use case and budget. For now, we will spend time brainstorming ideas on how to approach the problem and see what we can come up with for JWME.