Blog Posts

PREP for QRB 1

SimVolts has been preparing for QRB and is anxious to show all the team has put together to QRB1 Review Board.

The goal of the QRB is for the team to know where we stand and receive helpful feedbacks for the completion of the project.

See you all at QRB1!

Back to the Smart Multimeter!

SimVolts expects to deliver more this semester by putting more hours weekly and staying more in touch with Sponsors. A new beginning to new and fresh ideas.

Putting an End to the First Semester with SLDR Presentation

SimVolts had its final presentation for the first semester this week. In this presentation SimVolts showed and delivered the prototype the team has worked on during the past weeks.

SimVolts has received most of the equipment, assembled the hardware and installed software for initial experimentation. The team is currently in the process of familiarizing with computer vision software, machine training with available Line Replaceable Units (LRU), development of object recognition algorithms, development of simulation framework and graphical user interface GUI. On December 8th, SimVolts presented the System Level Design Review. We received feedbacks from judges, sponsors, and IPPD staff that will guide for further actions as well as improve specific aspects of the design.

  • Finalize GUI Design
  • Run Circle Recognition Algorithm on Jetson Nano
  • Train System to Categorize Plugs
  • Introduce Additional Object Detection Algorithms
  • Adjust Probe Clip Parameters
  • Design Enclosure

Even though SimVolts has had fun and learned a lot this semester, the team believes that a lot more could be done next semester. SimVolts wishes every one a happy holidays!

Prototype Inspection Day

In Inspection Day SimVolts was able to explained the goal we intend to deliver which is a smart multimeter.

Inspection Day was very useful for SimVolts as we received many feedbacks from eight different judges.

Even though we are living in difficult times where people are meeting via online calls, SimVolts was able to show some of the features team members have been working in parallel. Our Web-Master (Jose Couso) explained and showed the processor we are using for the handheld device. Our (Meeting Coordinator (Daniel Childers) showed a C++ program that was able to capture the contour of any circular shape item in real time. Our team leader (Sean Smith) demonstrated some progress he has made with the back-end system. We intend to use this back-end system to store plug IDs and pin numbers from different cannon plugs to create a net-list where we will display these values using a graphic user interface (GUI). Our Purchasing Handler (Luis Ravelo) showed what he intends to do with the GUI and the design of it.

SimVolts thanks everyone who assisted and provided some kind of feedback as it will help polish our set goals and ideas!

SimVolts Meets in Person for the First Time

SimVolts met in person for the first time before Prototype Inspection Day. The first experience at the lab was quite useful as we found meeting in person more exciting than behind a camera.

SimVolts team is very happy at the moment because now team members have the opportunity to do more work with their hands. We discussed and planned everything for Inspection Day.

Official Preliminary Design Report

Last Friday Sim-Volts did a fantastic job presenting the official Preliminary Design Report (PDR) where we explained the sponsors, coach, and IPPD staff the goals we have set to accomplished in this project. A good amount of people from the staff of CAE attended the presentation. They were really happy with the way we presented.

Now that we have presented successfully, we are waiting on the approval from the sponsors to start working on the project giving us the opportunity for more hands-on experience.

Our team leader (Sean) has gained access to the lab room where we are going to be developing, designing, and testing our handheld device. This will allow us to move faster to our final objective which is to deliver our smart voltmeter.

Sim-Volts getting ready for the Official PDR presentation…

One of Presentation Slides

Even though this week has been a little intense with the midterm exams, SimVolts is still on top of one of his main objectives which is to deliver a final Preliminary Design Report (PDR) to the sponsors.

SimVolts is wishing to have a successful PDR presentation as this will allow our team to go into the hands-on experience!

Introducing SimVolts’s Logo

This logo represents the aspiration and values of SimVolts. The eye in the middle represents the vision system and the lightning strike represents the volts we will be measuring.

Brief introduction and mission statement of Sim-Volts

SimVolts is developing a vision processing system that is able to support military and aerospace maintenance training.

Our design incorporates a “smart multi-meter” which is capable of sensing which line replaceable unit (LRU) component it is connected to and present a simulated instrument output based on the current fault condition. 

In particular, there are two main elements in the system, that must work in tandem to achieve the objective explained in the above paragraph:  

  1. A vision system, capable of reliably identifying electrical plugs. 
  2. A back-end software framework, which simulates a complex electrical circuit.