Week 1
Our first day here was quiet exciting and nerve racking. I knew most of the interns that were in the office since they had been with me in High School so i was pretty confortable with the people around me. As i got to meet the mentors i was getting less nerveous about this internship. Our first week was mostly introduction to everything, we learned everyones names and we also set up our accounts for the computers in the lab. Our first assignemnt was the crash course we had to create a website about ourselves. we also started on some small programs of c++. We also attended two PhD defenses.
Week 2
The second week ran by alot smoother with hardly any complications, we went through the crash course alot faster. I was bearly starting to get used to the eight hours of work every day. This second week we started getting more in depth of what we are going to be working with, we started reading research papers about robotics and computer science. i also started working with the IRobots, trying to figure out how they function using code. that week i also attended my first brown bag and learned about the different research programs that Texas A&M has.
Week 3
The third week was a very produvtive week. this week we started working more with the robots and learning what they are capable of. I had gotten used to the working hours and i was confortable with everyone in the office. we started attending a c++ class that was given by one of the mentors here in the office, after every class we had to practice our skills with the exercises that they gave us. we also got to create a robot that works together with another robot so when they collide they turn different directions and not get stuck together.
Week 4
The fourth week was when we started working with our summer research project. the first day we were introduce to what we were going to do and we were given teams to start the project. The part of the project that i got was the Evironmental Modeling, we had to set up QR codes so the robot can scan them and know where he is in the environment. We had to set up QR codes all around the room and we had to make sure they were a foot or less from eachother. after setting them up we needed to measure all of them so we can know how far they are from the origin. After we got all the measurments we have to give it to the other teams so they can use them to get the robot to move around the office.
Week 5
The fifth week was a very productive week. Our task for this week was to model the office room into vizmo, since we already had some measurements from the task before we only had to measure some parts of the office. We also attended the c++ class that was given by Irving about Vectors and Arrays and we had to finish all of the exercises that were given to us. On tuesday we attended the Motion Planning meeting to talk about Mukulikas preliminary defence. The modeling of the room was completed by wednesday due to some measuring problems. On Friday every task we had was finished and we attended Mukulikas preliminary defence.
Week 6
This week went by very quick, We worked on making the A&M logo out of cardboard boxes, finished coding all the c++ exercises, worked on new assignment and got it done. We attended a interactive meeting that was given by read and we learned about templates in c++. After the meeting we started constucting the Texas A&M logo using cardboard boxes so the robot can push it and bring it together to form the logo. Then we were assigned new task by Saurabh: to create a program that asks the user for a specific marker ID, and for the program to return the X, Y & Theta.
Week 7
This week went by very well, we had a new lesson on c++ where we learned different types of iterators when using vectors. At the rate that we are going i think we will be able to successfully finish our project. As a group we decided what things we needed to accomplish first to finish the summer project and we discussed how we were going to localize the robot. We were able to localize the robot so it will know how far is it from a marker we used two different markers to localize the robot so it can push the boxes straight.
Week 8
Howdy! The summer has been going really fast and it's been going very well. This week we made a lot of progress with the moving of the robot and the localization of the robot. With our teamwork we are starting to get closer go our goal. We planned out the whiteboard talk with the group and we began researching ideas for our poster. We also attende a weekly motion planning meeting where we presented a brief description of our summer project. Finished getting the robot to move and push the box forward for exactly 1 meter.
Week 9
The summer is almost to the end, this week we made a lot of progress. Our team were able to make the robot push the box accurately and collect data for our poster. We also finished tweaking the poster to the mentors liking. Our group started working on the box pushing to make it work better in 2 dimensions. then we all got together to work on the poster for each group. we also gathered data so we can make graphs for our poster. we added threads to program so it could be able to run multiple tests at once. Attended Dr. Marco Morales seminar.
Week 10
This is our last week here and i can say it has been a very productive summer i have learn so many new things that will help me in my future studies. Being able to work with something new to me was an eye opening experience for me, it has shown me what is possible to do with computer science. This week we were able to run the last test that we needed in order to complete the poster. During the Motion planning meeting they gave us feedback to be able to improve our poster. on thursday we had a treat in the lounge for Troys and Chinwes party. We were able to finish our poster and practice for our presentation. On friday we presented our poster and said goodbye to everyone.
