Week 18: Invention, Intellectual Property, and Income
Assignment
Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project
Complete your final project, tracking your progress:
- What tasks have been completed, and what tasks remain?
- What's working? What's not?
- What questions need to be resolved?
- What will happen when?
- What have you learned?
Disemmination Plan
My final project is Bagbot. Bagbot is an autonomous backpack carrier that follows its owner while carrying their belongings and avoiding obstacles along the way. 🎒🤖
Purpose
The purpose of BagBot is to make carrying heavy loads (especially backpacks) easier, more comfortable, and more convenient. BagBot is designed to reduce the burden of transporting heavy items on behalf of the user, allowing them to move around hands-free while still keeping their belongings close by. 🤗😉
Sharing My Project
I plan to share BagBot in several ways:
- Fab Academy Documentation: The complete design process, successes, failures, and lessons learned will be documented on my Fab Academy website. By sharing both the final result and the development process, others can learn from my experiences and use them to support their own projects. (〃￣︶￣)人(￣︶￣〃)
- Project Demonstrations: I would like to demonstrate BagBot during school events, Fab Lab exhibitions, and technology showcases. I feel like seeing the robot move and respond in real time is one of the best ways for people to understand its capabilities.
- Online Sharing: Photos, videos, and short demonstrations of BagBot will be shared online to reach a wider audience. This will allow anyone to learn about the project.
- Open Source Learning: I hope that sharing my designs and documentation will encourage other students to experiment with robotics and digital fabrication. The project can serve as a starting point for future improvements and new ideas. 💡
Future Opportunities
Although BagBot currently focuses on following a user and avoiding obstacles, there are still many opportunities for future development.
1. I really want to incorporate a camera into the design so that bagbot can actually differentiate its owner from other people/objects in the same vicinity.
2. Instead of IR sensors, I could go back to my initial idea of using three time of flight sensors. I feel like the results will be significantly better with this change.
3. I would also like to improve the physical design by making the structure lighter, stronger, and more compact. Future versions could include weather protection and more efficient obstacle avoidance algorithms.
4. I also want to give audio feedback another shot (even though I might risk burning a fourth dfplayer) 🫠😅.
These possibilities can become reality through continued testing, feedback, and future development beyond Fab Academy.
Evaluation
The success of BagBot will be measured by the following criteria:
- The robot successfully follows its owner.
- It maintains a safe distance while moving.
- It detects and avoids obstacles.
- It can carry a useful load without becoming unstable.
- The electronics and software operate reliably.
- Users find the system helpful and easy to use.
Presentation and Video
Draft versions of my presentation slide and project video have been uploaded to my website. I will continue to be improve and update the content as the project progresses toward completion.
Intellectual Property
I would like BagBot to be a project that others can learn from and build upon.
For documentation, CAD files, and design resources, I will use the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This allows others to share and adapt my work while providing proper credit and keeping their contributions under the same license.
For the software developed for BagBot, including the code running on the XIAO ESP32-C3, I will use the MIT License. This allows others to use, modify, and distribute the software while preserving the original copyright notice.
By using these licenses, I want to share my project in a way that supports learning and collaboration, while still giving credit where it is due.
Final Project Progress Tracking
Completed tasks:
- Initial concept development and project planning
- CAD design and mechanical prototyping
- PCB design and fabrication
- Sensor testing (Time-of-Flight and IR sensors)
- Motor testing and basic movement control
- Core tracking and obstacle avoidance logic
- System integration testing
Remaining tasks:
- Final mechanical assembly of BagBot
- Improving stability and load testing
- Fine-tuning obstacle avoidance behavior
- Final wiring and cable management
- Final debugging and system optimization
- Documentation updates and final video
What’s working:
- Time-of-Flight sensor provides accurate distance measurement
- Basic following behavior is functional
- Motor control responds correctly to sensor input
- PCB design and core electronics are operational
What’s not working:
- Some components (like DFPlayer) were unstable during testing
- Since IR sensors don;t have much range, obstacle detection could be considered weak
What questions need to be resolved?
- What is the optimal following distance in real-world conditions?
- How can obstacle avoidance be made smoother and more reliable?
What will happen when?
The remaining tasks will be completed step-by-step before the final presentation. Mechanical assembly and system integration will be prioritized first, followed by testing, debugging, and final refinements. The final stage will focus on documentation and preparing the presentation video.
What have you learned?
Throughout this project, I learned how to combine mechanical design, electronics, and programming into one working system. I also gained quite a lot of experience in PCB design, sensor integration, and debugging real hardware issues.
One of the most important things I learned is that mistakes are unavoidable. The sooner you make them, the sooner you can understand and correct them. I also feel like failure is something you should definitely expect along the way, but it shouldn’t stop you from moving forward. 😌💪