peter le, - simon fraser universitywhitmore/courses/ensc305/projects/2016/13post.pdf · peter le,...

Project Team : Tom Ou Yang,

Farah Ferdous Ishita,

Peter Le,

Ashton Novak-Louie

Prepared for: Dr. Andrew Rawicz, Mr. Steven Whitmore

School of Engineering Science

Simon Fraser University

Team 13

Table of Content

Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1

Systems Overview---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1

Scheduling-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3

Cost----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4

Challenges -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5

Group Dynamics-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5

Work Distribution-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6

Personal Reflection----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7

Conclusion--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12

References---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12

Appendix-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------13

i

Introduction and Background There are currently many different types of personal safety devices available on the market. Some of these existing solutions are quite expensive and require the purchase of a monthly subscription for their services, while other devices requires the person to physically activate the distress signal. As mentioned earlier, in many situations one cannot activate the device manually. Therefore, to solve these problems, we have designed a lightweight intelligent wearable to be able to detect those situations. We used ADXL335, RFduino to design our smart band. We developed our algorithm on Android Studio and exported code onto ARM microcontroller. Additionally, we also designed the housing unit before commencing data acquisition because we needed to keep our testing environment static. After securing the housing solution, we re-collected fall data and determined an appropriate threshold for fall detection. We have implemented a Smart Band using low level hardware. We have simplified our original functionalities and have diverted our team’s focus on fall detection.

System Overview

We have used the following hardware to design Smart Band. Specifically, we used the RFduino development kit which included an ARM Cortex M0 microcontroller built with a Bluetooth low energy (BLE 4.0) module for wireless data transmission. Data acquisition was done using ADXL335, which is a 3-axis MEMS accelerometer sensor.

Figure 1 : ADXL335 ( Left ), RFduino ( Right)

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The entire system will was powered by a rechargeable 3.6V lithium polymer battery rated at 2000mAh. Additionally, we also designed the housing unit which securely held all our components together. This was an important factor to take into consideration because in order to keep our data acquisition methods uniformed throughout, we needed to minimize the external noise due to vibrations and mechanical misalignment which greatly affected the accelerometer readings. Earlier we planned to consider 3D printing for custom solution, but later we decided to go for a more cost effective metal wrist band case by assembling all the hardware components inside it. The remaining design elements for the project are software related and has already been mentioned in our earlier documents. The software design elements consists of the fall detection algorithm and is accompanied by a mobile application. Figure below is an overview of the high level block diagram of how our adjusted system has interacted with each other.

Figure 2: High level block diagram.

The system continuously reads raw acceleration values provided by the ADXL accelerometer sampled at a rate of up to 500 Hz. The acceleration data is then processed by the microcontroller and only alerts the user when a fall has been detected. The user is then given a time window to disable the false alarm. Should the user fail to disable the alarm, the system will assume the user has fallen and is in need of assistance and thus will send a signal via BLE to the mobile application which will then send the SOS SMS message.

2

Schedule

Figure 3: Scheduling of Smart Trak Solutions

We had to make changes to our normal schedule since we encountered issues with our project. We resubmitted our design spec due to lacking design components in our previously submitted design spec. We didn’t work in the first two weeks of April due to exams, but we met almost every day between April 18th and May 10th to work on our prototype. 3

Cost

Figure 4: Cost Analysis ( CAD)

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Challenges

We faced challenges after we received a low grade on design specification. Since we had no hardware components at the earlier part of the project, the later part required us to do a lot of work in a short amount of time. Working on Android Studio was also a big challenge since we never used it earlier for any school work. We had to fit an accelerometer, a microcontroller, a proto board and a Lithium battery inside a very small case. It was difficult for us to assemble all the hardware parts inside a small space. Additionally, we also designed the housing unit before commencing data acquisition because we needed to keep our testing environment static. This is because mechanical misalignment or a loose accelerometer would have produced unreliable data. The toughest challenge was faced by us on the day before demo. We hence had to reassemble our hardware parts to make our device work.

Group Dynamics

Farah and Tom were mostly organizing the meetings for the entire group. During the initial stage of our project, we mostly discussed on Whatsapp group online, which was effective but still we felt that more face to face meetings we have helped us to work more efficiently for the project. Ashton mostly worked individually, whereas Tom, Farah ad Peter were working together most of the time. We still feel that our group was not making a very good progress during the initial stage of the project since we didn’t follow a very strict planning for the unseen challenges that we faced towards the end of the course. However, we had a fairly easy going group and most of the time the group members had mutual agreements regarding work distribution. Over all it was good experience for us while we were in the same team.

5

Work Distribution The work distribution for the course has been represented by the table below: X - Some responsibilities

XX - Most of the responsibilities

Tasks Tom Ashton Peter Farah

Firmware Algorithm XX XX

Mobile Application XX

Soldering XX XX X

Assembling Hardware XX XX X

Case Design XX XX X

Testing XX XX X XX

Administration X XX

Parts Acquisition XX XX

Documentation XX XX XX XX

Figure 5 : Work Distribution

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Personal Reflection

Tom Ou Yang - CEO

This is my first time being appointed in a leadership role and thus this really pushed the limits of my comfort zone. However, I am grateful for the experience and I have learned many things along the way. One of these things was to always be prepared for the worst. To elaborate further, we had experience a vendor problem with the hardware which caused our originally planned project schedule to skew off course. By late February, we realized our originally planned hardware was not going to arrive on time; we had to quickly find an alternative solution for our project. Our revision of our project was seemingly fine as there were no objections during our design spec review with the TA. However, 6 days before our demo, we were met with further surprises. The alternative solution we proposed in our design specification document was not adequate enough. Fortunately we were granted an extension and I am thankful for my group member’s dedication; without them the project would not have reached fruition.

One of the most important things I learned while being project lead was that not everyone has the same thought process. Communication is vital to a large project and it is sometimes difficult for me to organize my thoughts into a very clear and concise agenda. It was especially challenging coordinating team meeting as everyone’s schedule was different. This in turn led to some unification problem and it was extra work for me to get everyone back on the same page.Coordinating technical aspect of the project also proved to be difficult and was often met with compromises due to our lack of expertise. A lot of the times it came down to knowing what we want, but not knowing how it should be done. However, my team members really catered to my ideas, which I appreciate very much. Although there were times I felt I should have pushed them into a more active role in the overall creative process. From a technical standpoint, I learned a lot from this project such as hardware selection, mechanical design, fall detection algorithm, mobile application and also integrating each smaller piece of the project into a grander scheme. There were many technical hurdles, but as stubborn engineers we refuse to quit. As a result of everyone’s dedication and hard work, we were able to build a working prototype.

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Ashton Novak - Louie – CTO

My original approach to SmartTrak Solutions was akin to my expectations and experience from working at large companies, where each part of the team would perform duties in an isolated yet effective manner. I soon came to realize that this ideal is not simple to achieve in a startup environment, and the nature of the project forced me to adapt in ways I've never been previously challenged.SmartTrak Solutions faced many difficulties along the way, including many over which we had little influence. Our original proposed design was compromised unforeseeably and we lost precious weeks without access to our required hardware. Furthermore, our hastily revised design was deemed to be unacceptable by the standards of the ENSC 440 course, further tightening our window for delivering a completed product. However, I am grateful we were awarded an extended deadline in order to accommodate the additional modifications we were required to implement.As the CTO of SmartTrak Solutions, many of the technical issues in our design fell to my responsibility. However, as each member of our team possessed different strengths, we decided to delegate the work according to what expertise we had. I decided to take charge of the software portions of our project, employing software design strategies I have learned throughout my career as an engineering student. I was able to effectively implement version control fluidly in order to clearly and concisely track the work of each member, as well as act as a central hub to share the current state of the project.Originally, we had planned to include many more features to make our product a comprehensive safety band capable of monitoring a vast array of parameters indicating the user's health conditions. However, with each hardware compromise and adjustment came a new set of limitations on what could be included, constrained both by the hardware modules and the time remaining to complete the project. I quickly learned that in order to deliver a desirable product, many tough decisions determining what features to exclude had to be made while still maintaining the integrity and goal of the original idea. It is never easy to remove code that has already been completed but newly rendered unusable. As for the final result, I am satisfied with what SmartTrak Solutions has achieved and I believe that our team made the correct decisions to arrive at our deliverable prototype.

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Peter Le – CAO

Over the course of my position at SmartTrak Solutions, I have gained valuable and practical project experience that is unlike any I have experienced before. In comparison to other group projects I have been a part of, the complexity, time and professionalism required for this Capstone course is far beyond my past experiences. With this project came the freedom to create whatever product we desired, as long as there was sufficient designing involved to demonstrate our engineering abilities. This freedom also became troublesome, since we did not have a desired final product or any theory given by the instructor as guidelines for us to work with, much more research and planning was required. Many design aspects of the project had to be redone, which further pushed our schedule behind. There were so many ways to create our product and many times, halfway through designing and building one component, an issue would arise and require redesign. As a member tasked with designing and implementing the fall algorithm, I had to use 5 different research papers before I finally found an algorithm that would be fully implementable on the hardware we had. As a result of changing the algorithm so often, the firmware code also had to be completely rewritten 3 different times. Hardware also had to be modified several times, mainly for the purposes of making the device more reliable, robust and compact. A solderable board had to be added, wires had to be re-soldered, and the internal circuitry had to be repositioned. Despite our initial plans, by the time we finished assembling the final product, it no longer looked like what we had envisioned and designed on paper. I also noticed many of the features we desired in the functional specifications could not be implemented, due to time, space and complexity. Although it was good to strive for a product with many functions, we were ultimately adding more features than we could handle. We could have definitely improved the sensing capabilities of the product if we included some low and high pass filters, however the circuitry was crammed enough within the housing and sacrifices had to be made. Even simple features, such as including an emergency indicator LED and a panic button on the device, which seemed very easy to implement, had to be excluded due to lack of space and unforeseen physical issues with voltage leaking through inductance.

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The Capstone project has given us students insight into how an engineering project goes from its inception to its final product. Having to write numerous professional documents throughout the project’s lifetime proved to be incredibly tedious, albeit rather useful in aiding us with planning and setting goals for ourselves. Since all group members were also participating in full-time studies, the amount of work became quite overwhelming at times. Overall this experience was a rollercoaster of emotions, there were many times when I would go from feeling a sense of camaraderie and achievement to feeling like I would spontaneously combust from the accumulated stress. Although I have created many fond memories through working with SmartTrak Solutions, the word “Capstone” will forever leave a haunting sensation that leaves me shuddering. This entire project has only given us a glimpse of what the engineering field holds in store for us, and I am absolutely terrified of what is to come after graduation.

Farah Ferdous Ishita - COO

Smart Trak Solution’s fall detection safety wrist band project has been a very important project for me as an engineering student. This course has taught me how to design and implement a product that is beneficial for the society and real world. This project has immensely helped me to improve my technical knowledge throughout the semester. I am glad that through this course, I got a chance to think outside the box and apply my engineering skills in a flexible way. Since we had no specific syllabus for the project, we got the freedom to choose our own project topic. This project also taught us that we should be ready for the unexpected situations, since earlier for this project we had issues with our design specifications. Hence we got extension to complete the project due to our lack of design elements.ENSC 305/440 has taught me to be a better researcher over time since we did a lot of brain storming and read a lot of research papers on fall detection before starting up our project work. Moreover I got a good chance to work on several reports, which certainly enabled me to be a better thinker and a better writer. I was also responsible for a lot of documentation and enjoyed it thoroughly since I like writing.

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I was able to brush up my soldering skills since I had not done soldering in the last 3 years. Wire connection issue was one of the major concerns of the wrist band case design process. While working on the project we had to do soldering from time to time and reassemble our hardware components since we had a lot of bugs while we tested our device. I helped my team to design the hardware components of the wrist band case. I have been able to significantly improve my hardware designing skills through this course since I worked on assembling the microcontroller , accelerometer and the Lithium battery together for the hardware components of the wrist band case. I used the concept of voltage divider significantly while designing the circuit for fall detection. Lithium battery was an important part of our design process and to keep our device active we had to maintain a certain voltage for the band. I loaded the algorithm from the android studio to the microcontroller and tested the behavior of the device by mounting the accelerometer on top of the microcontroller and soldering the connections between them securely. In order to secure the connections of the hardware parts, I used a proto board and that enabled us to secure the connections among the components effectively. I had to draw several schematics to figure out the exact pin connections between the accelerometer and the microcontroller. This course has helped me to apply my electronic circuit knowledge for a practical and useful purpose as an electronics engineering student. This was my first time where I got hands on experience with a drilling and cutting machine for drilling the metal case as well as cutting the unwanted edges of the proto board. I was significantly responsible for acquiring several hardware parts for our project. This has helped me to get familiar with several hardware components since I had to conduct a significant amount of research before buying the accurate hardware components. I helped my team to fix bugs during the final implementation and testing of our device. I learnt about team managements and group work in much more efficient way through this course. As a contact person and as a COO, I was able to demonstrate leadership skills to a certain extent through this course. I always arranged meetings, actively reminded my team about deadlines for course materials, contacted my professors & TAs and actively monitored group’s progress over time.Eventually I would like to say that Smart Trak Solutions has been a great company for me and it has allowed me to gain a lot of valuable experience that will help me in the future as an engineer. I have had the privilege to relate my school work to the outside world through critical thinking ,which has allowed me to develop a marketable prototype with my team. Overall I would like to say that capstone project has helped to me grow as an engineering student significantly.

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Conclusion

We were able to implement algorithm on ARM microcontroller. Housing unit was being designed before commencing data acquisition. We re-collected fall data and determined appropriate threshold for fall detection. Eventually we achieved our personal goals of applying our electronics and electrical engineering knowledge to create a consumer electronic device.

References

[1] http://www.rfduino.com/product/rfd22102-rfduino-dip/index.html#tab-description

[1a] http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/rf-digital-corporation/RFD90101/1562-1011-ND/5056358

[2] https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Components/SMD/adxl335.pdf

[2a] http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/sparkfun-electronics/SEN-09269/1568-1044-ND/5140809

[3] https://www.rpelectronics.com/af-258-lithium-ion-polymer-reachargeable-battery-3-7v1200mah.html

[4] http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/seniors-aines/publications/public/injury-blessure/seniors_falls-chutes_aines/index-eng.php

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Appendix A: Meeting Minutes

ENSC 305/440 – Smart Trak Solutions

January 11, 2016

12:30 – 13:30

Lab 1

Present : Tom, Peter, Farah , Ashton, Gifty

Agenda

Purpose of Meeting :

Discussion on choosing a project topic

Minutes :

Group members came up with eight different proposals

Mostly decided to build an Android mobile based application with advanced

features

Group members decided to learn about Android Studio


January 13, 2016

12:00 – 14:30

Lab 1, Professor Ash’s office


Agenda

13


Finalizing a project topic

Minutes :

Group members decided to build a safety wrist band

Discussed on several cases to be supported by the wrist band

Planned to get multiple sensors with built-in microcontroller

OS of the project is Android based


January 15, 2016

12:30 – 14:30

Lab 1, Professor Rawicz’s office

Present : Tom, Peter, Farah , Ashton

Agenda


Discussion with Professor Andrew

Minutes :

Talked about smart wrist band with Professor Andrew

Cases supported by the wrist band are : fall detection, heart rate measurement,

body temperature

Planned to get multiple sensors with built-in microcontroller

14


January 18, 2016

12:30 – 13:30

Lab 1


Agenda


Discussion on funding

Minutes :

Decided to buy open source module

Estimated cost for the open source module is $400

We deiced to buy other required items : Battery charger module, accelerator

sensor module, temperature sensor module, heart rate sensing module, rubber

ring


January 19, 2016

21:00 – 23:00

Lab 1, ASB 9705


15

Agenda


Preparing PPT slides for ESSEF funding and presenting to Shahira

Minutes :

Our team met for 1 hour in lab 1 before the presentation

Decided to order parts online ASAP

Discussed on writing project proposal

During the presentation talked about the safety band and its social benefits


January 22, 2016

19:00 – 19:45

Whatsapp


Agenda


Discussion on project proposal report

Minutes :

Discussed on writing project proposal

Decided our company’s name as Smart Trak Solutions

Tom decided to work on our company’s logo

We planned to upload our documents on google doc

We decided to split up the task among group members

16


January 26, 2016

13:00 – 13:30

Whatsapp

Present : Tom, Peter, Farah

Agenda


Discussion on project work distribution

Minutes :

Mobile app development using JAVA ( Tom)

User Interface ( Ashton )

Research on fall detection, heart rate calculation, calibration ( Farah, Peter )


January 29, 2016

10:30 – 12:45

WMC 3000 Level


17

Agenda


Fall detection discussion

Minutes :

Researched on several fall detection mobile applications

Did graph analysis for fall detection and several cases of fall detection

Researched on accelerometers for detecting fall


February 3, 2016

10:00 – 14:45

Lab1


Agenda


Fall detection further discussion

Minutes :

Researched on the type of the data required to detect the fall

Watched several fall detection videos based on fall detection

Worked on the features of the wrist band : weight, dimension, band width, wifi,

app version

18


February 4, 5 2016

10:00 – 15:45

Lab1


Agenda


Fall detection further discussion

Minutes:

Worked on deciding cases to be supported by the wrist band

Discussed to have band that is water proof

Realized that wireless sync would be required for the band

Alarm should be supported by the band

Band will do sleep tracking

The battery life of the band should be at least 10 hours

The charging time should be <2 hours

The response time of the system should be < 4 seconds


February 10 - 11, 2016

13:00 – 15:00

Lab 1, Renaissance Café ( SFU )

Present : Tom, Peter, Farah, Ashton, Gifty

19

Agenda


Functional Specification

Minutes:

Had discussion of the requirements of the functional specification

We decided to have general, physical, electrical, software, hardware,

communication and environmental requirements for our system

Also planned to included safety , performance and usability requirements

We chose to include specific standards for the device ( FCC, ANSI, IEEE etc )


February 18, 2016

12:00 – 12:40

Lab 1


Agenda


Discussion on project

20

Minutes:

We initially decided to work with Angel safety wrist band, but due to shipping

issues, we later decided to work with Microsoft band

We decided to work on our mobile app based on the following steps:

deployment, testing, app administration, infrastructure, features, design, planning

We will be using agile design methodology


February 25-26, 2016

13:00 – 15:00

Lab 1

Present : Tom, Peter, Farah, Ashton

Agenda


Work on the project

Minutes:

At the moment working on developing app

Next step would be testing and debugging phase

21


February 29, 2016

12:00 – 14:00

Lab 1


Agenda


Work on design review

Minutes:

Researched on water proof casings and batteries since we need it for the wrist

band


March 4, 2016

14:00 – 16:30

Lab 1 , K9500


Agenda


Design review presentation

22

Minutes:

Created PPT slides for design review presentation

Had a group presentation with TA Hsiu


March 5,7&10, 2016

12:00 – 2:30

Lab 1


Agenda


Design specification, test plan discussion

Minutes:

Distributed work load for design specification

Researched on technical specifications of the sensors, batteries

Main research was based on accelerometer for fall detection

Developed several hardware and software cases for the design specification

report


March 18,24 & 29, 2016

15:00 – 18:30

Lab 1

23


Agenda


Learn about Android Studio, develop test cases, work on project

Minutes:

Installed Android Studio on laptops

Installed Git Hub for sharing and viewing codes within our team

Worked on collaborating the application and the wrist band together

Developed algorithms based on based on fall detection and created test cases


April 1, 2016

12:00 – 15:45

Lab 1


Agenda


Work on project

Minutes:

Exported data from laptop to the android studio

We read the sample data

Started to work on UI of the project

Got our design specification report

24

We decided to meet Prof Andrew ASAP since our project had very little

hardware components


April 4, 2016

12:00 – 12:35

Prof Andrew’s Office


Agenda


Discussion regarding our project

Minutes:

We had a meeting with Prof Andrew regarding the modification of our project

We were given extension till May 10th to perform our demo

We decided to order microcontroller and accelerometer online for our project

We planned to meet next on 18th April since we had to wait for the parts ordered

online as well as had to write final exams


April 18& 19, 2016

19:00 – 21:30

Lab 1

25


Agenda


Assemble hardware

Minutes:

We assembled the hardware

Accelerometer was being placed on top of the microcontroller

We soldered the wires on accelerometer to connect to the microcontroller pins


April 22, 2016

14:30 – 19:30

Lab 1


Agenda


Working with the Lithium battery

Minutes:

We required our battery to have a voltage of 3.6 V

26

Since the battery from RP had a much higher voltage, we designed a voltage

divider circuit to reduce the voltage of the battery


April 25-29, 2016

17:00 – 22:00

Lab 1


Agenda


Work on algorithm, test algorithm

Minutes:

We completed developing algorithm for free fall on Android Studio and used USB

extensions to test our algorithm

While testing our algorithm, we detected free fall, velocity, impact and long

resting time

We made a video of our project for the algorithm

Ashton will be working on UI next week

27


May 2, 2016

17:00 – 23:30

Lab 1

Present : Tom, Farah, Ashton, Peter

Agenda


Work on designing case, developing app

Minutes:

We drilled a metal case for placing a panic button and toggle switch

Then tried to assemble Lithium battery, accelerometer and microcontroller

together inside the tin box that will be used as our wrist band case

Did lots of soldering

Worked individually on mobile app


May 4, 2016

18:00 – 22:30

Lab 1

Present : Tom, Peter

Agenda

28


Complete circuit design, work on wrist band case

Minutes:

We designed and modified our voltage divider circuit by adding a toggle switch

to it

Worked on casing


May 5-6, 2016

17:00 – 23:30

Lab 1

Present : Tom, Ashton, Farah, Peter

Agenda


Design UI, work on wrist band case

Minutes:

We worked on UI

We worked on casing

We used proto board to assemble microcontroller and accelerometer smoothly

Used cutter from the ASB machine shop to resize the proto board

We wrote code for BLE using C++ on android studio

After exporting the code to the microcontroller, we monitored the interaction with

the UI

29


May 7, 2016

13:00 – 18:00

Lab 1 Present : Tom, Peter Farah, Ashton

Agenda Purpose of Meeting : Work on scheduling process, add more features to the mobile app Minutes:

Worked on mobile app

Added straps to our metallic wrist band case

Used excel to create Gantt chart for scheduling

Worked on panic button of the case


May 9, 2016

16:30 – 00:45

Lab 1 Present : Tom, Peter, Farah, Ashton

Agenda Purpose of Meeting : Work on wrapping up the course material and conduct final testing before the demo 30

Minutes:

Worked on fixing panic button but couldn’t get it to work, although earlier it worked

Tested the fall detection by falling several time

Reassembled and soldered the wires that were connecting the microcontroller and the accelerometer to fix the connection issue

Worked on preparing slides for the demo button

May 10, 2016

8:30 – 9:50

Lab 1 Present : Tom, Peter, Farah, Ashton

Agenda Purpose of Meeting : Work on demo slides and rehearse for the demo Minutes:

Worked on demo slides

Practiced demo as a group before presenting it in front of our respected teachers 31

peter le, - simon fraser universitywhitmore/courses/ensc305/projects/2016/13post.pdf · peter le,...

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