Design Review

Video Lecture

Video, Slides

updated Fa 2020

Description

The design review is a 30-minute meeting intended to make sure that the team has a successful project. Students will present and defend their design while instructors and TAs critique it, identifying any infeasible or unsafe aspects and steering the team toward success. Instructors and TAs will ask questions throughout and may choose the order of blocks to be discussed. Specifically, here is what the course staff are looking for:
  1. Evidence that the overall design and high-level requirements solve the problem stated.
  2. Check if the overall design has suitable difficulty for course standards and completion in one semester. Scope may need to be adjusted if otherwise.
  3. Check team members' engineering preparedness to implement each module.
  4. Check that each team member is assigned an equal portion of the project effort.
Prepare for the following sequence.
  1. Promptly project the design document on projector.
  2. Introduce team members (name, major, and the project part each is in charge of).
  3. Present problem statement and proposed solution (<1 minutes) following the template in DDC (see Description 1.a)
  4. Present design overview (<5 minutes)
    1. High-level requirements: check DDC
    2. Block diagram: check DDC
    3. Physical design
  5. For the remainder of the review, you will participate in a detailed discussion of the design. Plan to cover each block, one at a time, beginning with the most critical. The course staff will ask questions and may step in to guide the discussion. Be prepared to discuss all aspects of your design with a focus on the following.
    1. Requirements & Verification: (see DDC); We'll look at all the important block requirements. Prepare to justify the components chosen and compare with important alternatives.
    2. Evidence that the design meets requirements (use the following as applicable)
      • Simulations
      • Calculations
      • Measurements
      • Schematics
      • Flowcharts
      • Mechanical drawings
      • Tolerance analysis: check DDC
      • Schedule: Suggestions:
        1. Think about what you can do in parallel, what has to be sequential;
        2. Work on hardware before software;
        3. Perform unit testing before system testing;
        4. Unit test each module on a breadboard before starting PCB design);
        5. Leave margin for unexpected delays or accidents. You are mostly responsible for those exceptions, just as if you were the owner of this senior design business;
      • Cost:hourly rate is ~$50 not $10. In addition, apply the 2.5x overhead multiplier ($125/hr is the cost of your senior design business), which includes the cost of salaries of you, your boss, CxOs, sales, janitors, etc.

Grading

The DR Grading Rubric is available to guide your DR preparation. Two sample Design Review documents are available as examples of what we expect: a Good Sample DR, a Moderate Sample DR, and a good example R&V table as it was presented in a final report. Notes are made in red type to point out what is lacking. Note that the grading rubrics and point structure may have evolved since these reports were generated, so use them only as a guide as to what we are generally expecting.

Submission and Deadlines

Your design document should be uploaded to PACE in PDF format by Midnight the Friday before design review. If you uploaded a mock DR document to PACE, please make sure that it has been removed before uploading the final DR..

Tech must-know and FAQ for design

Here is the link of "Tech must-know and FAQ for design" which is accessible after logging into g.illinois.edu.

Over semesters, ECE445 course staff have encountered repeated mistakes from students. The document above is designed to provide students with the essential knowledge needed in order to have a good design. Spending 5 min reading it might save you 15 hours later. Also, there might be some quiz questions in your DDC or Design Review. Please help us improve this document. We value your feedback!

Cloud-controlled quadcopter

Anuraag Vankayala, Amrutha Vasili

Cloud-controlled quadcopter

Featured Project

Idea:

To build a GPS-assisted, cloud-controlled quadcopter, for consumer-friendly aerial photography.

Design/Build:

We will be building a quad from the frame up. The four motors will each have electronic speed controllers,to balance and handle control inputs received from an 8-bit microcontroller(AP),required for its flight. The firmware will be tweaked slightly to allow flight modes that our project specifically requires. A companion computer such as the Erle Brain will be connected to the AP and to the cloud(EC2). We will build a codebase for the flight controller to navigate the quad. This would involve sending messages as per the MAVLink spec for sUAS between the companion computer and the AP to poll sensor data , voltage information , etc. The companion computer will also talk to the cloud via a UDP port to receive requests and process them via our code. Users make requests for media capture via a phone app that talks to the cloud via an internet connection.

Why is it worth doing:

There is currently no consumer-friendly solution that provides or lets anyone capture aerial photographs of them/their family/a nearby event via a simple tap on a phone. In fact, present day off-the-shelf alternatives offer relatively expensive solutions that require owning and carrying bulky equipment such as the quads/remotes. Our idea allows for safe and responsible use of drones as our proposed solution is autonomous, has several safety features, is context aware(terrain information , no fly zones , NOTAMs , etc.) and integrates with the federal airspace seamlessly.

End Product:

Quads that are ready for the connected world and are capable to fly autonomously, from the user standpoint, and can perform maneuvers safely with a very simplistic UI for the common user. Specifically, quads which are deployed on user's demand, without the hassle of ownership.

Similar products and comparison:

Current solutions include RTF (ready to fly) quads such as the DJI Phantom and the Kickstarter project, Lily,that are heavily user-dependent or user-centric.The Phantom requires you to carry a bulky remote with multiple antennas. Moreover,the flight radius could be reduced by interference from nearby conditions.Lily requires the user to carry a tracking device on them. You can not have Lily shoot a subject that is not you. Lily can have a maximum altitude of 15 m above you and that is below the tree line,prone to crashes.

Our solution differs in several ways.Our solution intends to be location and/or event-centric. We propose that the users need not own quads and user can capture a moment with a phone.As long as any of the users are in the service area and the weather conditions are permissible, safety and knowledge of controlling the quad are all abstracted. The only question left to the user is what should be in the picture at a given time.

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