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Author:- Sumant Suhas Pakhare
E-mail:- pakhare@unlv.nevada.edu
Date:- 08/05/2024 - 08/12/2024
Week-1
In this image, you can see the Public Transportation Bus in Las Vegas, NV. The reason I took this image is because of its very convenient feature of carrying bicycles with it. In India, we don't have buses with this feature and if we really have this feature, it'll save a lot of people a lot of money. I mean, in my case, when I go to my college from home, I cycle 3Kms to the bus stop, lock it there, then take 2 buses then I finally reach my college. If I had a cycle with me, I don't need to take the second bus as it is short distance.
During this week, I met with Janie who is one of the Graduate Counselors sitting at Student Services-B Building. After having a meeting with her, I got to know about the benefits I get as an International Student attending a Graduate Program. I got to know about Graduate Assistants, Teacher's Assistants and Research Assistants. I also got to know about Dr. Hui Zhao who is the Graduate Counselor For Mechanical Engineering Graduate Programs.
The most prominent cultural insight I got to see was the Casino Culture in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is the party destination of USA so its obvious but as a guy who never saw one casino in his life before, It was a very different experience to see a casino and the various games played to win money in it. Also, I observed that Las Vegas respects each and every dining cuisine in the World.
After working at the Lab for around 4 Weeks, I have learnt a lot of things which I have shared in the following points:-
1. In Week-1, I got to know about the F1-Tenth Project where we're building a 1:10 Replica of an F1 Car to learn about its systems and eventually write a paper on it. I worked on finding the compatible Connector (Remote) to the receiver through which I could make it an Remote-Controlled (RC) Car successfully. I also worked on fixing its suspension (Shock Absorber).
2. In Week-2, I started working on Gas Delivery Drone Project with Hashim Hameed and Koreen Inah Rafanaan. With Koreen, I started my Drone Flight Training where I had to do a square pattern by keeping the drone floating but still not elevate it to greater heights. After working on it throughout the week, I got good at it. I also worked on Virtual Inertial Odometry (VIO) with SD Card Imaging, Robotic Operating System (ROS) Installation and also finally the Takeoff Script on NVIDIA Jetson Nano for the purpose of the automated flight of the drone. This setup could not be finished in this Week and went into the following week. I also got a project with BaekSeok Kim on Humanoid Slider where I first trained and tested a different Humanoid Model given by him.
3. In Week-3, I completed Jetson Nano Setup with VIO for Gas Delivery Drone Project. The Takeoff Script took a longer time than I anticipated as I had to battle through all the errors I got in the process. In the end, I could successfully run the Takeoff Script as I could see the propeller motors started working on the OctoCopter. The C++ Class was finished in this week with a final exam as a ROSC++ Project and was followed by CNC Machining and Shapeoko by Santiago Riecoy. We need to design a plastic Lego Box and make a wooden one with help of Shapeoko as the class's final exam. I also started working on creating a Drone Cage Adapter to secure the Drone Cage. The first design didn't work.
4. In Week-4, I started working on Flutter App Setup with Android Emulator from Android Studio. After trying it for a long time, it kept crashing so I started working on Humanoid Slider's code. After giving a summary of it and understanding it, I started working on the new code by the following week. I again started working on a better design for the Drone Cage Adapter but the 3D Print didn't work again so I have totally scrapped the idea of the Adapter and made a design of a clamp to secure the pipes for the Drone Cage. A Video Production class was also taken by Thomas McNulty and Hashim and Hameed where I learnt about all the softwares I can use to create videos like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe AfterEffects, InkScape, etc.,. We need to make a 1 minute video using all the softwares in some way as its project.
So all of the things I have said about the earlier weeks, you can see that I have learnt a lot of things like Troubleshooting the Errors, CAD Designing, Robotics Operating System, Video Editing, etc.,