Author: Fausto Vega, Email: vegaf1@unlv.nevada.edu
Date Last Modified: 06/09/2019
This weekend, some of the REU students hiked up a trail near Reno called Hunter Creek which led to a waterfall. Overall this was a nice bonding experience with my peers. The main reason I chose it is because I find it surprising seeing waterfalls in the desert. There are none in Las Vegas so everytime I encounter one, it is a great scene.
The second week consisted of presenting a timeline for the 10 weeks and sharing one's project proposal to the rest of the participants. The goal is to experiment an existing algorithm on a Pioneer P3DX robot attached with a laser scanner. This weeks workshops also consisted of an introduction to ROS taught by a Phd student on Thursday, and Tuesday was time management.
This week I focused on experimenting with different leg detector packages as well as different laser scanner. I tried three different leg packages to see which provided the most accurate data, and did the same between the two laser scanners (hokuyo lidar and RP Lidar A3). I have decided which package I will be using and how to interpret the data coming every incoming scan. I was also tasked with writing the introduction and an abstract for the paper that is expected at the end of the 10 weeks. Next week I hope to write the subscriber to the messages and try to interpret it with the existing algorithm.
I learned that I need to focus on a specific project and try to finish that. This socially aware navigation project has been going on for several years and it will be difficult to interpret it all in 10 weeks as it involves machine learning and other advanced CS topics which are subjects I am unfamiliar with. I will try to focus more on ROS as I feel it is more useful to know for the lab.
This week I got to know my room mate Tomo a bit more. He attends the University of Nebraska and is studying computer science. He is the youngest in the program as an incoming sophomore and is working with lasers for an intent recognition project.