Introduction
(a) Describe the end goal of your project.
The end goal of the project was to create a robot which could detect whether a specific burner on a stove was on or off. The robot would be connected to an application which could be used to remotely detect the status of the burners and turn off a specific burner when necessary.
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(b) Why is this an interesting project? What interesting problems do you need to solve to make your solution work?
This is an interesting project because it combines modern topics like computer vision and the Internet of Things with hardware in order to solve a practical problem. It was also interesting because it involved various subproblems that needed to be solved in order for the larger system to be functional. The subproblems are as follows:
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1. How to detect whether a burner is on or off
2. How to communicate this information with a remote application
3. How to effectively display this information on a remote application
4. How to mechanically switch off a burner
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(c) In what real-world robotics applications could the work from your project be useful?
According to the National Fire Protection Association, an estimated 374,000 U.S. homes catch fire annually, and 40% of these fires are due to cooking-related incidents. Thus, the work from this project would be useful in the real world because it would allow people to remotely monitor and regulate their stoves and consequently reduce the rate of house fires. The work from this project would ultimately be able to save people’s homes and lives.
