B.O.B. (Building-Site Observation Bot)

Inspiration

We were inspired by both Pablo's dad, who works in construction, and the popularity of warehouse robots. We wondered why safety inspection has not yet been heavily connected to the construction space. Market research gave us these conclusions: 1. connectivity 2. price 3. environment adaptability. Talking to Pablo's dad also taught us there is much more room for automation and assistance in construction than we initially thought - pre-shift inspection can be incredibly hazardous due to unknown dangers (such as poisonous gas), and mid-shift supervision is often hectic and very limited for the shift supervisor to be able to carry out by himself (no eyes on the back of his head)! Our goal was to create an MVP for a construction pre-shift and mid-shift inspection & monitoring robot that is able to autonomously drive and use ML for hazard detection and object identification.

What it does

B.O.B (Building-Site Observation Bot) is a construction safety robot made to reduce injuries and save lives through automating pre-shift inspection and aid the shift supervisor in during-shift monitoring. It has 3 areas of focus:

Providing Offline AI Safety and Inspection - This is where the Jetson Orin Nano Dev Kit came into play.
Lower Cost - We used easy-to-find, cheap, OTS components such as ESP32 compatible sensors from Amazon, 3D printing, & RC supplies.
Providing Environmental Adaptability - Using tools such hazardous gas modules for detecting site hazards as radar for detecting humans through dust. ## How we built it We were able to localize our robot controls and storage by keeping the Jetson fully on our robot, connected to a battery source and our ESP32. Our project utilizes the Jetson Orin Nano Dev Kit with aid from ML tools such as OpenCV data, SH17 weighting, and YOLO, and hardware tools such as ESP32, RC supplies, an iPhone camera, & more.
## Challenges we ran into Localization was an anticipated and definitely experienced challenge. In addition, many sensors we were aiming to use in construction site conditions were not able to be tested in such due to lack of accessibility during this timeframe. ## What's next for BOB Achieve autonomous driving, fully wire and test all environmental and hazard sensors, increase model accuracies, improve product design and durability.