Work, School, and late posts

     So things have gotten crazy since the semester started and I haven't had time to keep posting at all though the semester.  I just want to put it out there that I grossly miscalculated how much time working full time and taking two PhD level class would take. I had no time for really anything and something tells me it's going to get even worse.  I'm going to try to do it one more time this fall semester by taking Cloud Computing and wither a class on ROS (Robot Operating System) or a Java/Python class.  it will be a lot of work but I still need to take classes. I'm going to try and keep this update short as a kind of semester overview.

      This semester I took two classes Intelligent Robotics and Digital Signals Processing (DSP).  Both of these class were very time consuming especially Robotics.  Every homework was a mini project such as single/double inverted pendulum control using Fuzzy Logic, control of the Puma 560 arm, inverse and forward kinematics, etc. I then had two projects to work on before we took the final. Project 1 was about method of spacecraft. I did this first off because it is the reason I am working on my PhD, and secondly because I'm interested in building a satellite system for my PhD. I'm still not sure about the end goal yet but at least it was a start.  The second project I did was a team project, where the main goal was to control a formation of two quadrotors as they move though the lab from point to point.  This was a team project so we worked n control, communications, and vision with the Kinect. At the end of the project we were unable to close the vision loop but my professor was so impressed that we had proof of two quadrotors flying with the same controller on the same ground station.  Next DSP was a super intense class that involved signal and image processing.  This class would have been a better class had the professor taught in a more organized format instead of his teaching style. While I have my own issues at this class this is neither the time nor the space to air these grievances. Needless to say this class help me back from taking the PhD qualifying exam by about 5 points.  So now I have to decide if I want to retake the class or if I want to take a different class, in the end I will most likely retake the class.

      In other news I got a paper published in the IEEE Systems Conference, that was held in Vancouver Canada this year. That was an amazing experience for both networking and for touring that wonderful city. The paper was titled "Autonomous Controller Design for an Orbital Debris Chaser Craft". This was based off of my Master's Thesis but the paper only focused on the controller aspect not the full system that I designed. That was definitely a great experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

     This week I will update this blog more on the conference, videos from the projects and summer plans. For now I think this is a good place to stop for a semester update.