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Blackbeard Security
Blackbeard Security
Blackbeard is my senior project I completed while at Kennesaw State University with my senior project team.
What?
What?
The problem:
With the recent increases in online shopping, package theft has become a significant problem that currently has no real solution. If you have a camera on your front porch, all you can do is see somebody covering their face, stealing your package, and running away. Our senior design team set out to provide a unique solution to this problem with our idea: "Blackbeard".
Our solution:
Blackbeard is an innovative front door with two core "smart" features: package delivery and home entry. Blackbeard has an opening similar to a "doggie-door", that will detect environmental features with computer vision and object detection and automatically operate the "package chute". Additionally, Blackbeard uses the same camera for facial detection to automatically unlock the deadbolt for the homeowner. New users can easily be configured on the Blackbeard app. On the app, you can train new homeowners, enable/disable homeowners, and view live camera footage.
System Block Diagram of Blackbeard
A Prototype Rendering of Blackbeard
Our mission:
Our team's mission for our senior design project was to:
Deliver a proof of concept in December and an alpha prototype at the Design Expo in May
Perform market research, comparing potential competitors with their features and cost to Blackbeard
Define product requirements to focus on objectives and functionalities our team must meet
Create a development roadmap to organize our work and to contribute towards cohesive teamwork
Consider our various use-cases, and focus on demonstrating them live with our alpha prototype
Understand the product development lifecycle to apply in our careers as engineers
How?
How?
For our development, our team decided it would be best if each of us focused on a technical area or feature of the project, while also helping each other incase one of us needed it. This way, all of our team members would be able to gain exposure to the entire technical scope of the project and understand how our individual work contributes to the entire system.
Team accomplishments:
Here are our overall technical accomplishments as a team that went into the Blackbeard system:
Create two convolutional neural networks using OpenCV and TensorFlow: one for object detection (package deliveries) and one for facial detection (home entry)
Open the delivery chute if a person, package, and Amazon vest are detected in the frame of the camera, using two servo motors to control the chute doors
Unlock the door if the face of a homeowner is detected, and automatically lock the door behind them, utilizing a latching solenoid as the deadbolt
Create an app to enable the user to view live camera feed, train new homeowner "faces" into the system, and enable/disable active homeowners in the system
Render 3D-prints for our package chute, assembling them together for our prototype
Fabricate a PCB for the necessary power management and interface circuitry
Physically build our prototype with a full-sized door (courtesy of our sponsor), creating a frame to hold the door and embedding our 3-D prints and hardware inside of the door
Proof of Concept for Blackbeard (featuring a shoebox!)
Individual contributions:
The technical areas that I individually held responsibility over were embedded software and systems integration. Below are some of the tasks that I performed:
Wrote embedded software to control the various hardware components, allowing us to operate the components to meet our use cases
Sourced hardware components (servos, solenoids, sensors, etc), coordinating with team members to ensure they would fit electrical and physical specs
Led our team in integrating the various mechanical, electrical, and software subsystems from our technical focus to create the complete Blackbeard system
Interfaced the embedded software together, organizing the control flow so that neural network classifications can drive hardware components
Assisted in testing power management and interface circuitry with the embedded software, verifying the integrity of hardware designs on breadboard and protoboard before our PCB was fabricated
Helped with physical construction, building a frame for our door to stand on and installing the hardware onto the door
Result
Result
Our team was able to successfully demonstrate our use cases at the senior design expo with our full-size door and all of our hardware. It was awesome to see our idea come to life and for people to understand our vision with solving the issue of package theft. Here are some takeaways from our time at the expo and our development:
A functional live demo that demonstrated our use cases of package delivery and home entry on our team's front door that we constructed
Mobile app demo showing how new users can be trained to unlock the door in less than 5 minutes, enabling/disabling users, and viewing live camera feed
Learned the importance of scheduling tasks, as our development was delayed due to PCB fabrication times and 3D printing times
Gained experience working cross-functionally with teammates on technical and non-technical objectives to reach a product/design objective
Took our concept from an idea all the way to a fully-functioning alpha prototype, gaining insight into the product development cycle
Gained presentation skills in both powerpoint/meeting settings and at a booth in an expo setting
Final takeaways:
The senior project is the pinnacle of an engineering degree, it serves as an opportunity where students can demonstrate their technical and soft skills they've developed in their time at university.
Overall, this has been an amazing project to work on, and I cherish the memories I've made and the lessons that I've learned.
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