Hi everyone! My name is Pratikshya Prasai. My DTSF project this year is to create a voice-controlled and object-recognizing drone. Object recognition is a computer technique used for finding and identifying objects by feeding in the data of an object and make the machine learn how to identify it. For example, after my project is completed, I should be able to command my drone to find someone and click a picture of them. It would search around its environment to identify the person and then fulfill the command.
For my first week of the project, I focused on finding resources about object recognition, drone programming, types of drones, etc. I finalized the materials I would need at the moment and planned out my project over 8 weeks. I also had to figure out which drone I would use, and which programming language was suitable for my project. I watched videos of the people who have done similar projects in the past and learned how to program a drone and make it follow my commands. I was still unsure about how I would implement my project idea, but I decided to take a small step at once. So, I began by writing code to convert my voice commands into text commands that the computer would be able to recognize. I looked into the best and the simplest API to use for my project and completed writing the code. The processing speed of my program is pretty slow right now, so I am also trying different approaches to speech recognition by using a machine learning model instead of the python package that I am currently using to see if that works any better.
Apart from working on my project, I have also been studying for the FAA exam to receive my drone license and be able to fly outside. The agenda for the next week is to have the drone follow basic commands and also keep studying for the exam. Additionally, I also plan to learn how to fly the drone properly and avoid crashing it everywhere.
