We began by understanding the problem. Through research and interviews, we compiled a requirements sheet capturing every parameter.

e.g. the mass and moment of inertia of the tested hardware; the size and range of motion the engineers expect; how controllable and operable the system needs to be …

I implemented 3 control flows, all initiated from the main controller (Raspberry Pi):

1. Controller → Solenoid activated release (via GPIO pin voltage control)
2. Controller → EMMA's microblower (via bluetooth)
3. Controller → Spin-up controller (via USB to the microcontroller)

For each of these flows, I used software-based simulators to mock the response behaviors as the receiving counterpart was still under development (by other team members).

Caveat: The integration still took longer than expected. This was mainly due to confusion about differences in microcontroller models and their mappings, lack of communication that caused mismatch in code, and accidental damages (e.g. me frying a connected raspberry PI on a steel plate).

Learnings: Start integration early. Theoretical readiness is reassuring, but still be prepared with added buffers in the schedule. Document the setup steps as there may be a need to redo.

I presented a sketch of my vision for the GUI to the client: the interface is not only a monitoring tool (as they had suggested), but it's also a controller.

“That would be very useful,” the client said. “But it sounds hard to implement.”

With the naive confidence of someone who hadn't yet tried to implement it, I reassured them: we could make it work.

I designed the graphic processing pipeline so that the system never had to put raw frames into storage. Instead, the visuals are reconstructed on the fly from numerical position data.

A much more lightweight system overall.

To make our product easier to understand at the final exhibition, I designed an interactive game that turned our technology into something visitors could experience firsthand.

The concept was simple: mini-golf played on a miniature version of our system. By putting the air-bearing puck in their own hands, visitors could physically experience what Frictionless movement feels like.

The game became an effective conversation starter. It drew people in, gave us a natural way to introduce the technology, and sparked questions about how the air bearing works, how we track motion, and what makes the system reliable.