February 2026 RoboSub monthly summary: Delivered foundational features, stability improvements, and dev-environment enhancements across the stack, enabling faster feature delivery and more reliable autonomous operation. Highlights include the rollout of initial template scaffolding to accelerate onboarding and implementation, PID-enabled control refinements with new launch/config files for robust closed-loop behavior, and enhanced perception visualization for debugging via a YOLO bounding-box view. The EKF YAML configuration was modularized for maintainability, and interface groundwork was laid to support smoother cross-module testing and integration. Dev tooling and environments were strengthened through updated Docker/DevContainer configurations, with GPU Torch wheels and ROS/Python 3.12 compatibility improvements to stabilize GPU-accelerated workflows. Key features delivered: - Template scaffolding with dummy templates and overview comments (commit 7fc9a43d..., fd817c12...). - Control system improvements and PID integration, including new launch files and configuration (commits 029da9f..., 12f5041c..., afd19fbf...). - YOLO visualization view for real-time bounding boxes in the UI for debugging (commits f5c85b98..., 9a17b22a...). - EKF YAML modularization for maintainability (commits 94f0f6ae..., ccd6aa4e...). - Interface integration and testing readiness to align modules (commits b87d25de..., b065fdc3..., 9e2819bb...). Major bugs fixed: - Thrust-related issues corrected in control/physics module. - General bug fixes and debugging scaffolding moves to facilitate debugging sessions. - ROS 3.12 compatibility adjustments (via container/runtime fixes) to restore ROS-Python integration. Overall impact and business value: - Accelerated feature delivery with a more maintainable configuration and testing surface. - Increased stability for autonomous operation and improved observability for debugging. - Enhanced developer experience and reproducibility through improved dev containers and GPU-enabled builds. Technologies/skills demonstrated: - ROS, Python 3.12, EKF, PID control, YOLO integration, Arduino/depth sensing, Docker/DevContainer, and GPU acceleration.

January 2026 monthly summary: Delivered a reproducible RoboSub development environment with perception integration for ROS 2 and Gazebo, focusing on librealsense-based perception. Implemented a Dockerfile and configuration to enable rapid onboarding, testing, and simulation of underwater robotics workflows. While no major bug fixes were recorded this month, the setup reduces friction for developers and provides end-to-end testing capabilities for perception in simulation. The work establishes a solid foundation for faster feature iteration, better testing coverage, and smoother collaboration across the team.