Deep Sentinel
– 2017/2018 –
Mechanical Engineering
This project explores the mechanical design of an A.I.-based home security camera.
Project Brief
A.I. meets home security.
Every 9 seconds a home is burglarized in America. Although home security systems have existed for decades, they have always been reactive systems plagued with false alarms. Deep Sentinel wanted to change this. They believed that, by harnessing new advancements in Artificial Intelligence, they could introduce the first proactive home security system to consumers. Acting as a personal security guard, this new home security system was to keep a constant watch out for suspicious people, warn intruders when they were trespassing, and call authorities before situations escalated.
I worked on this project during my time at Q Design Studio. The project itself was very much a collaborative effort between several specialized studios. While Ammunition Group was tasked with honing in on the industrial design, Q Design was contracted to drive the mechanical engineering and turn their concept into a manufacturable product. During the engineering phase we worked closely with PowerBeam, Custom Integrated Antennas, and Spanner PD to integrate the electrical, optical, and mechanical engineering efforts of the product development. I was personally responsible for leading the mechanical engineering effort on the security camera and preparing the product for DFM review with Deep Sentinel’s CM in China.
Client Needs
An engineering challenge.
Deep Sentinel came to us with a number of critical product requirements. Their security camera had to be water and dust-proof to survive years of weather abuse outside. The form had to follow Ammunition Group’s industrial design intent exactly. And it had to be as compact as possible in order to wow prospective customers. Meeting these requirements under Deep Sentinel’s accelerated timeline presented an ambitious engineering challenge, but I was confident that we could exceed everyone’s expectations.
Engineering Exploration
Awe-inspiring optimization.
Due to the complexity of this product I had to explore many engineering solutions. To make things more efficient, I broke the product into three key sections and refined the engineering design of each section before combining them back into one final design. These sections were the light ring, the camera compartment, and the speaker compartment.
Rapid prototyping a glowing light ring.
I started with the light ring. Ammunition wanted the product to have a gray tinted, plastic ring that would glow red when the device detected a trespasser. The effect was similar to HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Because achieving a bright and even glow in a glossy gray light ring is not easy, I started by disassembling an Amazon Echo Dot to see how its light ring worked. I learned how they were able to compactly diffuse the light and applied this new insight to a design of my own. Through a combination of FDM 3D prints, silicone molds, and resin castings, I was able to quickly refine my light ring design and verify that it would work properly. Rapid prototyping was key to the quick success of designing this section.
Optimizing for waterproofing & camera optics.
Next I moved onto the camera compartment. This section held the main camera, PIR sensors, antenna, and two PCBA’s. Here the camera’s waterproofing and field of view had to be optimized with respect to the aesthetic constraints. I ended up exploring a few mechanical architectures for the internal bracket, PCBA’s, and front cover and then, working closely with Ammunition, Deep Sentinel, their CM, and an optical engineer, refined the design until the camera’s optics were perfectly optimized.
Optimizing for waterproofing & internal volume.
Finally came the speaker and battery compartment. This section held the light ring, speaker, battery, and a PCBA. My goal here was to maximize the internal space to allow for a louder speaker and larger battery while simultaneously minimizing the external size of the product. At the same time I had to puzzle the light ring in around the speaker and make sure the whole system was waterproof. Pulling all this off required a lot of close work with the electrical engineering team until we had honed in on a truly robust and efficient final design.
In addition to all of the individual section constraints, we engineered this product with ideal DFM practices in mind. So part count and complexity were minimized, ease of assembly was maximized, and injection molding limitations were accounted for. Altogether, the final engineering design was incredibly efficient.
Final Design
Beautifully compact and robust.
The final design was a culmination of many weeks of engineering exploration, prototyping, and refinement. Everything integrated into a beautifully compact yet robust device. My work on this project ended with me handing off the final SolidWorks CAD package to Deep Sentinel. Together, Q Design and Deep Sentinel went over the final DFM review with their CM and confirmed that the product was fully manufacturable. From there Deep Sentinel worked with their CM to perform EVT, DVT, PVT, and final mass production. The Deep Sentinel home security system went on sale in Q4 of 2018.
Designed for an efficient assembly line.
Despite being a complex and innovative product, the mechanical design is actually quite simple. The final product is assembled from four individual subassemblies: the outer enclosure, the camera bundle, the speaker & light ring bundle, and the battery cover. Keeping these compact subassemblies discrete from one another allows the CM to set up an incredibly efficient assembly line where all subassemblies are screwed together in tandem. In addition to that, the parts and subassemblies incorporate self-locating features that make putting them together quick and easy. We really strived to minimize user error and labor intensity on the assembly line.
