Robotics education as a tangential learning platform

credits: Extra Credits

For those of you who have read the title, most of you are already in discomfiture and are wondering why does the word “Tangential” figure in a write up related to learning. Well, for starters, Tangential learning is a process by which people indulge in self-education if a topic is exposed to them in a context that they already seem to enjoy. Some valid instances could involve examples, where we could watch a movie praising classical music and then be motivated to learn more about the history of that artform. Scientists have observed this method of learning as an effective means of education with high retention rates.

This form of tangential learning is rather involuntary and represents innate curiosity in us learners. Not just movies, even other forms of activity such as watching documentary, visiting art galleries and playing video games could draw us to the context and make us better learners in that particular context. While this is an interesting means for learning, there is no such contemporary in mainstream education. Mainstream education does not provide with enough such avenues where kids can take a break from the rigorous routine and explore newer concepts in their area of choice. This means that the curiosity and love for learning is curbed in its buds and students are forced to stick to the trodden path in learning. 

A rudimentary exploration of existing processes reveals that tangential learning from mainstream education hasn’t existed and a major reason for the same could be the fact that mainstream education system does not incentivize such activities undertaken by children. This is something that has an adverse impact on student curiosity levels, and in some cases happiness levels too.

Mainstream education which is bogged down by its desire to impart parity in education fails to provide with scope or time for students to explore their areas of interest. Even if there exist courseware for students to pursue and explore within the outreach of their subjects, students are actively discouraged from leaving the existing track. This means that budding engineers and scientists cannot specialize in their areas of interests such as electronics or astronomy or roboting in their school lives and have to wait for the completion of their undergrad and postgrad studies before they can move on to pursue their passions.

We at Kidobotikz are not partial to this bias towards learning. We believe that tangential learning should never be inhibited whatever be the age of the candidate. He or she deserves to explore his/her area of interest even if he is not institutionally qualified to pursue high technology concepts. Our kits have been designed to give students a taste of high technology concepts in engineering and robotics. Students can pursue several interesting concepts such as electronics, mechanics, programming while they are still in their schooling years. Our platform has been designed to democratize such core technologies to the comprehensible level of school students. This we believe is our bit towards tangential learning. 

Happy roboting ! ! 

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KRG-IX: A few memories to share and a few memories to thank for. . . .

It’s been 3 days since KRG ended and our excitement is barely down. With the photos and videos just only arriving at our offices, it is time to reminisce and relive memories of the two days. For it not often that you attend events that put you in touch with the memories of your childhood. More importantly, this event was one that actually had children displaying their cool intellectual prowess.

The event was spectacular on many counts and for everyone who was there, it was an amazing experience.

It was a couple of days of absolute fun where everyone, be it the students of Kidobotikz or the staff, were all caught up in the euphoria surrounding the two day event. Every student who participated in the proceedings brought with him/her a unique flavour that made the whole event a joyous affair.

There were many positives from this edition of KRG. This was the first time when KRG was conducted on two days. After requests from many previous participants and parents to increase the number of events, the organizing committee of KRG turned this into a 2 day gala. This had a wonderful effect on all the participants. All participants could now participate in all events and did not have to miss out on participation due to overlapping events. This way, students also felt that they could spend their entire weekend on robotics instead of a single cramped day. The theme of this edition’s project display was another major hit. In order to show Kidobotikz’s commitment to nation objective of “Clean India” and to show support to the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s “Clean India” campaign, the theme of the project expo event for this edition of KRG was “Clean India”. Students were asked to develop concepts and projects that showcased the concepts for making India a cleaner country. Students obliged the call for such projects by developing wonderful concepts which had the clean india theme incorporated into them. 

The project expo was a major crowd puller with several schools bringing their students to view the display the projects. This showed to us that schools were opening up to the possibilities of incorporating practicals-based learning and robotics in their curriculum. Equally enchanting was the fact that droves of students from these schools made a beeline to our help desk to find out more about Kidobotikz and what we do. Many of these students displayed curiosity and wanted to get themselves some of this robotics knowledge. 

The future of education scenario in the country could’ve been glimpsed if one had set foot at KRG on the weekend. Such was technological empowerment caused by the knowledge of robotics on these young minds. And we at Kidobotikz are happy to have been a catalyzing factor towards this future.

With the event having now been successfully concluded, it is now time to look back on it and thank all those who made the event happen. Every parent, student and faculty who had taken part in this event should feel proud as without the support of each one of them, this event could not have been the grandiose success that it was. In particular, two teams needed to be credit with the highest honour for their relentless commitment in getting the robots and project. Back at Kidobotikz, the training team and the production team always supplement each other's efforts. For every project the students had to do, their components had to be sourced from the open market. Thanks to the production team and their shop, every young student’s vision for building a robot of their dream was made possible by sourcing components through an endless maze of logistics. Their efforts in these regard can never be fully appreciated because of the inherent complexities in any logistics system. But thanks to their relentless and dedicated efforts, every component in every project and robot worked flawlessly. 

We wish to bring more such fun in the winter edition of KRG to be held tentatively in December 2016.

Happy Roboting ! !

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Roborace gives a fleeting glimpse of working DevBot prototype

When Roborace kicks off, it will be the world's first racing series for driverless cars. So far, it's promised plenty, but is yet to deliver any wheel-to-wheel driverless action. Details about the car's design have been released, but there's been no video of a driverless racer actually on the track. Until now, that is, because the Roborace team has released the first fleeting glimpses of a development mule labelled DevBot.

The Roborace series is set to run in conjunction with the 2016/2017 Formula E season. Cars will be controlled by a central Nvidia AI brain, using cameras and radar sensors to navigate the pack of all-electric racers around tight city streets.

Designed to serve as a base for teams to hone their software for the real Roborace cars, DevBot looks nothing like the futuristic Daniel Simon creation we saw earlier this year. There's a cabin to hold a driver or engineer, and none of the sensors and cameras have been covered up.

It's not designed to look pretty though, it's purpose is to give engineers invaluable information about how the car "thinks" when it's out on the track. So the DevBot is fitted with the same drivetrain, sensors, computers and communication systems as the final racer.

A fully-finished Roborace car will be make its public debut at the Formula E open practice sessions in Donington, UK, on August 24. In the meantime, check out the DevBot in action in the video below.

Source: Roborace, New Atlas

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Roborace reveals what's under the skin of its enigmatic self-driving race car

Anyone who thinks car racing is all about the drivers is about to come in for a rude shock –self-driving race cars are set to hit the track soon. Roborace is planning to run alongside Formula E in the 2016/17 season with a futuristic car designed by Daniel Simon, but details about how the car would actually work have been hard to come by. Thanks to a new image from Roborace, we finally have a bit more info about what will make it tick.

Even though it's been doing the rounds since April, Daniel Simon's design is still properly arresting. Because there's no need to protect a driver, no need to leave space for the legs and head, the shape is unlike anything we've seen from Formula 1 or Le Mans racers.

Without a driver behind the wheel, Roboracers are reliant on data from a huge array of sensors and cameras. Lidar sensors are fitted to the front bumper, front flanks and rear bumper, and there are radar units at the front and rear as well. Cameras mounted to the front bumper and central "tower" also feed information back to the central brain.

That brain is a Nvidia Drive PX 2 , which is tasked with processing the torrent of raw data from the sensors at lightning speed. It's cooled by a dedicated scoop at the nose of the car, and mounted in the center of the fuselage to keep it as far from any potential crash damage as possible.

The battery pack is the other area paid special cooling attention, with outlets tucked away behind the rear wheelarches. The only element of this design not blended seamlessly into the body is the "tower" at the back, but it makes sense to have the 360-degree TV camera, status lights and pitot tube elevated and easy to see, so I guess we'll have to forgive Simon for that little aberration.

To begin with, Roborace competitors will compete in identical cars. There is expected to be 10 teams, each with two cars, running hour-long support races across the globe during the course of the Formula E championship season.

Source: Roborace, New Atlas

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Kidobotikz's Robopalooza: KRG Day 2

When can an event be called an extravaganza? Could it be when organizers spend months of planning, weeks of preparations and a fat wad of money to organize an event? Could it be on the basis of footfalls at an event? Not quite. An event can unequivocally declared an extravaganza when the crowd turns up in hordes and then refuses to leave. The crowd which falls in love with the atmosphere of the event is left wanting for more. This is the defining moment for any event when it no longer is an event but becomes a tradition, one that cannot afford to not happen regularly. At the end of the proceedings of the August Edition of KRG, it can be safely said that KRG is no longer just an event but a tradition.

The second and final day of KRG commenced with an intense state of euphoria with a swelling in participation since yesterday’s events. With the energy and excitement pouring in over from yesterday, the action commenced from where we left yesterday. The first event for today, which took place at arena 3, was Temple Run (Seniors) wherein the senior students of Kidobotikz took part in the android game-inspired event. The main focus of this event was on building and designing robots which were capable of pushing themselves through a path that was ridden with obstacles. The obstacles which ranged from an elevated ramp to a teeterboard was one of the tougher events that students take part in. Robots of various dimensions, which were custom designed to be able to tackle the unexpected obstacles on the pathway, elicited quite a loud cheer from the audience with both parents and students going gaga over the suspense built into the event. Not many robots were able to successfully complete the entire lap, thereby assuring that victory was hard-earned. 

Back in Arena 2, another interesting event was happening which was a crowd favourite. The junior and senior versions of the Balloon Burster was in the happening today and it turned out to be quite a fun event. “A last man standing”-kinda event, it involved robots which had balloons tethered to their rears while long pointed nails fixed to the front. Like a knight involved in jousting, each participant had to shield his own balloon from being pierced while trying to pierce the balloon of the opponent. This event, which had single elimination format,was a rather rapid one with many matches being played out in less than 60 seconds. The juniors event of this game was won by Shraddha while the seniors was won by Rohit Kumar. 

Interestingly, there was one event which had put everyone in a spot of bother. The line follower event which had circuitous black paths was so tough that not one participant could win the event. The final robot which took part in this event was the only one which was able to complete the lap. Not surprisingly, Vidyasagar who had designed this robot was declared the winner of this event. Impressively, Vidyasagar had also managed to bag two more events into his kitty. After winning 3 of the events- namely Line Follower, Temple Run seniors; Vidyasagar was declared the overall champion. 

The prize distribution ceremony which happened after the close of all the games was a solemn affair. Dr. Ravikumar, Director of Center for Entrepreneurship Development, Anna University, had graciously agreed to preside over the occasion as Chief Guest and give away the prizes. Dr. Ravikumar, who was acquainted with the our directors Pranavan and Sneha, had quite a few words of praise for both of them and the organization of Kidobotikz. He opined that the methodologies adopted by Kidobotikz to promote robotics based education for students had the potential to better the standards of education in our country and such efforts were well warranted.  PSBB KK Nagar won the overall shield.

Team Kidobotikz is happy to have conducted a two day KRG for the first time and is proud to declare that the two day event was a runaway success. We at Kidobotikz promise to bring back the next edition of KRG in a grander form and with much pomp. 

Happy Roboting ! ! 

Good Night ! !

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Kidobotikz's Robopalooza: KRG Day 1

For most of us who have a defined notion of the word “Fun”, today would’ve been an awakening experience! It was the first day of KRG and the day could not have turned out better! The day turned out to be absolutely fantabulous with lots of action. The ingredients for the usual though- Children, Robots and Competitions. For the audience though, the event was an absolute gala. With parents and children making to the event in droves, the event was an absolute crowd puller; in particular there were a number of enthusiastic drop ins from the student community of the College of Engineering, Guindy. With both parents and students having fun, they desired to catch some of the roboting action for themselves.

The first day of the ninth edition of KRG began with some exceptional jubilation thanks to the regular attendees of KRG. The event in itself commenced on time with the robots getting caged and vetted for registration at 8:30 AM. As the first event, Temple Run (Stock robots), commenced at little past 9 AM simultaneous preparations were underway for participation of the second event. The second event, Robo Sumo, which was one of the star attractions of the day began with much fanfare and saw a huge participation. When the morning session for this event concluded at around noon, it was a good 3 hours of high intensity roboting at the TAG Auditorium. 

Meanwhile, another important event was underway supplementing all the action at the TAG Auditorium. At the H.M Hall adjoining the TAG Auditorium, a project expo event was organized which encompassed a myriad of projects conceived and developed by the students of Kidobotikz. Each of these individual projects were brilliant in their own right with some truly eye catching concepts. In line with the PM Shri Narendra Modi’s “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”, this edition of KRG’s project had a specific “Clean India” theme. All the projects on display were in line with this theme and students had painstakingly developed some interesting concepts for display to the outside world. Their efforts, however, were sufficiently rewarded with a lot of students turning up to grab a presentation of these projects. Henry Maudslay, the great inventor and after whom the H.M hall is named after, would be proud man to have witnessed such young innovative minds.

Schools from various parts of the city honoured Kidobotikz’s invitation and brought their students here to view the projects on display. Among these, the contingent from Jeppiaar School was by far the largest with close to 300 students attending KRG. 

After a brief recess, the afternoon events began with great fervour. The overcast skies and sumptuous luncheon seemed to have had no effect on the energies of the participants. If anything, the pitch of the event was higher than the morning. At around 2:30 PM, to the sounding of whistles, the robo races and robo sumos resumed with a great deal of joy from both the participants and the audience. When one of the two last standing robots were nudged out of the arena, the games for the day came to a close with the next event being for parents. This event which was conducted by Kidobotikz to entertain all the mothers of the kidobotikz student community, was much appreciated by all.

At around 6:30 PM the curtains were brought down on the first day of the Kidobotikz Robo Games 2016- August Edition. With still another day left in the event, the action continues tomorrow from where we left it today. 

Happy roboting! ! !

Good Night ! !

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Geek Speak: KRG Special Edition

Here comes Friday evening and with it a rush of activity. It is the last day before the big event and it’s a complete frenzy here at Kidobotikz. We’re on the eve of the most awaited weekend of the month- The weekend of KRG. The fact that it was a rainy evening seemed to have no impact on anyone. Every single person, be it students or personnel, seem to be caught up in the frenzy for the KRG weekend and the preparations are in full swing. The 11th hour preparations are underway and the entire campus is a beehive of activity. 

Back at the Makerspace, it is rush hour. Students who embody the principles of procrastination are here giving final touches to their robots which are to be displayed tomorrow. Supporting them are their faculty who are helping them test their robots and make sure that all of them are display a flawless working condition tomorrow. 

In the meantime, I just get a quick glance at all the robots that being tinkered upon and find one particular robot. This robot which sports liveries not much different from the sponsorship liveries on an F-1 race car belonged to a young mind. Shraddha, who is a 5th grader at the Ravindra Bharathi Global School, is the brains behind this interesting robot. The robot which has been aptly named “Magno-bot” is an cleaning robot which can separate ferrromagnetic materials from municipal waste. These could range from anything between iron filings to nails. She has developed it for tomorrow’s project expo and has high hopes for her project.

Meanwhile, the lobby of the Kidobotikz office is filled with parents for whom waiting outside the Kidobotikz classrooms has been a regular routine this week. Thanks to such devoted parents who are equally enthused about the event, kids are able to expose themselves to such interesting events and gain experience as educate themselves.

We have talked a lot about the preparations for the event itself; however, it would be a lost cause if our readers were not aware of how the actual event will turn out to be. While our prime suggestion would be to request you all to drop in at tomorrow’s KRG, we don’t want our followers to miss the action. So, stay updated on the Kidobotikz facebook page to receive a flurry of images that will be uploaded throughout the day to ensure that everybody can get a taste of the ongoing action.

If you are still an avid reader of our blog, it would prudent for you to catch a front row seat at CEG’s Tag Auditorium by 8:30 AM; because that is where all the action will be happening for the next couple of days. 

Happy Roboting ! !

Happy KRG ! !

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Soft robotic caterpillar uses the energy from light for wriggle-locomotion

For decades scientists and engineers have been trying to build robots mimicking different modes of locomotion found in nature. Most of these designs have rigid skeletons and joints driven by electric or pneumatic actuators. In nature, however, a vast number of creatures navigate their habitats using soft bodies - earthworms, snails and larval insects can effectively move in complex environments using different strategies. Up to date, attempts to create soft robots were limited to larger scale (typically tens of centimeters), mainly due to difficulties in power management and remote control.

Liquid Crystalline Elastomers (LCEs) are smart materials that can exhibit large shape change under illumination with visible light. With the recently developed techniques, it is possible to pattern these soft materials into arbitrary three dimensional forms with a pre-defined actuation performance. The light-induced deformation allows a monolithic LCE structure to perform complex actions without numerous discrete actuators.

Researchers from the University of Warsaw with colleagues from LESN (Italy) and Cambridge (UK) have now developed a natural-scale soft caterpillar robot with an opto-mechanical liquid crystalline elastomer monolithic design. The robot body is made of a light sensitive elastomer stripe with patterned molecular alignment. By controlling the travelling deformation pattern the robot mimics different gaits of its natural relatives. It can also walk up a slope, squeeze through a slit and push objects as heavy as ten times its own mass, demonstrating its ability to perform in challenging environments and pointing at potential future applications.

Researchers hope that rethinking materials, fabrication techniques and design strategies should open up new areas of soft robotics in micro- and millimeter length scales, including swimmers (both on-surface and underwater) and even fliers.

The research on optical and opto-mechanical microstructures are funded by the National Science Centre (Poland) within the project "Guiding light the paths less frequented - optics of three dimensional photonic structures".

The research was published in the journal Advanced Optical Materials.

Source: University of Warsaw

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Why every kid should be a part of the Maker Movement. . !

The Maker Movement, which has been claimed, to be a technology-oriented creative learning revolution underway around the globe. It has far reaching vast implications in the field of education. New tools and technology, such as 3D printing, robotics, microprocessors, wearable computing, e-textiles, “smart” materials, and programming languages are being churned out at an unprecedented pace. The Maker Movement enables users to share tools and ideas on the internet and create a vibrant, collaborative community of makers and hackers who provide solutions to tech problems plaguing our world.

Fortunately for educators, the Maker Movement presents with an interesting opportunity as it overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing. By embracing the lessons of the Maker Movement, educators can restructure the best student-centered teaching practices to engage learners of all ages.

Time and again, activities such as robotics and 3D fabrication have been subjected to marginalization as mere hobbies and not actual education. However, today’s new low-cost, flexible, creative, and powerful materials offer more than just “hands-on” crafting—these tools bring electronics, programming, mechanics and mathematics together in meaningful, powerful ways. It is prudent that we reimagine school science and math not as a way to prepare students for the next academic challenge, or a future career, but as a place where students are inventors, scientists, and mathematicians today.

Individual tenets of the maker revolution such as robotics are potentially capable of making science hands-on and interesting to young minds. They incentivise the learning drive and spirit by providing instant gratification to the creators. Engaging in constructive learning activities such as building robots is a way of bringing engineering to young learners. 

Tinkering is a powerful form of “learning by doing,”. It is a philosophy espoused by the rapidly expanding Maker Movement community and many educators. Real science and engineering is done through tinkering. Even the Indian concept of Jugaad follows some of these principles. 

With such a strong backing to inculcate children to be makers, it will be wise if parents and educators took the whole “learning by building” seriously and provide their young ones with tools to tinker on. These could be articles from robotics kits to DIY building blocks. However, among several forms of DIY, robotics in DIY is the closest one gets to engineering in real life.

However, getting children started with making is not just about shopping for new toys. Making is a position on learning that puts the learner in charge. The focus should be on engaging students in activities to brainstorm, design, innovate and build. It is also imperative to ensure that these children are monitored throughout their learning process and that the learning is sufficiently incentivised.

We at Kidobotikz strongly believe that our students should learn through building and committing errors in the process. Our kits aim to promote a learning drive in our students, one that gradually turns them into makers and innovators. This we feel is the right direction for the entire education system to move in. That way, the entire community of students can be transformed into innovators- children who dare to think outside the existing ethos and come up with path breaking ideas.

Happy Roboting ! ! 

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NASA competition will see virtual robots repair a storm-damaged Martian base

NASA, in conjunction with global innovation consultant organization NineSigma, has launched a new competition aimed at pushing the limits of robotic dexterity. Known as the Space Robotics Challenge, the competition comes with a US$ 1 million prize purse, and could one day lead to robonauts setting up habitats and life support systems prior to a manned mission to Mars.

When humanity embarks on its first crewed journey to Mars, the endeavor will be fraught with danger, and the very real possibility of human fatalities. NASA and its partners are working hard to ensure that, prior to embarking on this mission, its explorers are as well prepared and as safe as possible.

In pursuit of this goal, the agency is encouraging the development of robotic companions, who can stand in for astronauts where possible when there is a high degree of risk. NASA has chosen to adopt a humanoid approach to their robotics designs, as evidenced by the agency's Robonaut 5 (otherwise known as Valkyrie) automaton.

In order to prove useful to NASA in space and on the surface of a hostile planet such as Mars, a robot worker must have a high degree of flexibility and maneuverability. This has been achieved in a terrestrial environment with the use of hydraulic actuators. Unfortunately, hydraulic systems would inevitably fail in the below-freezing temperatures that will have to be endured as an inevitable component of a mission to the Red Planet.

To avoid such a failure, NASA's R5 robot is manipulated via elastics technology, which typically involves a series of motorized springs and is more resilient to the extreme environments synonymous with space exploration. The Space Robotics Challenge will ask applicants to program a digital analogue of an R5 robot driven by elastics technology. The competition opens today, with a qualifying round slated for mid-September. The final, which will decide the distribution of the 1 million dollar prize pool, will take place in June 2017.

The virtual robotic helper must be programmed to undertake a series of tasks aimed at making a dust-storm-damaged Mars base operational. The simulated R5 must repair a damaged solar array, re-align a communications array, and detect and seal a habitat leak.

The tasks have been designed to highlight the possible uses for robotic partners in future manned missions, including the potential of using the robonauts to prepare Mars habitats prior to the arrival of their human counterparts. The technology pioneered in the challenge is expected to be easily adaptable to other robots, and could eventually help in the goal of removing humans from dangerous work environments back on Earth.

Source: NASA, New Atlas

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Why you should be at KRG this weekend!

After a week of closely covering the happenings at Kidobotikz’s makerspaces, both the intended-for-makers hall and makeshift makerspaces which spring up in the classrooms (pun intended); we are here on Wednesday with barely two days left to go for the eagerly anticipated weekend extravaganza- Kidobotikz Robo Games. Participation for the 9th edition has swelled to a sizable proportions with Kids expressing their eagerness to participate in as many events as their tight schedules can manage. If there is someone who has to bear the brunt of this swell in participation, it has to be the poor trainers who have toiled equally alongside these young children to get their projects ready in time. All through the entire week, the Kidobotikz makerspace has been a beehive of activity with quite a lot of buzzing and whirring. 

While we understand that all this cacophony may not exactly be music to the visitors and parents, who wait on patiently for hours while their wards work on seemingly bizarre projects and robots; for the Kidobotikz team though this represents something surreal and important. It is something that appeals to our core philosophies The work undertaken by our students and the interest garnered by the event KRG is something that drives us at Kidobotikz, because it represents all the goodness we expect to inculcate in our students.

If you’ve read through both the previous paragraphs and are still wondering as to what use does an event like KRG or an organization such as Kidobotikz hold for you, we have a very simple suggestion: you should see it to feel it.

The following are the key takeaways that we feel KRG offers to all those who spend the two days with us:

1. Immense fun: Well, it is the whole essence of the event! We promise this more than anything else. KRG in itself defines a new level of fun, one that brings in high tech warriors breathing down each other’s neck.

2. Nail-biting finishes: With events such Manual Robo Sumo and Robo Race, we have planned an event that is expected to be high octane in terms of cut throat competition on the arena. To ensure that there is fierce competition on the arena and there are no home ground advantages, we have kept everything from the design and size of the arena to the number of participants on the lull. We want to ensure that wins are not easy for any of the contestants. We are apologetic for our sinister intent but we are doing it because, well we are the organizers and we have been tasked with ensuring suspense.

3. “Bring down the roof”-esque jolly: The joy of participating in an event should never be limited by decibel levels. Infact, a famous scientist once so eloquently stated that

“The limit of fun that can be had in an event are determined by 3 important factors:
a)duration of event,

b)unpredictability of the event

c) decibel levels permitted in the area.”

Well, we have ensured that the first two parameters are in our favour. For the third one we plan to use the high intensity of the event to bring make the event as fun as we can. So, if you are somebody who likes to cheer and scream at the top of your voice, you’ll definitely not be out of place at KRG! That’s a promise.

And did we tell you our secret formula for this?

Total Fun achieved in the event ∝   Decibel levels

4. Wunderkinds: Well, they are the stars and heroes of this whole event! How often do you come across a gathering school students who were hurriedly working towards getting robots ready to battle. These are students for whom robotics is child’s play and something they’ve been honing for a few years. When hundreds of these young minds are going to be at their competitive best, it is a feat that one should definitely not miss.  

5. Robots: Well, we are pinning a great deal of hopes on these inanimate objects to blow life into the entire event. And they haven’t let us down in the past! With a myriad of robots expected to be en garde and fiercely breathe down each others’ sensors, KRG promises to be a cracker of an event!   

If you’ve read all this, we’re pretty sure you wouldn’t wanna miss all this action. What to do if you are neither a student nor a parent?  What to do if you are somebody who has no inkling about robotics and are just somebody who read this blogpost from facebook?

It doesn’t matter that big to us. For us, you are a key well wisher who took the time and effort to read our article. We would be grateful if you could grace the occasion of KRG and take part in the festivities

Come visit us at  KRG this weekend and catch all the action.

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Turning Bluetooth into Wi-Fi puts implanted devices online

University of Washington (UW) engineers have developed a new way to bring internet connectivity to low-power electronic devices such as brain implants and smart contact lenses. The interscatter communication system, which creates Wi-Fi transmissions from reflected Bluetooth signals using a fraction of the power normally required, has the potential to impact everything from blood sugar monitoring to splitting credit card bills.

Interscatter enables low-power devices to communicate by using technology already existing in common mobile devices, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or ZigBee radios, to act as the transmitters and receivers for the reflected signals. And, according to the researchers, it is able to create these Wi-Fi signals whilst consuming 10,000 times less energy to do so than standard methods.

Instead of generating Wi-Fi signals on your own, the technology claims to create Wi-Fi using by Bluetooth transmissions from nearby mobile devices such as smartwatches. The system relies on a communication technique known as radio wave backscatter (a diffuse reflection of radio waves back in the direction from which they originated), to enable devices to interchange data by manipulating and reflecting existing signals.

The small sizes and often difficult locations of implanted electronics in the human body often means that power supplies are limited, which puts conventional wireless communication out of play. As a result, medical devices such as smart contact lenses have been unable to send data using Wi-Fi to smartphones without bulky, clumsy external power supplies. These same limitations also restrict other nascent technologies such as brain implants that reanimate limbs or monitor internal organs.

The Interscatter technology can enable Wi-Fi for these implanted devices while consuming only tens of microwatts of power. Building on previous work in this area, the researchers in UW's Networks and Mobile Systems Lab and Sensor Systems Lab designed and created prototype devices that specifically target previously impractical applications, building interscatter communications systems for a smart contact lens and an implantable neural recording instrument which can directly communicate with smartphones and smartwatches. 

To demonstrate interconnectivity, the team used a smartwatch to send a Bluetooth signal to a smart contact lens fitted with an antenna. This transmission was then converted into a "single tone" signal by removing the randomizing applied to keep Bluetooth communications secure, then backscattered that signal so that the data coming from the contact lens could be encoded into a standard Wi-Fi packet easily readable by any Wi-Fi enabled device.

Bluetooth devices randomize data transmissions using a process called scrambling.The team figured out a way to reverse engineer this scrambling process to send out a single tone signal from Bluetooth-enabled devices such as smartphones and watches using a software app.

Developing the system was not all easy sailing, however. One of the major difficulties encountered when creating a backscatter signal is that there is a mirror image of the signal generated at the same time, which chews up bandwidth and plays havoc with networks that connect via the mirrored Wi-Fi channel. To solve this problem, the UW researchers used a radio technique known as single sideband, where one half of the modulated signal (in this case the mirror image) is filtered out. The UW team has also demonstrated that the techniques can be applied to more mundane technologies, such as credit cards. The researchers created smart credit card prototypes that are able to directly exchange data with one another by bouncing back Bluetooth signals transmitted by a smartphone. The team believes that this technology will provide opportunities for inbuilt applications to perform simple data exchange tasks (such as users splitting bills by just tapping their credit cards together) that would not normally be possible.

Providing the ability for everyday objects like credit cards – in addition to implanted devices – to communicate with mobile devices can potentially unleash the power of ubiquitous connectivity, feels the team.

This new technique will be presented in a paper on August 22 at the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM 2016) conference in Brazil.

The video below demonstrates the technology in action.

Source: University of Washington, New Atlas

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Build to Boast: What your child should actually learn to brag about?

What is a toy? A rather silly question to ask. But to actually define it, one would require the help of a dictionary. An immediate scouring of the oxford english dictionary would reveal something of this kind. 

” A toy is an object for a child to play with, typically a model or miniature replica of something. ”

The definition in itself is fair enough and tries to fairly encapsulate what a toy is. But all the dictionaries in the whole wide world fail to reveal the true purpose behind why a toy exists in the first place and why these objects of non-emotivity appeal to children. Several studies into Toys and their associated psychology have revealed that Kids use toys and the whole activity of play to mimic adults and expose themselves to adult-ish behaviour. Kids tend to anthropomorphise toys and feel attached to them just like the way they would grow attached to their favourite cartoon characters. Despite the lack of any human emotion or communication, toys themselves manage to appeal to the primal instincts in humans. By this argument, it can be easily surmised that toys and the act of play are a major part of upbringing in children in their formative years. However, the supposed positive effects, toys can have on children are in themselves determined by the type of toys kids are given access to. Herein lies the gaffe created by us, the adults.

Bowing to our increased purchasing power and our crass consumerism attitudes, we have exposed our wards to a line of less than healthy choices in terms of toys and other consumables. The design of toys themselves have gone up in sophistication to keep up with our lifestyle choices. From being articles of leisure that were expendable after fair usage, toys have become something of a collectible that drives divide between the users. This wedge in itself has only made toys something of prestigious possessions for children rather than things that are meant to bring them closer to pals. 


With the advent of the smartphone revolution, a newer gadget has made it to the hands of our young ones. The smartphone and it’s sibling, the tablet PC, have now made it to the hands of children as opposed to the chalk and slate used by the previous generation not too long ago. These connected devices which put the internet with all its mystifying glory at the hands of young children do not much good in terms of making them good learners. Children are increasingly distracted from the true purpose of the internet- learning.

This means that the true purpose of learning in itself is defeated. The humility that can be learned from building something is lost when a child spends bragging about his possessions and spends time yearning for products that are increasingly out of his affordability and opulence. The true spirit of learning can be achieved only when children use their constructive energies in play and learn from play. This mindset can be cultivated in them only when they are exposed to toys and activities that promote learning through building. 

This form of constructive engagement is what we at Kidobotikz try to achieve through our kits. Our kits are aimed at making children appreciate the engineering behind every gadget they come across and understand the inner workings of every product they use. 

Happy Roboting ! !

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Solid-state lithium battery knows when to keep its cool

One of the new frontiers in battery technology is creating safer versions of the ubiquitous lithium-ion battery, like those that power electric cars and the computers or phones you read these words on. These little suckers are great at packing large amounts of energy into tight spaces, but can run into trouble at high temperatures. Versions that replace combustible, liquid electrolytes with solid parts is one way this problem might be overcome and researchers have just thrown up one possible answer, building a solid-state lithium-ion battery that can be heated all the way up to 100° Celsius without bursting into flames.

If you've ever left your phone out in the sun on a summer's day, you may recall an on-screen temperature warning, advising you to let the phone cool down before using it again. This is because the liquid electrolyte within the battery can ignite or swell up under high temperatures. Improper charging, or overcharging, can be another cause for this type of malfunction.

Such instances of lithium battery failure are very rare, but a busted iPhone is one thing and an electric vehicle bursting into flames is another. The sheer amount of lithium batteries in use around the world every day means that there is plenty of opportunity for something, somewhere to go wrong at some point.

This has led researchers to explore how the safety of these batteries might be improved. Smart chips that can be embedded inside to monitor the battery's health is one possibility, and replacing the liquid electrolyte with solid components is another that is gaining some attention in laboratories around the world.

The electrolyte is the solution tasked with carrying the charge between the battery's positive and negative electrodes. The idea behind solid-state batteries is to replace this solution with something that can endure high temperatures. But this concept brings on another set of problems, among which is how to connect the solid electrolyte with the solid electrodes in a way that allows the charge to circulate with as little resistance as possible, maximizing its run time on a full charge.

Researchers at Switzerland's ETH Zurich have come up with a battery design they say addresses this problem. They liken the battery to a sandwich, with two electrodes as the bread and a layer of solid lithium garnet electrolyte as the meat inside. Garnet is a mineral that forms gemstones, is used as an abrasive material in waterjet cutting and also happens to be a material with one of the highest known conductivities for lithium ions.

The team crafted the solid garnet electrolyte in a way that gave it a porous surface. The negative electrode was then applied in a viscous form which allowed it to seep into these pores. This creates a larger contact area between the electrode and electrolytes, and means that the battery can be charged faster. The design also meant that it could withstand temperatures of up to 100° Celsius (212° F) when the team put it to the test.

"With a liquid or gel electrolyte, it would never be possible to heat a battery to such high temperatures," says Jan van den Broek, one of the authors of the study.

In its current form, the battery works best at 95° Celsius (203° F) and above, temperatures that better facilitate the movement of the lithium ions. This could see it put to use in battery storage power plants that save excess energy for a later date.

"Today, the waste heat that results from many industrial processes vanishes unused," says Semih Afyon, a former research scientist at ETH Zurich and now with the Izmir Institute of Technology in Turkey. "By coupling battery power plants with industrial facilities, you could use the waste heat to operate the storage power plant at optimal temperatures."

But with further development, the team says that the sandwich-like solid form of the device could be adapted to thin-film batteries. These could change the way things like phones and laptops are powered, and even be placed directly onto silicon chips.

The research was published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

Source: ETH Zurich

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