Does all play and no work always make Jack a mere toy?

Does all play and no work always make Jack a mere toy?

If you are probably wondering what this above question is in reference to, it is the famous saying “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy; all play and no work makes Jack a mere toy”. The premise of this saying involves the activities of work and play by kids and the necessity for a balance between the two. While this saying encapsulates the importance of maintaining a balance between the two, more often than not kids tend to slide away from either ends of the balance. The effect this has on their persona and productivity has been discussed immensely in general literature and countless number of editorials.

However, today let’s take a step back from the regular stand and discuss the merits of the second part of the argument “ All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy ”. Does a lot of play really make jack a mere toy? Perhaps. But that depends on the prism through which the activity of play is viewed at. Play is generally viewed as an unproductive activity that kids engage themselves in when there are no other pressing commitments such as homework and school to attend to. It is viewed as an activity that kids are left to engage in when the elders of the home attend to other important chores. Playtime of kids is even viewed by parents as a time that they get for themselves to rest and relax. But why should play be reduced to a mere activity of time killing. Why should it be viewed as something that only festers unproductivity?

Studies show that Play is something that kids should mandatorily engage in as a part of their character building and physical growth. However, conventional wisdom tells us that when Kids partake in play they more likely to get exposed to bad influences and the monitoring of their exposure is not feasible.

But we at Kidobotikz dare to ask a question that most people fail to. What if the entire activity of play did not add to the unproductivity of the pupil but rather improved his/her productivity? What if play was used as a time slot where kids actually learned concepts of academics in a format that they would not expect education to be placed in. Did we succeed in developing such a method? Why yes, we did. The kits offered by Kidobotikz are usually viewed by our students as something of a play item. While we never envisaged for it to be one, the fun and interaction built into the kit has actually caused the kit to move out of the bookshelves to the study areas and balconies of our students. Kidobotikzians view our kit as something of a stress buster. They use it to unwind after a long day at school where they’ve written down dozens of pages as a part of their class notes. However, what they’ve failed to realize is the fact that they are still learning the same school concepts while working on the kits. We at Kidobotikz have conveniently forgotten them to remind them of the same. And we don’t think we’ll ever remind them of it. Let the learning and playing continue together.

Happy Roboting ! !

Read More

Smart sutures send wireless status reports from wound sites

Flexible electronics that work with the body have been advancing quickly, doing everything from measuring our blood oxygen levels through our skin to monitoring our muscles using a tattoo. Now, a team of researchers from Tufts University has taken flexible electronics to their next logical step, embedding them in sutures that can monitor the body from the site of the stitching and broadcast their findings to a Bluetooth-enabled device.

The sutures are made from a variety of materials that are able to absorb and channel bodily fluids. "We have a suite of threads," Tuft's Sameer Sonkusale told Gizmag. "Cotton coated with carbon nanotubes, cotton coated with graphitic carbon, and threads electroplated with copper, platinum or silver." He also said that his team invented stretchable polyurethane threads covered with carbon nanotubes.

Once stitched in place in both mice and tissues samples in a lab dish, the threads were able to collect data on their surroundings including the pressure, stress and temperature at the suture site. They were also able to measure the pH and glucose levels, which can be key markers in determining how well a site is healing and whether or not infection has set in.

Sonkusale said, for example, that the electrical resistance of polyurethane threads coated with carbon nanotubes changes with strain induced on them. By tracking that resistance, it's possible to gauge how well a wound is closing and this marker was used in the study to monitor wound closure in mice. Similarly, the resistance in metallic threads changes based on temperature, so by monitoring them, it's possible to know if a wound site is extra hot, which would be a sign of infection. This component of the work is similar to previous research done with temperature-sensing sutures.

In the studies, the threads were attached to a circuit board that measured about the size of half a credit card, which was located on the skin of the mice. That board, using Bluetooth, was able to send data to a smartphone and a computer. Sonkusale, who directs Tuft's Nano Lab, told us that there is no reason why the circuit board couldn't be shrunk down in future iterations of the system and be the size of a single silicon chip.

"The ability to suture a thread-based diagnostic device intimately in a tissue or organ environment in three dimensions adds a unique feature that is not available with other flexible diagnostic platforms," said Sonkusale. "We think thread-based devices could potentially be used as smart sutures for surgical implants, smart bandages to monitor wound healing, or integrated with textile or fabric as personalized health monitors and point-of-care diagnostics."

The work of Sonkusale and his team was published online today in the journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering.

Source: New Atlas, Tufts University

Read More

ARmKeypad Air keeps your grubby mitts off the interface

Making interfaces touch-free is a problem with a number of solutions, such as voice control to hand gesture recognition. NEC's ARmKeypad brings augmented reality (AR) into the mix to display a virtual interface onto the user's arm, with input registered through vibrations from the tapping of fingers on the arm. Now the company has announced a new, tap-free version called the ARmKeypad Air that provides a completely contact-free interface.

After we first heard about the ARmKeypad back in 2011, things kind of went quiet until November last year, when it resurfaced in the form of a trial model. 

That unusual capitalization in the name is there to reflect the fact the device uses AR smart glasses to display customizable virtual keyboards on the forearm and detect the position of the forearm and the user's fingers, while a modified watch reads when keys have been pressed courtesy of the vibrations produced as the user taps away.

Unlike its predecessor, the ARmKeypad Air doesn't rely on physical tappings, but instead tracks the movements of a person's fingers as they hover over the arm. That contactless interaction, along with the removal of the wearable sensor part of the system, makes it perfect for use in sterile environments like operating theaters or during food preparation.

"Moving forward, NEC will use the ARmKeypad and ARmKeypad Air to help improve workplace efficiency in sectors where hands-free operation is required, such as manufacturing, medicine, security, and distribution," says Yukio Maruyama, of the company's System Integration & Services Market Development Division.

NEC is exhibiting the ARmKeypad Air at the International Modern Hospital Show in Tokyo this week.

Source: NEC, New Atlas

Read More

Unveiling Kidobotikz's robo-palooza ! !

If there’re a few months of the academic year that students hate, it must be August and September. These are the two dry months with very meagre holidays. There’s the mid-term that is the first after schools reopened in June and kids still have a good one and a half months before the Dussehra vacations. These are two months that Kids find it hard to pass and have nothing much to get excited about. This is something we sympathize with. We at Kidobotikz believe that the minds of bored kids are breeders of unproductivity. So we decided to give them something to get excited. We have decided to conduct an event that gets them all pumped up in excitement and puts the boring weekends of their August to good use. We are gonna get them engaged doing the thing they love the most- building robots.

If you already have a guess on what we are talking about, Yes! you got it right. We are talking about the KRG ! Yes, it is the same event that got kids enthused in April and we are back with it in a grander form! For those of you who aren’t quite aware of what’s being discussed here, here it goes. KRG, which is an abbreviation for Kidobotikz Robo Games, is the high octane robotics event initiated and conducted by Kidobotikz for all the schoolyard robotic wizards of chennai. It is an event that we conduct roughly thrice every year depending on the demand to settle “robotic” battle scores from previous editions. However, so far the excitement and euphoria at the end of each KRG have always simmered and spilt over into the subsequent editions forcing us to scale up every successive edition. This edition is no different either.
Talking more about the August edition, this is the 2nd KRG edition of 2016 and the 9th edition overall. It is being organized to bring in fray more robots to battle out their respective prowess on the makeshift arenas. One thing about these arenas, they’ve gotten bigger with each edition to manage the ever increasing influx of robots that ram into each other and knock out others in the process. Oh, and did we tell you that it is open for all students across all types of robots. Besides, we have rolled out a broad category of events for students to participate in. So, it is advised that readers bring your own binoculars to spot the bot you are supporting amidst the carnage of robots that fight it out on the big arena. And before we forget, the theme of this edition’s project display is Clean India. In line with the Shri Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and the core principles it espouses, we have set Clean India as our theme for this event. So, we already have students thronging the Makerspace of Kidobotikz to get their “Clean India”-themed bots ready. So, we promise you a realm of mopping and vacuuming robots on display at KRG this time. We request you to not be late to the party and get your robots ready and registered well before the 11th hour. The registrations for the project display have commenced as well. In case you are wondering why has there been no mention of the venue until now, then you’re in for a bit of disappointment. We are still keeping the venue and the dates for event on the “qt” to prevent any media attention until the last moment.

So, the likelyhood of you getting to know about the venue and dates in hush-hush tones at the Kidobotikz offices is an ever present spoiler. But don’t give in to rumours. We will be updating you with the date and venues well in advance to provide you with ample time for preparation. For students who are reading this article, you can find your problem statements by visiting the Kidobotikz website or also by simply clicking here. Stay updated on the blog and you’ll find it out yourself.

Happy Roboting ! !        

Read More

Geek Speak: Raghav Ram

If there is one thing that is unpredictable about Kids, it is the fact that can act a lot more adult can you can imagine. It goes for the language they use, the tantrums they throw and more importantly the things they build. The most unlikely of concepts can be imagined by kids. And when they come up with such concepts it surprisingly baffles even the most assuming of adults. With us here today is a young gentleman, who is too young for the word young itself. He is one of the youngest students to have ever picked up robotics as a hobby at Kidobotikz, if not anywhere. I meet him at the makerspace of kidobotikz where he is accompanied by his mom who is as enthusiastic and energetic as this tot, if not more. Meet Raghav Ram, the youngest robotics enthusiast that we know of.

Hey Raghav! Temme a bit about yourself.

I am Raghav Ram. I am studying in class 3 of The Pupil- Saveetha Eco school, Seeneerkuppam. I stay in Anna Nagar. Here at Kidobotikz, I am in Junior Level- 2.

That is interesting. How goes your level? And what are you working on?

My course is very interesting. I have learnt the basics for building a robot and am now actually putting it for good use. With KRG around the corner, I am looking to come up with new concepts that can be turned into working models. I want to display as many projects as I can. That is why I have come with my mother to develop a new project- cleaning robot.

Cleaning Robot? Interesting. Can you tell me how it works?

The cleaning robot which I have assembled consists of a mopping mechanism and a vacuum mechanism. The vacuum sucks all the dust from the front of the robot while it moves around. The mop has cotton threads fixed to rotating wheel. With the application of detergent in the wake of the vacuum cleaner, we can mop the place with disinfectants to complete the entire cleaning operation in one go. This way, I intend to make cleaning my room easier and fun. I have given it a wireless control so that i can clean my room from the sofa.

Your design looks quite interesting. I rather resembles a baby elephant. Have you named your robot?

Yes i have infact named my robot. I am calling him “Cracker”. My sister came up with the name because, the first time we assembled him, he developed cracks.

That is quite amusing. What are the components you have used?   

I have used a 2.4GHz wireless transmitter and receiver, squared geared motor, 200 RPM Basic gear motor, relay board for the controls and a regular CPU DC fan for the suction mechanism on the vacuum cleaner.

Wow! So, temme what kinda robots capture your fascination?

I like all kind of robots, but the one kind of robot that captivates me a lot is a humanoid robot. I envision a future where robot helpers can change the way humans live.

That is cool. One last question before we move on, what are your ambitions in life? What do you plan to do with your knowledge that you learnt here?

I want learn everything there is about robotics. So, I will learn robotics in engineering and build better robots.

Read More

Single-motor bots crawl, swim and climb with a wiggle and a wave

Over the years, we've seen a number of robots inspired by the animals kingdom – from jumpers and crawlers to swimmers and fliers. Inspired by the movement of snakes, an Israeli research team has now developed a bot that's said to be the first in the world to produce pure wave motion using a single motor.

The Single Actuator Wave-like Robot (SAW) has been created by Dr. David Zarrouk, of the university's Mechanical Engineering Department, and a team of students at the Bioinspired and Medical Robotics lab. "The design was originally intended to be used for crawling inside the intestines as a self-propelled endoscope (for filming the intestines and biopsies)," Zarrouk told us. "I had been working on this subject for many years and a couple of years ago I came up with this design which produces continuously advancing wave."

Central to its novel movement is a spiral-shaped rod that's fed though linked 3D-printed slats running down the body. As the single motor rotates the helix spine, continuous wave motion of the body results and the links push forward or backward when they come into contact with the ground.

This dynamic motion is reported to allow the SAW to move over different surfaces (such as sand, grass or gravel) and climb over obstacles or through tunnels. The continuous wave motion body is attached to a wheeled head, which is used for steering, not to aid locomotion. There's even a waterproof version that can swim at 6 cm per second.

It's a quick mover, too, with a top speed of 57 cm per second. "We formulated the speed as a function of the speed wave, wave-length, thickness of the wave and its amplitude, revealed Zarrouk. "We realized from our model that it possible for the robot to crawl even faster than its own wave speed and we managed to prove this experimentally (our robot with the "dentals" moved 13 percent faster than the speed of the advancing wave). 

The wave motion mechanism can be produced in different sizes, scaling it up for search and rescue missions or shrinking down for medical applications.

"In the future, we intend to shrink it further to less than 1 cm in diameter (which is possible thanks to the simple design and single motor)," Zarrouk said. "We also intend to make possible larger version in which we attach two robots through an actuated U joint in order to replace the wheels. "

He also points to the wave bot being something of a tough cookie, easy to manufacture and reliable. "It is easy to manufacture because it has an extremely simple design," he explained. "It has a light weight and no need for complex controllers to make the wave motion. The power density is very high as all the work is being [undertaken] by a single motor with no "sleeping" motors. It almost doesn't break even though it is made of 3D-printed plastic. We made lots of runs on rough surfaces and the robot always succeeded in crawling over them in a single shot and no maintenance in between."

A paper on the SAW project has been published in the journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics. You can see various SAW flavors in action in the video below.

Source: Gizmag, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Read More

Geek Speak: Sendhan

“Distance means so little when passion means so much”. Words like these stand the test of time. What’s all the more impressive is the fact these aren’t false. Several instances that we come across in our daily lives reiterate these facts. It’s the weekend and students are back here at Kidobotikz as usual. Everybody is here already gearing up for the next of Kidobotikz’s festivities- KRG. Students discuss projects and ideas with their trainers in anticipation for narrowing down on ideas that they can make a working model out of so that they get to display the same at Kidobotikz’s coveted event. I enter a room full of enthused young guys who are all here working on some tech fuelled concept of their own. The fact that it is a saturday and they are learning some serious science seems to be lost upon them. Most other children would rebel against the idea of science on a saturday. But for these gentlemen, it is a part of their fun and frolic. I stumble upon a young gentleman, Sendhan, who is hard at work figuring out how to solve the issue plaguing the bot he has assembled. Following are the excerpts from this interesting conversation:

Hi Sendhan! Temme a bit about yourself:

Hi! I am Senthan of Class 9, RMK Senior Secondary School, Thiruverkadu.

Thiruverkadu? Isn’t that far?

Yes. It is quite far. Infact, it takes me close to an hour to come all the way from there. But, I don’t feel it so bad cos whatever time I spend on the bus, I still get to have fun building robots.

What level are you in? And how is your course progressing?

I am in the Advanced level. The course is going good. Infact, I am here to work on a project that could be displayed the upcoming KRG. I wanted to do something interesting and this I believe is the right platform for me to express that. I am developing a Self-balancing robot.

Project, you say. Can you explain what you are working on?

As I said already, I am working on a Self-balancing robot. It is a robot which has only two wheels. This makes it inherently unstable. I have developed codes that when executed will make the bot stand upright on its own without falling over.

How have you accomplished this?

Basically, I have used an 3-axis accelerometer which is capable of sensing movement in all 3 direction.  This means that the arduino microprocessor can keep track of the stability of the robot in all 3 directions and control the wheel rotation accordingly so that the robot remains upright.

This interesting. Are you aware of any potential applications for this kind of technology?

I am aware of many applications for such a system. Infact, most humanoid robots of the future could be stationed on self balancing wheels that are capable of standing upright and moving around with ease. Even the White ranger on Power Rangers SPD has a unibike which would use a similar principle. (laughs).

Moving on, what is your favourite course among the 4- Electronics, Mechanics, Algorithm and Programming?

I just love programming. I have always liked it over the other subjects. As a matter of fact, I can code on Arduino and I have learnt C as well. So programming ot is. But since the other subjetcs are important to build a bot, I try to keep in touch with them too.

What do you plan to do for your higher studies? Do you think the robotics that you learnt here is a part of your plan?
Robotics is the only plan. After class 10, I plan to take up computer science in 11 n 12. Since, computer science involves programming, I think I will be at comfort learning the courses. After that I am aiming to take up Mechatronics for my Bachelors. I wanna work towards making better robots.

Wow! That is quite interesting. I wish you all the best. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.   

Read More