Geek Speak: Jyotsna

For those of you keeping tabs on robotics events, here’s some interesting news! The annual edition of the First Tech Challenge has been announced and a contingent from kidobotikz is gearing up for participating in this event. Considered as the ultimate event in robotics for school students, it aims to promote STEM learning. With participation from across the globe, FTC attracts some of the best talents from schools and also boasts of support and sponsorship from some industry leaders such as NASA, Apple etc. 

A team of Kidobotikzians have decided to take part in this event and are gearing up for the same. With brainstorming sessions being held every weekend, the students are upping the game to make their presence felt at this high stakes event. We meet one of the enthusiastic participants of this team. Even as you ask her questions about their brainstorming sessions, plans and ideas, she jumps up in excitement to talk about the roles she has taken up and how she is looking forward to use this opportunity to connect with important people and gain exposure. Meet Jyotsna, the queen of the FTC contingent and our geek for the day.

Hey Jyotsna! Do you mind introducing yourself to our readers?

Hi everyone! I am Jyotsna. I study in class 9 of La Chatelaine Junior College. Since of yesterday, I am a graduate here at Kidobotikz.

Can you tell us how you became associated with Kidobotikz?

It’s a lucky twist of coincidence, I must say. I’ve always been interested in robotics. But never really had a clue as to where to start. Luckily my sister used to take her music lessons in this locality ands she happened to chance upon the banner of the Kidobotikz center. She was the one who suggested it to me and then I joined Kidobotikz.

That’s interesting. What was your outlook towards robotics before you joined Kidobotikz and how has it changed now? 

Before joining Kidobotikz, I was under the assumption that robotics was a highly complicated subject with some tough technical concepts. Much to my surprise, I realized that robotics wasn’t as complicated as being portrayed. On the contrary, it was a field that required us to know many other concepts before we could start pursuing. That is the significance of robotics. It is a subject which integrates other subjects.

That’s an interesting perspective.

How goes your preparation for FTC? And how do your parents feel about you participating in FTC?

Well, it wasn’t the smoothest of starts. Mom was completely sold on the idea of me going to FTC. Dad was initially sceptical but he too agreed after learning about the significance. So, I have the green signal.

As far as the preparation are concerned, the team has now been formed and is ironclad. We all meet on a weekly basis to discuss about our individual roles and responsibilities. I am currently in charge of understanding the complete set of rules that have been laid down for participating in the event. And as a member of the team, it is my responsibility to convey these rules to my team mates. Apart from these I am also tasked with readying the theme for our participation and the name of our team. 

What are your key plans for FTC? And what is the most important takeaway that you wish to bring back from FTC?

Well, our ultimate goal is to participate in the final to be held in the US. To get there, we need to win events at Coimbatore and New Delhi. So, all our plans and strategies are being planned accordingly. 

The key takeaway would be to feel satisfied with our performance and uphold the values that FTC promotes- gracious professionalism.

So, what are your plans for the future? Any field of interest that you are looking forward to work in?

My role model has always been Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam. So, I’ve always been impressed by the work of ISRO and DRDO. When I was a young girl, I wanted to become an Astronaut like alpana Chawla. But now my focus for the future has shifted. I intend to develop the Indian Space programme by joining as a scientist at ISRO. 

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Solar-powered smart pole keeps commuters powered-up and surfing

Smartphones have made it easier than ever to keep occupied while commuting, but all it takes is a dead battery to make for a tedious waiting game. A recently installed piece of street furniture in the Turkish city of Istanbul, however, lets commuters keep their devices charged while surfing the web with that extra jolt of juice.

The Mito was designed by Art Lebedev studio at the request of Verisun, a Turkish tech company that deals in smart city solutions, among other things. The two firms previously worked on a solar-powered smart pole back in 2013, but began work on a new design in September of last year.

There are eight USB charging ports mounted in the Mito, allowing for up to eight mobile devices to be charged at any one time. In addition, wireless internet access allows commuters to check their emails, read the news or browse social media while they wait.

Transport information is provided via a built-in 7-in outdoor LCD screen. This includes the station or stop and route name, the expected arrival time of the bus or tram and the current temperature. The system is powered by Android content management software.

In addition to these features, the Mito also has an eye-catching design, with graceful curves and patterned wood covering an internal metal frame. It has to be said that the Mito doesn't really fit in with with the typical perfunctory vernacular of city street design, but it's a good-looking installation nonetheless.

The name Mito derives from the energy-generating mitochondrion found in cells and refers to the 240-W top-mounted solar panel that powers the unit. Verisun tells New Atlas that, in winter, the Mito can produce up to 600 Wh of electricity a day, which rises to 1,920 Wh in summer.

Both those figures are ample for the 360 Wh of power that Verisun says is required to run the Mito every day, but, in the event that the amount of electricity generated falls short in real-time, there's also a 60-Ah battery from which power can be pulled.

The first Mito was installed near a tram stop at Taksim Square in downtown Istanbul in February. Verisun says it plans to roll more out in different cities in the future.

Sources: New Atlas, Art Lebedev, Verisun

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Verizon trials drones as flying cell towers to plug holes in internet coverage

Verizon has joined the likes of Facebook, Google and fellow telecommunications giant AT&T in exploring the potential of internet-connected unmanned aircraft. While its vision involves expanding 4G coverage across the US, it has an immediate focus on shoring up communications for first responders in emergency situations, and recently carried out trials to that effect.

Verizon has dubbed the initiative Airborne LTE Operations (ALO) and says it has actually been in the pipeline for around two years. The company has been working to integrate internet connectivity into unmanned aerial vehicles and hook them up to its 4G network, daisy chaining coverage and beaming it down to unconnected areas in the process. This is similar to how Facebook hopes its Aquila drones will work.

Verizon recently teamed up with company American Aerospace Technologies to see how using drones as gliding cell towers could have an impact in disaster relief scenarios. In a simulated mission in New Jersey, the team set a drone with a 17-foot (5.2 m) wingspan in flight to put the onboard technologies through their paces.

"We are testing a 'flying cell site' placed inside the drone to determine how we can provide wireless service in a weather-related emergency from the air," Verizon's Howie Waterman tells New Atlas. "This is the first such wireless network test in an emergency response simulation, leveraging our 4G LTE network."

Verizon says this is just one of a series of successful technical trials it has conducted around the country, involving both unmanned and manned aircraft. It imagines connected aerial vehicles eventually being used to image crops, carry out inspections of pipelines and high-voltage power lines, and monitor the physical extent of threats like wildfires and tornadoes.

As it stands for businesses in the US, you can't legally fly drones where you can't see them, but regulators say laws that will accommodate these types of applications are in the works. When and if that happens, Verizon says it will have a certification process whereby it will approve other businesses' drones to hook up to its flying 4G network and get in on the action.

Source: New Atlas, Verizon

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Graduation Day 2016 ! !

“The Hats whirled skyward, carried by bright, new hopes and propelled by big daring dreams !”

For most students, Graduation Day is one of the best moment of their lives. It represents their translation from the cocooned life of schooling and college to the open competitive world of jobs and career. Graduation Day represents the moment of cusp after which the life of these young students change. It is that day which is filled with excitement and nostalgia. 

That being said, today was Graduation day at Kidobotikz. It is the day when our young students graduate from Kidobotikz after years of toiling with robotics. Graduation Day, which is an annual ceremony took place this year at the Golden Paradise Hall in Chennai. Being an important day in their life, all students had assembled in sharp attire to reflect the atmosphere of the solemn occasion. 

The event was held between 4PM and 6PM. The welcome address, delivered by Ms.Sneha Priya, Director, Kidobotikz, extended a warm welcome to the parents, students and faculty who had gathered at the hall. After a brief introduction about Kidobotikz and its activities through a narrative video, the annual report was delivered. The annual report, which discussed about the various activities of the students and their achievements over the past academic year, stressed upon the role robotics has played in empowering students academically and mentally. Apart from their academic strides, the various roboting activities students had taken part in through robotics competitions and projects were discussed upon. The role of projects such as SwachhBot and AgriBot and the involvement of students in these path breaking projects was also touched upon. It is of great pride to Kidobotikz that such student-driven initiatives were playing an important role in solving some important issues plaguing the society. 

Dr. S.K Patnaik adressing the students

The Chief Guest for the event was Dr.S.K.Patnaik, Professor, CEG, who had graciously agreed to preside upon the event. Having been a faculty of the directors of Kidobotikz in their college days, he was appreciative of their efforts in democratizing the core concepts of electronics and robotics for the students of the school level. He reflected on the fact that the education system had failed to identify the core interests of students and push them in the direction. He was successful in garnering the audience’s attention when compared the current education scenario to that of a “rat race”. He opined that the methodologies adopted by Kidobotikz to promote technical skill development through an innovative robotics based education for students had the potential to better the standards of education in our country and such efforts were important. He felt that such a program could improve the skillsets of engineers and thereby improve their employment prospects. He also inspired the graduates with his eloquent address. 

At the conclusion of the speech, the Graduation ceremony commenced where every student was individually awarded a “Certificate of Excellence” for their commendable efforts to complete the four course levels and clear the graduation exam with distinction. Several individual students were also awarded for their outstanding performance in the respective subjects such as mechanics, electronics, algorithm and programming. 

B.Adwaith and Manoj Kumar with their respective trophies for the Best performance in Mechanical and Electronics

Later on, the graduates who had adorned the customary Graduation Suit and Graduate Cap were taken off to the photo session where they posed for the group photos. With the throwing of hats into the air, the event came to a close.

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Disney's one-legged robot hops into action without a tether

Bipedal robots, such as Boston Dynamics' Atlas may be able to balance on one leg, but Disney Research has gone one better and built a one-legged hopping robot. This unidexter automaton isn't the first hopping robot, but it's the first to not rely on a tether or external power source to keep bouncing.

Hopping robots have been around since at least the early 1980s and though a robotic pogo stick may seem as pointless as an ejection seat on a helicopter, they have helped engineers in developing and refining robotic locomotion. While robots with two or more legs can handle rough terrain and use different gaits for different tasks, single-legged robots have a much simpler topology and are limited to hopping to move and stay upright.

According to the Disney Research team, this makes them ideal for testing robot leg mechanics and algorithms. A single-legged robot needs to respond at high speeds and with much higher forces causing much higher stresses than on multi-legged robots if they're going to stay upright and not trip over things. Meeting these requirements is much more difficult than making a two-legged robot walk and provides valuable information to designers on how to overcome problems.

Early hopping robots, such as those built by Mark Raibert at MIT in 1983, were heavy affairs with massive metal crash cages. Relying on pulleys, cams, and electric solenoids, it and later hopbots required tethers and external power sources to work without damaging themselves. Building such robots was so hard that the Disney team says that no real progress has been made on increasing the portability of hopping robots since 2007.

The Disney approach for its hopping robot was to make a much lighter, simpler design. In this case, the robot is built around a Linear Elastic Actuator in Parallel (LEAP) for greater agility. This mechanism uses two parallel compression springs to steady the central leg, which provides thrust by means of a voice coil. As the name suggests, the voice coil was originally designed for certain types of speakers, but the coil's ability to provide an easy to control proportional thrust without direct contact between coil and shaft made it ideal for this purpose.

The robot has a special hip made out of a gimbal joint incorporating a pair of servo motors. In addition, there's an onboard microcontroller that controls thrust, orientation, and foot placement. Put them altogether and it adds up to a robot that can maintain its balance for up to 19 hops over seven seconds on its own. Though the robot did have a safety tether, this was slack during the tests and was mainly a telemetry link to record data.

The Disney Research team says that there's still room for improvement on the robot. The software assumes the foot is static when it lands, causing it to slip and the sensors could be more reliable and accurate. Also they are working on a better way to model the robot's velocity while in mid-hop, and they hope to make the mechanism more modular and compact, so it can be adapted to multi-legged robots.

The Disney Research team's findings can be found in this paper (PDF).

The video below shows the Disney Research robot going for a quick hop.

Source: Disney Research, New Atlas

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Geek Speak: Hariharan

Terms like “Electronics enthusiasts” and “Robotics hobbyists” are becoming commonplace today. With the availability of low cost electronic components and engaging online content which helps them learn the various tricks and trades of robotics, more and more students are entering the hitherto unchartered areas of robotics and electronics, while they are still high schoolers. Nowhere is this change more pronounced than at Kidobotikz where you can find every other 8th grader turning the screws on a robot they developed from scratch. The ones not doing the same are probably doing an interesting project using IoT. 

The result is an ever growing pool of Kidobotikzians who develop wonderful working models and robots, not to mention the accolades these people receive after developing concepts like the AgriBot and the SwachhBot. With us today is a robotics pro whose demeanor and way of talking exude confidence in every which way. He’s only in class 8 but has a way of answering questions that surely will make people think twice if they were talking to someone of age 14. Meet Hariharan, a proud Kidobotikzian and a robotics pro who is our geek for the day

Hey Hariharan! Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi everyone! I’m Hariharan of class 8 at Chinmaya Vidyalaya. Here at Kidobotikz I have completed the expert level. I am awaiting the graduation day. 

Being an early student of Kidobotikz, can you describe your journey with Kidobotikz till now? 

I joined Kidobotikz a couple of years ago. Back then, before joining Kidobotikz, I was quite interested in the concept of robotics. I was interested in the working principle behind things and so on. Seeing my curiosity, my mother enquired around to see if she could put my curiosity to good use. Upon being suggested by many about a new institute called Kidobotikz, she came here to find out more about what was taught. She found the Kidobotikz model interesting and got me enrolled here.

My case was altogether different though. I was under the assumption that Kidobotikz was going to teach us about some basics electronics and electrical concepts that was not too different from what I was gonna learn in school. So, I had an initial indifference towards the course. But only after sometime did I realize about the seriousness and the significance of what was being taught here. And here I am today after completing the expert level and awaiting my graduation. 

Interesting. So, how do you think robotics has changed you?

Robotics has had a profound impact on me. I see things differently now, I imagine about things in a technical manner. I’ve been part of some amazing projects and built cool stuff. To me all this is quite amazing. More importantly, it has empowered me as a student.

How do your parents feel about you? And what does everyone at school think about your roboting skills?

My mom was the person responsible for me joining Kidobotikz. And with Dad, it’s been a healthy competition because I tell him jokingly that I can code in more languages than him. That could not have happened if I was not at Kidobotikz.

Sadly, at school they are not as appreciative of the robotics learning as one would expect. My friends are not on the same page as me as far as robotics is concerned. Maybe, they’ll be on board once they get a little older. 

Can you tell a bit about the cute robot that you had built as a part of the Kolu celebrations here at Kidobotikz?

Actually, I had built the bot for my Expert level Creative test. The timing happened to coincide with Navaratri and that is a happy coincidence. It is a Biped, as in, it can walk on two legs. It has sensors in the front that help it sense the surroundings. 

Are there any favourite robots of yours?

My favourite robot has to be the Line tracer robot. But I have no bias towards other robots. It’s just that line tracer robots appeal to me more.

I would like to know what your future plans are? 

I have no plans yet. I am looking to take things one at a time.

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Intel unveils its own commercial drone, the Falcon 8+

Intel is slapping its name on an advanced drone designed for commercial and professional uses in North America. The Falcon 8+ is the first Intel-branded commercial drone and it's outfitted for industrial inspection, surveying and mapping.

Intel's expert-level drone builds on the AscTec Falcon 8 drone, a V-form octocopter that boasts high stability, precision GPS and flight control electronics and components that are redundant three times over, as well as laying claim to the best weight-to-payload ratio around (empty weight 1.1 kg, max. payload 0.8 kg). This is basically a working drone designed for some of the most intense field applications.

The two companies had already used the Falcon 8 to create a custom drone for Boeing modified with Intel's RealSense cameras. We've also seen Intel make a concerted push into the drone world lately with a drone specifically for developers and another that makes use of the company's 3D-mapping technology for collision avoidance.

The Falcon 8+ builds on the Falcon 8 further by adding Intel's advanced, water-resistant ground Cockpit system for control and an Intel PowerPack to keep it flying.

At the center of the Cockpit is an Intel chipset-powered tablet for planning and conducting complex flight patterns as well as monitoring the live video feed via a low latency digital link up to 1080p resolution with a 1 km range. Flight control can also be managed with a single hand joystick.

The Falcon 8+ comes loaded with on-board sensors that can map surfaces down to the millimeter, which the company says allows for routes to be replicated with a high degree of accuracy.

The whole UAV is arranged in a V-form measuring 768 x 817 x 160 mm with a take off weight of 2.8 kg (6 pounds) when loaded with a camera and gimbal capable of transmitting up to 1080p HD video.

Intel announced the Falcon 8+ at the InterGeo drone conference in Germany and it hasn't yet been approved by the Federal Communications Communications for sale or use in the United States. No word from Intel on how soon that could be or what pricing will look like.

Sources: New Atlas, Intel, AscTec

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