Enthusiastic teenagers in the city create a prototype of a bluetooth controlled delivery robot

At SP Robotics Maker Lab in Nallagandla, Jasper greets visitors at entrance. Standing at 4.5 feet tall, she is a six-wheel 30 kilogram bluetooth controlled delivery robot that can carry upto 50 kilogram of items in her belly. “ Say hello to Jasper; meet my new friend,” says a few boys and girls enthusiastically. That’s when we realise Jasper is the prototype of an Amazon autonomous delivery robot that the children have built.

A group of students with Jasper, a prototype | Photo Credit: By arrangement

Druthi Jallu, Paritosh Sai, Ananya Kappagantu, Anirudh Vijay, Dev Aditya Mohan, Mahidhar Damarla, Ram Tej Alla, Akhilesh Yalamarthy, Sruthi Jallu, Vishnu Chinta and Shyamala Durge Thanush took three months to create Jasper with the supervision of their two teachers Vishlavath Ganesh Kumar and Jana Anvesh. These young minds (aged 8 years and above) were guided by Abhinav Rao, who teaches and creates robotic projects on weekends. These weekly classes helped students share ideas and conceptualise the design. “Students should have robotics, theory and practical in their curriculum. You cannot live without them now so you have to be prepared,” says Abhinav. At the centre, students are introduced to practical robotics with basics of electronics, mechanics and programming.

Initially the students deliberated on project ideas. Once they decided on making a robot Jasper, it was a three month process that began by determining the height of the robot and its targeted function. The idea was not to make Jasper big as transporting it would have been tough. “Battery is the energy source and the first thing to plan, followed by controls. It is a blue-tooth controlled module; we can control it like a joy stick,” points out Abhinav. The sessions were fun and a burst of ideas as they shared their wacky ideas “One boy wanted to make a racing car and later one student wanted to put Jasper in the swimming pool to see if its body is harmed. With a limited budget, we couldn’t experiment with their ideas,” laughs Abhinav admitting it was difficult to channelise the enthusiasm of the teenagers.

With mild steel for the body; six wheels sourced from market and an acrylic sheet used to keep it light weight, Jasper cost ₹ 1,00,000 (borne by the centre). “The eye on it makes Jasper look like a human being and attractive to users,” he points out. Jasper travels at a speed of 5 kilometre per hour and its storage box is 3 feet by 2 feet and 1.5 feet tall. The group also shows a small ranger robot on which they have tried, tested and learnt its applications.

Jasper is now a permanent fixture at the centre, enthralling visitors (“Students can reassemble it again.”). “In its one-and-half year journey, the Lab has produced a string of young innovators,” say teachers. Among the student creations are a a food delivery robot (for use at tables in restaurants), a shoe for the blind which beeps when there is an obstacle, and a washing machine, a grass cutting machine, a floor cleaning robot and a low-cost driverless car. Two students, Niranjan and Jaidev Chinda even won a special prize at RoboRav in Japan.

Rajni Rao the owner of Maker’s Lab, a dentist-turned-entrepreneur plans to set up an in-house library on robotics and Artificial Intelligence.