CHENNAI : The spatial and emotional distance between humans and robots is narrowing. And bridging this gap is iRobochakra, a robotics academy based out of Coimbatore, which has created India’s first programmable expression robot ‘Amingo’, which works on the principle of humanoid robot technology. Arun Rajeev, an engineer and managing director, iRobochakra, said he was inspired by robotics while he worked there for three years in an automobile industry before returning to the country in 2007.
“During my stay in Japan, I realised the technological gap prevailing in our country. I visited an expo in 2005, where robots were made by the students for entertainment and education. This inspired me to start a robotic academy,” said Rajeev. who has created this robotic kit for children above 10 years.
He shared how he has always been passionate about electronics. After he moved back to India, he learned robotics through monthly courses in Bengaluru and Chennai. After a year of extensive research, he launched iRobochakra in 2015.Currently, he teaches robotics to more than 3,500 students. There are seven engineers in the team. “We wanted kids to understand how a humanoid robot face works. Robotics enhance practical knowledge of maths and physics,” said Rajeev.
The initial design and work module of Amingo began last year in January and it got over in October this year. Amingo was officially launched in November. It consists of 15 robotic parts that a kid can assemble and programme to create expressions. It takes around one hour, and video tutorials with the instructions to assemble the parts for creating 25 different expressions. “It can be programmed with software ‘ircbloq’, which is easy to understand. A child can create different forms of human emotions on this robot,” he said.
Students can display Amingo to their friends and can also be used as a prop for storytelling sessions, he added. Amingo comes in red and blue colour in the size 300mm*300mm. It can be purchased on Amazon and costs around `8,999 including the robot kit, software and video tutorials.
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