THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as education moves away from the being mechanical to analytical, there are still certain lures of learning that call for robotic rigour. At the Virakupurakotta Government UP School, in the state capital, a teacher is proving to be a ‘virtual’ draw. Besides reciting rhymes and poems and narrating stories, in a mellifluous voice this tutor is popular with students for her ability to answer their countless questions with patience. The fact that she doesn’t mind students milling around her makes her more endearing.
Meet Poopy, the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven humanoid robot that the school enlisted last week to make learning an interactive and fun-filled experience. Poopy was developed by RedFox Robotics, a startup incubated at the Barton Hill Government Engineering College, in Thiruvananthapuram.
After the school evinced interest in a project for interactive learning, the college pitched the idea of an AI-based robot and RedFox made it a reality in little over three weeks. A corporate group in the capital helped the school raise funds as part of its CSR initiative.
“Poopy’s introduction has generated much enthusiasm among students. They fire questions and Poopy answers most of the queries with ease. Since the robot is well versed in both English and Malayalam, we are planning to use it to improve our students’ communicative skills,” said Biju E, a teacher.
“Poopy delivers interactive, multilingual lessons customised to each student’s syllabus. With the ability to adapt to different learning styles, Poopy engages students through real-time responses and personalised teaching, making complex subjects easier to understand,” pointed out Vimun A, CEO and founder of RedFox Robotics and a BTech student of the college.
‘Plans on to apply for patent for Poopy’
Vimun was assisted by Jinso Raj, another BTech student. They were supervised by Haripriya A P, head of the department of IT, and college principal Shiny G. Students of Perinthalmanna Govt Polytechnic College also pitched in, helping with the hardware.
According to Vimun, Poopy is powered by a highly customised version of Gemini, the AI assistant developed by Google. It delivers enhanced performance, especially in long-context understanding across modalities. He said the startup is planning to apply for a patent for Poopy with the assistance of the college.
While the robot with basic features can cost up to Rs 1.2 lakh, a high-end version that provides real-time responses would cost Rs 1.5 lakh. Already, five schools in the state have shown interest in Poopy, said Vimun who had earlier invented a smart glove that translates gestures to voice. Vimun has won prizes in 44 national-level tech competitions. He is also listed in the International Book of Records as an engineering student with the most national and state awards.