Thales are one of our National Partners for our annual engineering competition which asks pupils aged 3-19 ‘If you were an engineer what would you do?’ and encourages pupils come up with creative solutions to real-world problems.

There are 5 Thales teams from various sites around the UK who will each be working on one of the 5 pupil engineering ideas selected to develop into a prototype over the 2023/2024 academic year which will be unveiled at the Awards Ceremony and Public Exhibition during the Summer term.

The prototeam

The Sign Right Translator is a tablet housing an original sign language translating application enhanced using machine learning and cloud computing. Via the camera input, the device aims to recognise, detect and capture the signs which are then translated and outputted visually on the screen. Inspired by the student’s original drawings, the tablet has a variety of unique cases to further display their creativity.

The prototype team is formed of a mixture of graduates and apprentices, from various disciplines, all based at Thales’ Crawley site. The team members are utilising their volunteering hours to help bring the student’s design to life, ensuring to fully capture the student’s vision but assessing what creative adaptions we could implement as part of the project.

Beginning the prototype

During the planning stage, a simple but effective project management structure was defined, allowing the team to follow and utilise the Scrum approach to product development, just one of the many agile methodologies. The Scrum Master and Product Owner worked together to outline the major milestones and creating a plan on a page. This helped to ensure the team stays focused throughout the project and key stakeholders were updated regularly about the milestones and progress

During the setting up phase they took a service design approach to better understand the users, the design presented to them and the feasibility of creating the product exactly as described. They created personas to help define the primary and secondary users, use cases and user stories to guide them in the development of the product. During this stage they defined the baseline requirements from the drawings they received along with optional requirements, allowing them to introduce some creative aspects to both the hardware and software created without compromising the designer’s original ideas.

Design Phase

Hardware Update
In hardware they started with extracting the student’s designs from the initial specification and digitalising them, they then investigated different ways that they could implement these into the custom cases. When exploring use cases, they looked into the different environments where the device would be used. They decided to design four different cases (see 2 of our designs below), one for each operational environment and implement additional hardware to improve both functionality and ergonomics specific to each one. Following this they worked on implementing her artwork onto the cases in a way that complimented the new hardware while staying true to the student’s vision. The team then moved into the prototyping phase where we they integrated the designs and hardware onto the cases and analysed different types of manufacturing processes to create the final cases.

Software Update
In software, they started by researching Sign Language Translation (SLT) methods, focusing on which sign languages (BSL, ASL, etc.) have the most developed research and papers. They explored different AI models, comparing both CNN-based and 3D-Pose-based networks, and analysed their performance in terms of accuracy and speed. They investigated potential platforms for the client application, ultimately determining that an iPad mini with iPadOS would be the most appropriate choice. In designing the UI wireframes for the client application, they focused on requirements specific to child users, ensuring the interface is intuitive and engaging. They developed a local API endpoint that takes a video clip as input and responds with translated captions for each frame. This endpoint was tested locally for performance and accuracy. Following successful local testing, they deployed the API endpoint to the cloud with additional GPU compute to accelerate translation performance. Additionally, they developed the client application using the Flutter framework, incorporating an intuitive UI and playful animations to enhance the user experience.

Prototype unveiled!

The prototype was unveiled at the South East awards on 20th June hosted at Canterbury Christ Church University. Huge well done to the Thales UK Crawley Prototeam.

The post Thales Crawley have turned Year 6 Pupil Scarlett’s Sign Language Translator into a reality first appeared on Primary Engineer.

Thales are one of our National Partners for our annual engineering competition which asks pupils aged 3-19 ‘If you were an engineer what would you do?’ and encourages pupils come up with creative solutions to real-world problems.

There are 5 Thales teams from various sites around the UK who will each be working on one of the 5 pupil engineering ideas selected to develop into a prototype over the 2023/2024 academic year which will be unveiled at the Awards Ceremony and Public Exhibition during the Summer term.

The prototeam

The Solar Powered Heated Blanket was chosen by Thales Glasgow because the pupil had highlighted an interesting gap in the market for a portable style heated blanket that’s able to be operated using solar energy and not rely on mains. The team liked that the student’s design intent was to help the homeless, and they also recognised this idea’s applicability in camping, hiking and travelling applications.

The prototype team is formed of a mixture of graduates and apprentices, from various disciplines.

Beginning the prototype

They identified that the design comprised of three main components which were a heated sleeping bag/blanket, a set of solar panels and a battery pack. They used the average human sleep time of 8 hours as the required run time of the heated sleeping bag in initial power calculations and kept this in mind when researching suitable batteries and solar panels.

They were quite keen on adding further elements to this design in an effort to make it more efficient and targeted towards the end user. So, they decided to include a control circuit that would automatically alternate the blanket between on/off states based of sensor temperature readings, aiming to boost battery life. The team also modelled a bag with an outer frame customisation to hold the solar panels, this allows for on-the-move solar charging whilst also providing the user with storage space.

Progress of the build

All of the required components and sub components were acquired and tested to make sure they meet the requirements.

Control circuit was tested on a breadboard and components were soldiered onto a circuit board after performance verification.

Parts comprising the bag’s outer frame were modelled in CAD software and their STL files were sent to the 3D printer.

The team then modelled a casing for the final control circuit, 3D printed it and attached it to the heated sleeping bag. Assembled the frame parts together, fixed it onto the backpack and attached the solar panels to it. Then they connected all of the sub-components together and carried out system level testing.

School visit

The team delivered a presentation to Rebecca’s class about engineering in general and at Thales. They demonstrated and let the class test out Sophie lite camera and it’s thermal imaging mode. They caught up with the student Rebecca and her teacher to update them on the progress and allow Rebecca to assess the protobuild.

She was very happy to see her idea has been brought to life and gave her tick of approval. She was happy with the heated blanket being a ‘heated sleeping bag’ as it would allow for better heat retention.

Prototype unveiled!

The prototype was unveiled at the South East awards on 24th May hosted at Glasgow University. Huge well done to the Thales UK Glasgow Prototeam.

The post Thales Glasgow have turned P7 Pupil Rebecca’s Solar Powered Heated Blanket into a reality first appeared on Primary Engineer.

Thales are one of our National Partners for our annual engineering competition which asks pupils aged 3-19 ‘If you were an engineer what would you do?’ and encourages pupils come up with creative solutions to real-world problems.

There are 5 Thales teams from various sites around the UK who will each be working on one of the 5 pupil engineering ideas selected to develop into a prototype over the 2023/2024 academic year which will be unveiled at the Awards Ceremony and Public Exhibition during the Summer term.

Beginning the prototype

The Thales Templecombe ProtoTeam selected Erin’s Walkie Frame engineering idea to bring to life as Erin’s idea was to improve her grandmother’s comfort and the convenience of using walking aids. It was also to help save space in her grandmother’s apartment. The ProtoTeam felt this was a very kind-hearted and selfless innovation and were keen to be a part of its design.

Midpoint update

They have made previous physical concepts for this design however encountered a few roadblocks during its creation. They realised that due to the difference in handles of walking sticks and walking frames and the necessity for having the weight applied through the centre of each walking aid it was difficult to create walking sticks that could also function effectively within a walking frame. As such had to go back to the drawing board and create new concepts and adaptations which we will be presenting to the student to get their feedback. Our next steps for the team will be to bring together a finalised design approved by the student and bring it to life. They have planned a virtual meeting with the pupil designer and teacher to show them the current design concepts, two ideas for the walkie frame itself and the possibility of integrating another idea of into the walkie frame, the further idea being a universal walking frame clip on pouch (CAD design shown below). They hope this planned virtual meeting will allow them to really narrow down on a final design for our student.

What’s next?

This is the last update on this amazing prototype until it’s grand unveiling at the Award Ceremony event.

The post Pupil engineering idea, Walkie Frame, developed into a prototype by Thales first appeared on Primary Engineer.

Thales are one of our National Partners for our annual engineering competition which asks pupils aged 3-19 ‘If you were an engineer what would you do?’ and encourages pupils come up with creative solutions to real-world problems.

There are 5 Thales teams from various sites around the UK who will each be working on one of the 5 pupil engineering ideas selected to develop into a prototype over the 2023/2024 academic year which will be unveiled at the Awards Ceremony and Public Exhibition during the Summer term.

Thales, Cheadle site selected Madiha’s idea because out of a huge pool of ideas, it stood out with its originality and functionality in solving an everyday problem. She mentioned in her notes that 97% of people don’t wash their hands properly, and the Cheadle team wanted to help her improve that statistic!

Beginning the prototype

Thales Cheadle project team is made up of Izzy (Project Planning & Controls Apprentice), Fiona (Engineering Graduate), Adam (Engineering Graduate), Olamide (Software Apprentice), Alicia (Software Apprentice) and Jack (Hardware Apprentice). They have a range of skillsets to approach the production of the prototype, and have a huge field of experienced engineers at Thales to consult.

Initially, they weren’t aware of the capabilities of UV light in detecting germs but discovered that they are limited unless the UV has a specific wavelength to excite a specific germ on the hands.

This posed a challenge in how we would adapt the idea to fulfil the UV element in Madiha’s design. The team explored a few different concepts, until they settled on creating a prototype that uses image recognition software to track the hand-washing process, capturing movements and letting the user know when they are done. Many people simply don’t know how to wash their hands properly, so they wanted to come up with a solution that would allow them to follow the correct process as they wash.

The UV light comes in as the next layer of defence, because paired with a gel-like substance that the user applies before washing their hands, it shows up the areas that haven’t been washed properly, as seen in the below images.

This is the current design iteration, with software development for the image recognition and sink display underway, moving onto procuring the hardware soon.

We can’t wait for the next update on this design!

The post Pupil engineering idea, Tap of Germs, developed into a prototype by Thales first appeared on Primary Engineer.