Based on the idea of a Primary 1 pupil, Iona, from Linlithgow Primary School, the Glowbot is designed to help children who are afraid of the dark find their way to the bathroom at night.

Starting the prototype

Iona envisioned a robot that could help tidy up her toys, light up and guide her to the bathroom though a dark house at night, and to make sure it had claws. The team at University of Edinburgh took those ideas and started to develop the prototype.

They initially wanted the build to have a dual wheel so it could be a self-balancing robot with a basic chassis that further features could be added to. It was designed to light up and follow a line on the ground that can lead the child from the bedroom to the bathroom. A body was developed to encase the robot, taking design inspiration from the drawing provided by Iona. The head & torso sections of the outer enclosure were printed and the robot was tested, evaluated and debugged.

Issues

The team had some issues in devising the best way to enable the robot to navigate autonomously. They selected a line following algorithm to ensure that it would not get lost on its way from point A to point B. Further to this, they made sure that the robot contained additional sensors to detect obstacles in its path, for which it can either stop moving and wait for the obstacle to be removed, or attempt to navigate around the obstacle.

Future additions

In the future with any further prototype developments, they would have loved to add an interactive screen that would enable the robot to show personality and emotions, adding additional sensors, including machine vision which would allow the chassis to navigate the environment with more autonomy, and even allow it to track and follow coloured targets, worn by the user or placed around the operational environment, and a feature to enable users to communicate commands to glowbot vocally, using natural language processing, and have the robot respond in a calm tone to reassure the user.

They also envisioned further add ons possibly including the ability for the robot to pull a cart behind it while following the pupil around the room, assisting in tidying up toys and teaching stewardship of our surroundings.

Unveiling the prototype

On Tuesday May 28th pupils from schools across the East of Scotland visited the University of Edinburgh School of Engineering to receive awards and recognition for their engineering ideas. The prototype was also unveiled.

Professor Gareth Harrison, Head of School at the University of Edinburgh School of Engineering, opened the event:

“We were delighted to host this event with our long-standing partners Primary Engineer. Today’s celebration event brought the pupils, teachers and engineers back together for an awards ceremony and to view the exhibition of over 200 winning and highly commended entries for the South East Scotland region. It has been fantastic to see how the children have been able to identify problems and come up with such inventive solutions. It was also great to unveil the prototype for ‘The Glowbot’, of one of the winning entries from last year’s competition, built by our technical staff in conjunction with it’s primary school creator.”

The post University of Edinburgh to create the Glowbot first appeared on Primary Engineer.

These pupils had taken part in a national competition, run by Primary Engineer, where they answered the question “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”. Pupils get to interview an engineer and are then tasked with identifying a problem in the world around them and coming up with a creative solution to that problem 

This national competition saw over 71,000 pupils from across the UK take part, entries are then graded by industry professionals before going to regional judging panels with two winners and two highly commended in each year group. 

This week the highly commended and winning pupils were awarded trophies and framed certificates of their ideas, with 32 pupils from schools in Edinburgh, East Lothian, West Lothian and the Borders being celebrated. 

Maria Laine, president of Boeing in the UK, Ireland and Nordic region and a national partner of the competition, presented the awards on the night: 

“We know how important it is to nurture the next generation of scientists, engineers and aviators and our charitable partnerships, such as Primary Engineer, embody our commitment to shaping a brighter future for young people as well as supporting our talent pipeline”, said Maria Laine. “The ‘If you were an engineer, what would you do’ programme is pertinent but vitally, it is fun, and as a new national partner, Boeing’s 200+ STEM Ambassadors up and down the UK are enjoying every phase of this inspiring competition.” 

Every year University and Industry Partners of Primary Engineer select an idea to turn into a working Prototype, and “The Glowbot” prototype was unveiled at the ceremony. Based on the idea of a Primary 1 student from Linlithgow Primary School, the Glowbot is designed to help children who are afraid of the dark find their way to the bathroom at night. 

Professor Gareth Harrison, Head of School at the University of Edinburgh School of Engineering, opened the event: 

“We were delighted to host this event with our long-standing partners Primary Engineer. Today’s celebration event brought the pupils, teachers and engineers back together for an awards ceremony and to view the exhibition of over 200 winning and highly commended entries for the South East Scotland region. It has been fantastic to see how the children have been able to identify problems and come up with such inventive solutions. It was also great to unveil the prototype for ‘The Glowbot’, of one of the winning entries from last year’s competition, built by our technical staff in conjunction with it’s primary school creator.” 

Primary Engineer are hosting Public Exhibitions and Award Ceremonies being hosted all over the UK from May to July, with thousands of pupils engineering ideas being displayed for all to see, and you can find events near you on their website: https://leadersaward.com/exhibitions-and-events/ 

The full photo album from the event can also be found on the Leaders Award Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/leadersaward/ 

The post Local schools win big at national engineering competition at The University of Edinburgh first appeared on Primary Engineer.