Bombay (the states. news)India is a developing country where Robotics is still lagging because of the lack of availability of Robotics components, 3D printed parts and good quality motors. Even less recognition.
Despite all these, if a teacher (not a Robotics Scientist) can do something in the field and able to develop a prototype that is comparable with the Robots developed by a big facilitated and resourceful companies with the help of their best engineers on a very big budget, definitely it liable to a different appreciation.
Yes, I am talking about Mr. Dinesh Patel, Teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Bombay, India, who did this and developed the “First social humanoid Robot of the world that can speak 9 Indian and 38 foreign languages” as per the report of DD News, and named her as”SHALU. Shalu is being famous on social media as “अपनी RoboShalu”, a homemade humanoid robot developed with readily available materials in a local market such as plastic, aluminum, cardboard, wood, etc. in his free scratch time as a hobby. It took 3 years to bring this robot into existence, without any technical and financial support. He said that his hard work is dedicated to girls and women with “बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढाओ” national message.
After seeing the Bollywood movie “Robot” acted by Mr. Rajnikant as “Chitti”, he thought; is it possible to make such a robot behaving like this reel life robot Chitti in real life, Then he saw Sophia Robot (developed by Hanson Robotics, a Hong-Kong based Robotics Company) and decided to work in this field, but he faced many challenges such as how to start? from where he can purchase parts? and unable to find any solution, he decided that he will work on his dream with the readily available item in the local market and started to think about how it may be possible, what kind of item can be used for which purpose; after figuring out all the possibilities; started his work. He was already inspired by the honorable prime minister of India’s dream mission “Digita India Mission”, “Skill India Mission” and “Make in India Mission”.
And the final result is in front of us in the form of a lovely soft-spoken, multitalented, multilingual Robot “Shalu”. She is capable of speaking 9 Indian languages (Hindi, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Bangla, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Nepali) in addition to English along with 38 foreign languages viz. German, Japanese, etc.
Shalu has a diverse set of capabilities such as :
· Face recognition, remembering person after meeting – She can remember a person after meeting and can recognize in the next meeting just like a human.
· Identifying multiple common objects – She is capable of identifying many objects available around us such as a computer, laptop, TV, mobile, bottle, book, bus, watches, chair, etc.
· Reading Current News: She can readout current daily news from different newspapers
· Reading Horoscope: Shalu can ready daily horoscope based on the date of birth of individual
· Weather Report – She can forecast weather report of next 10 days place-wise date-wise
· Math Problem solution – She is capable of understanding simple math questions as well as equations and answers such as Time-Speed-Distance, Simple/Compound Interest, equation calculation, LCM/GCF, Factors, Prime numbers, Armstrong numbers, etc.
· Interesting facts of any numbers or date – She can tell some interesting facts about a number or a date.
· Jokes – She can tell jokes on demand
· Guess word – She can guess the word by providing a few letters of the world
· Synonyms/Antonyms – She is capable of telling synonyms and the opposite of an English word.
· Answering the educational questions – She is capable of answering educational questions based on Physics, Chemistry, Maths, History, Geography, GK, etc. which usually students ask during their study in the classroom.
· Lecture – She is capable of giving lectures and presentations in the classroom or seminars.
· Social Talk – She can have a social casual talk on predefined contents like “Sophia” Robot using Artificial Intelligence by understanding the meaning of the conversation.
· Human behavior and gesture – She can demonstrate human behavior and gesture viz. Shaking hands, laughing, anger, and irritation.
And many more…………..
Use of Robot Shalu in daily life :
Robo Shalu can be used in so many different ways where conversation process required politely, for example –
She can be used with the existing teacher to support the teaching-learning process in the classroom in a school as a “Robot Teacher” as a companion of a subject teacher to answer the question of students. Where students must like to study with robots and will be motivated towards the study by seeing that robot is answering their question.
She can work as a Receptionist at different places for example airports, Schools, and many offices to answer the different queries based on their organization not only verbal even through email too. She is also capable of sending SMS.
She can be the companion of old age persons as well as young growing children.
Shalu as a Motivator :
Robot Shalu may be an example and motivation for so many future robotic young, energetic, and passionate scientists who can do better in the Robotics field. it becomes an example that Robotics Research can be done at home as a hobby in absence of technical facilities and laboratories.(media saheb.com)
