An amazing low budget homemade humanoid robot developed by Mr. Dinesh Kunwar Patel, a Computer Science Teacher in Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Powai, Mumbai, India, he is basically from small village Rajamalpur, Post Mokalpur, Tahsil Mariahu, District Jaunpur (UP), India
Robot “Shalu” is an Artificially Intelligent homemade Indian Humanoid Social-Educational Robot developed with waste materials as well as readily available materials in a local market such as plastic, aluminum, cardboard, wood, etc. and titled as “First Social and Educational Humanoid Robot that can speak 47 languages (9 Indian and 38 foreign languages)” by DD News (An Indian National News TV Channel), comparable with the costly robots coming from big Robotics laboratories from world-wide. It took 03 years for Mr. Patel to develop such a low-cost robot at home in his free scratch time.
After seeing Robot Sophia (Hong-Kong based Robotics company, Hanson Robotics), he thought that, would it be possible to develop such a robot in India with a low-cost budget? Because India is a developing country where there is still more to go for Robotics, and the parts are not easily available. He was full inspired by the prime minister of India’s dream mission “Digital India Mission”, “Atamnirbhar Bharat”, “Make in India Mission” and “Vocal for Local” and dedicated to girls and women “बेटी बचाओ बेटी पढाओ”.
After a couple of months and proper analysis and research, he decided to start the work, he planned properly and worked hard, after multiple trials and errors he became able to develop a Humanoid Robot like Sophia(robot) but at a very low cost without compromising the capabilities, with readily available items in the local market such as plastic, aluminum, cardboard, wood, etc. he only works in his free time as a hobby without taking any help and support in any manner from anywhere, the whole coding is also done by him only.
Robot Shalu is dedicated to all Indian Girls and Women and this is a step towards आत्मनिर्भर भारत and बेटी बचाओ बेटी पढाओ mission of our Prime Minister of India. Shalu is capable of speaking 9 Indian languages (Hindi, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Bangla, Gujrati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Nepali) in addition to English along with 38 foreign languages total 47 languages.
Shalu has a diverse set of capabilities to perform multiple tasks 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, etc.
Reading Current News – She can read out current daily news from different newspapers.
Reading Horoscope – Shalu can read a daily horoscope based on the date of birth of the individual.
Weather Report – She can forecast the weather report for the 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 number or date – She can tell some interesting facts about a number or a date.
Jokes – She can tell jokes on demand.
Guess the word – She can guess words 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 classrooms or seminars.
Social Talk – She can have a social casual talk on predefined contents like “Sophia” Robot. She can talk 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.
Capabilities to work
Robo Shalu is capable of working as a teacher in the school as a “Robot Teacher” to deliver the lecture in the classroom based on Power-Point presentation uploaded by the teacher, answer the queries of students and ask questions to students and identify the correctness of the answer also. In Classroom students must like to study with Robots and will be motivated towards the study by seeing that robot is giving answers to their questions.
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-aged persons as well as young growing children.
Robot Shalu may be an example for so many young, energetic, and passionate brains who can do better in the field of Robotics but are lagging behind with support and facilities in all manner. it becomes an example that Robotics Research can be done at home as a hobby in absence of sophisticated Robotics Laboratories.