20 August 2009

High schooler creates robotic system for elephants

Rohan Jhunjhunwala just loves robotics and technology.

The Oregon Zoo approached Jhunjhunwala, a junior at the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oreg., and a mechanical engineering leader on the school’s competitive robotics society, to build a robotics system to help feed, exercise, and entertain the elephants.

Rohan Jhunjhunwala is working on prototype technology to help the Oregon Zoo.

Students from Portland State University built the original robotics system, which consisted of two sensors and a conveyor belt. The undocumented system eventually fell into disrepair, and three other students from the Catlin Gabel School created a solution for the feeding aspect of the project, leaving Jhunjhunwala to develop a mechanism for exercising and entertaining the pachyderms.

“My robot will consist of three main parts,” said Jhunjhunwala. “The first is the apple launcher, which will launch apples into the elephant pen. The second is the motion sensors. These will make the elephant run to each side of the pen to get their food. The third is by far the most ambitious, and the most beneficial, should it work. It is an elephant piano. Using capacitive sensors, I will build a four-key keyboard on a brick wall that the elephants can play. The sound will come from a loudspeaker behind the wall. If the elephant plays the right sequence of notes using its trunk, it will be rewarded in the form of a bundle of hay or an apple.”

Before he could begin to build the robotics system, Jhunjhunwala assembled a wish list of parts.

He found Sealevel Systems through Internet research and from talks with his mentor, Dale Yocum. After getting in touch with Bryan Buchanan in Sealevel’s technical support division, Jhunjhunwala found the right technology for his design.

With funding secured for the apple launcher, Sealevel supplied two products to help Jhunjhunwala build his robot. He hopes his system will be able to get up and running at other locations. He can write Java code to provide the zookeepers a visual interface with better information about how the system is working and let them change the challenges given to the elephants.

Jhunjhunwala is currently coding and building intensively over the summer and hopes to have things operational in prototype form in the fall. The final product will be ready to go in time for his school’s science fair in March.

Jhunjhunwala is part of Team 1540, a group of students from the Catlin Gabel School’s Robotics Society, which competes annually in the FIRST robotics competition.

For related information, go to www.isa.org/sensors.