Non-childish technologies: how Russian schoolchildren create innovations after lessons

The creation of trendy devices is not limited to large R&D centers or university laboratories.

Today in school you can create complex smart systems that control your home, or an ecosystem of devices for colonizing another planet.

Muse-Gloves

Authors:Qiu Tiansheng (17 years old) - driver programmer, Alexander Makarenko (17 years old) - board programmer, Yuri Korshunov (17 years old) - designer, Miroslav Myasnyankin (17 years old) - electrical engineer, Sergey Rasputko (17 years old) - PR support ... The project won the final in the ART category.

Muse-Gloves is a glove that helpsit is more efficient for musicians to work on creating new music and to experiment freely with different melodies and instruments. This invention is especially relevant for those who write music on traditional instruments. Also, the glove will be useful for teachers of music schools to demonstrate some musical techniques, chords, arpeggios.

The glove body is 3D printed.The team developed and made a printed circuit board especially for the device. The glove has a built-in powerful battery that lasts for 4–5 hours of continuous use. Sensors are also embedded in the device: an accelerometer to find out in what position the hand is now, where it is turned. And the most important part of the glove is the microcontroller. The development team used a microcontroller from the BBC - Micro: bit. It is very convenient to program on it, because everything is already built-in: the accelerometer, and the Bluetooth module, and LEDs for beauty. In the future, the developers plan to create their own microcontroller so as not to use parts from other companies.

The glove is wireless and can connect toany device via Bluetooth. Using the graphical interface, the user adds to the library various "blocks" that convert the signal from the glove into a musical signal, then it is transmitted to musical instruments. With these blocks, the musician can customize the device for himself. Another interesting feature of the driver is the presence of a "scene", thanks to which you can quickly switch from one set of blocks to another.

For example, a user wants his bighis finger sent his piano the signal of the C note. To do this, he creates a block and writes there that he wants to receive the signal from the thumb and send the signal of the note "C" to the piano. At the same time, he wants this finger to also be able to send the note "E" to some synthesizer. To do this, he creates a new scene and puts a block in it for sending the "E" note with his thumb. And for the transition between scenes, that is, to select a piano or synthesizer, he will program his index finger.

“There are very few such devices in the world.There are very cheap ones that cannot be customized in any way. And there are very expensive ones that cost tens of thousands of euros, but their graphical interface is very complex: a lot of numbers, graphs ... And we wanted to make a device that would be easy to use and affordable. The first version of our glove cost 2,000 rubles, and the second - with a body, with a charger, and connected using a more efficient protocol - only 3,000 rubles, ”says Qiu Tiansheng.

Mobile robot for primary inspection and demining "Quantgraber"

Author: Ilya Kirov, 13 years old, Ivanovo. Mentor: Sergey Kirov.

Initially, Ilya Kirov wanted to doall-terrain robot without additional functions. But in the process of work, he and his mentor managed to modernize it so well that he realized: a robot can be an excellent human assistant, especially in professions associated with hard work and risk to life.

“My dad has an acquaintance who works inOMON, he really liked our robot. We were even asked to conduct joint exercises to neutralize a fake mine. The robot coped with this task, and the explosives technicians highly appreciated our development, ”Ilya Kirov says about his invention.

"Quantgraber" is a four-wheeled carplatform with a manipulator-claw. He has two cameras, with their help you can remotely inspect dangerous objects. And with the help of a claw manipulator, you can transport these objects to a safe place or set explosives to destroy them on the spot. Initially, the robot was planned to be made of metal, but the developer did not succeed. So he had to figure out 3D modeling and 3D print the plastic case.

There are several analogues of similar robots in the world, but they weigh much more and their cost starts from 2.5 million rubles. In addition, they need separate transport.

“Our robot costs about 90 thousand rubles.rubles, weighs about a kilogram and can be carried manually. And to control such a robot, only one operator is needed, who will follow the current situation on the monitors and give commands, ”concludes Ilya.

FINKA

Daria Morozova (17 years old) - designer, Sofia Oleinik (17 years old) - programmer, chief software developer, Daniil Bobylev (17 years old) - technician and programmer.

It is a smart home device consisting ofsystems of sensors, actuators and control center. The key element of the system is a hub in the form of a "magic" box with a hologram inside - a girl named FINKA. It can control lighting, security systems, video surveillance, climate control, chat with the user, interact with household appliances, act as a search engine and much more. It all depends on what kind of sensors the user chooses for his smart home.

The system works due to alternativesource of energy. The developers use an environmentally friendly and cheap piezoelectric element made from fish scales. Perhaps the energy of the piezoelectric element will not be enough for full operation, so the creators are thinking about installing a small dynamo as an additional power source.

The main body is reflective glass,which creates the hologram effect. Inside the hub there are various sensors, actuators and a programmed Arduino board. This board reads data, writes it to temporary storage, and then responds. An application on App Inventor has been developed for data comparison and response. The device can communicate with the user via VKontakte using text and voice commands, as well as interact with the database and smart home.

“You choose the device design that suits you andordering the control module. You can order sensors for a smart home anywhere. Therefore, you have the opportunity to customize the smart home system for yourself - choose only those modules that are suitable for solving the tasks you need, and the manufacturer you want. This means that the ratio of price and quality will be as beneficial as possible for you, - says Daria Morozova. - Then you install the sensors, register your module, activate it on the VKontakte platform (the platform may change in the future), indicate which sensors you have, and wait for their connection. After that, the system is ready for operation. "

FINKA's main audience is, first of all,people with limited mobility. Parents with children, pensioners and disabled people. The developers plan to teach the hologram sign language using a neural network, so that people with hearing and speech problems can also use it. In the future, it will be possible to introduce the system not only into the social, but also into the educational environment, so that the device can be used in schools and universities.

Mark gauntlet

Author: Vitaly Kornilov (16 years old), city of Korolyov.

Mark Gauntlet is part of the entire Mark rover system, which is designed to colonize Mars and intensify the study of this planet.

This is a glove for centralized remotecontrol of all small and large robots in the Mark series. About 30 robots of the system have already been described, and 10 of them have either a virtual embodiment or a prototype.

The system works like this:arrives at the scene and releases scouts who study the area and collect data. Mark robots can explore a variety of terrains - both deserts and rocky rocks: where a large rover will not pass, a small one will climb. In addition, they can be used on Earth, including in natural disaster zones, for example, to research and search for sources of ignition.

Externally, the glove looks like a module thatattaches to the hand. It is equipped with a control unit with a joystick and buttons, inside a power supply unit, a control controller, interface modules and sensors. Wires with an accelerometer and a gyroscope, which are attached to a regular cycling glove, lead to the control unit.

The glove has operating modes, they are setswitches. From the main modes: control using the accelerometer, using the joystick and buttons. The glove supports different types of remote control: using LoRa, infrared port and LED, 2.4 GHz radio module, Wi-Fi module, Bluetooth module. There is a voice notification function, and on the glove you can turn on music or use it as a flashlight - the LED panel will easily illuminate a large room.

Now the glove software supports auto-dialing up toreceiver, interpretation of data from the accelerometer and gyroscope, intelligent mode switching, filters for all analog values ​​and full modularity of the code.

“I decided to make the Mark series after the internationalSpace Olympiad last year. At the defense, I was asked what development prospects one of my robots might have, - says Vitaly Kornilov. - Then I realized that if I do the development alone, I won't get far with a four-legged robot. Because the development prospects are the compilation of complex mathematical models and the use of advanced computers and algorithms with which I am not yet familiar. This requires experience with advanced ecosystems. "

Multifunctional ultrasonic distance meter

Author: Egor Kotelkin (17 years old), Balashikha.

It is convenient to use the rangefinder to determine distances whenthey are more than a meter. If the ruler is no longer enough, then it greatly facilitates the measurement process, and can also be useful where accurate calculations are required. For example, realtors can use it to calculate the area, perimeter and volume of a room, and railroad builders can control the distance between rails. All you need to do is point the device at the object to which you want to calculate the distance, and press the button. The rangefinder also automatically converts the measurement results into other units: meters, decimeters, feet, yards, and so on.

“When I first started doing electronics andradio electronics, I often repeated other people's projects, - recalls Yegor. - Then I saw a video on YouTube in which a man was doing a length, he measured the distance taking into account the length of the body. I wanted to repeat it - it didn't work out. After some time, I remembered this and decided to try again, but I thought: “Why not modify it and add something new to it?” I thought about how it could be implemented, what functions should be, I thought about the electronic part myself, developed an algorithm for the code, wrote this code, designed the corpus ”.

Yegor Kotelkin's device differs fromanalogues, first of all, cost. He spent 1,000 rubles to make it. And if you try, you can find parts even cheaper. Ready-made long lengths are a little more expensive, most - from 2,000. Secondly, the device differs in functionality. For example, it can be connected to a computer via a cable, and then all measurement results will be duplicated in an Excel table. There is no such function on the market yet. To save battery power, there is also a power saving mode and a sleep mode. Some rangefinders have such modes, but not all of them. Also, when pressing certain buttons at the same time, his device can show the date and time.

Of course, for prototyping orbringing an invention to the mass market will require substantial resources, including large corporations. However, student developers are confident that their innovations will change the world.

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