The International Conference on Social Robotics which is one of the prominent events in the academic calendar for Social Robotics was held on 26th-29th in Madrid, Spain with the collaboration of Madrid Carlos III University and Springer for the eleventh time. For the event the top ranked universities across the globe, especially from the United States, Europe, Japan and etc participated to publish their findings and to compete at the Robotics Design competition.
For the robotics design competition, for the first time a team of undergraduates A.C.Gammanpila, A.Wijesinghe, T.Wanniarachchi, V.Amarajeewa and D.Jayasinghe from University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka got shortlisted as the global finalists and represented the country and the university at the global stage and was able to secure the Global 1st Place Award at the Robot Design competition under the Hardware category. The project was guided to success under the supervision of senior lecturer Dr. Ravindra de Silva who is specialized in Social Robotics.
The designed social robot not only won the global 1st place but it also gained a major international attention due to its unique appearance and its’ impact on society. The robot is with an appearance of the “Sorting Hat” from the Harry Potter movie which was built as a solution for autistic children to learn to interact and express emotions with the society. The robot hat also consists of a brainwave sensor in order to record the brain data for future cognitive analysis.The hat was exhibited at the Innovate Sri Lanka exhibition organized by the IIVC and the hat became a center of attention for the participants of the exhibition as well.
The team is looking forward to completing the research publications for the project and to develop and distribute the robotic hat as a solution for autistic students at a local and global level.
Event & Award
1st place Global award at the International Conference on Social Robots – Design Competition, Hardware category
Held in Madrid, Spain 26th – 29th
Team
Dr. Ravindra de Silva (Supervisor)
Adhisha Gammanpila
Asela Wijesinghe
Tehani Wanniarachchi
Viraji Amarajeewa
Dovini Jayasinghe
Project video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSQTZ_FXLC0
Harry Potter Hat Robot pictures :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oKBHfqhNAdHXyWRc7Ib9-wffQEctehIG