3, 2, 1, JOHNNY

We all learned how to count on our hands. The idea of this project was to use this natural behaviour to develop children’s cognitive skills in an interactive and playful way.

A hand-driven walking robot has been developed for simplicity and autonomy. Its mechanism relies on a set of gears linked by belts and driving both legs with a single motor driven by radio transmission from a connected glove that allows the kid to display numbers on their fingers.

Both the robot and the glove are auto-powered by batteries for robustness and freedom of movement. Thus, the kid can walk along with the robot and interact in a playful way.

A game has been integrated into the system to teach addition. The glove requests random numbers from 1 to 3 on a screen and gives direct feedback to the children about whether the given number was right. In parallel, the robot walks up to the displayed number on a scale drawn on the playground. This game simply brings magic into children's hands!