CoU students build a humanoid robot 'NIKO'

A group of young students of Comilla University (Cou) have successfully built a robot under the initiative of Cumilla District Commissioner Mohammad Kamrul Hasan and with the funding of Cumilla District Administration. In a year's effort, a humanoid robot, named 'NIKO', was created by a team of five students. Their team name is Quanta Robotics.

Shanjit Mondol worked as a team leader to build the robot. Jewel Nath worked as the head of programmer. Also, Anik Chakraborty, Touseef Bin Parvez, Mohiuddin Khan Mahin of ICT Department worked in making the robot.

They taken their robot name 'NIKO' from the  Nicholas Tesla. This is their third robot. They consider it to be the latest humanoid robot in Bangladesh with 3D printed Raspberry Pi Beige artificial intelligence.

They used niko version 1.0, speed 1.5 GHz, 64 bit quad core ARM processor, 8 GB RAM, 120 GB ROM has been used to make the robot. 29 powerful servo motors are used for various body parts movement, high torque DC motors are used for movement. In addition, there is a seven-inch Raspberry Pi touch display for operation.It can be controlled without any kind of wire connection by smart voice instructions.

Quanta Robotics team leader Sanjit Mondal said, the robot can be used for any task in the workplace. It's capable of doing any work like a human. Due to the use of artificial intelligence in the robot, it can use artificial intelligence like humans and our robot is able to provide battery backup for about six and a half hours in a single charge. It can move around and can carry out various commands ; it can recognise faces of people standing in front of it, for that the identity and the picture of that person need to be given or stored in the robot's database in advance. The robot then scans the face of the person standing in front and compares the face with the data stored in its memory.

He also said, this type of robot has been invented for the first time in Bangladesh in the Fab Lab built by the Cumilla district administration. Our team Quarter Robotics previously built two other robots. Robot Niko is the third robot developed by us which is the most advanced robot in Bangladesh. Before this, Bangladesh has never built a fully 3D printed Raspberry Pi based robot.

Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Kamrul Hasan said, today we officially inaugurated Robot NIKO. A group of talented young students worked to make the robot. We have only provided financial support to built the robot. It can speak and he can introduce himself. The robot can also move in 180 degrees. He can also answer various questions. We hope that the robot will play a leading role in building a digital Bangladesh.

CoU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. A. F. M. Abdul Moyeen has expressed his excitement at the success of the students. He said, I think this is a great milestone. Through this the students of Comilla University have proved their mettle and made the university proud. These achievements will undoubtedly act as an incentive for many talented students. They will be encouraged to come to Comilla University to be a part of new learning projects.

He also said, I want everyone associated with Team Quanta and my other students to continue this kind of work. We welcome any opportunity to engage our students in practice-based authentic learning.