RoboSapiens

In mid-November, the MGSC RoboSapiens participated in the FIRST Lego League Challenge: Robotics Regionals at Swinburne University in Wantirna. The team includes: Elsa Yu, Taliah O'Quely, Millie Bennett, Parnian Mellat, Anuki Udawattha Arachchige, CJ Heraudeau, Grace Liu and Trudie Miller.

The competition is split into two parts, the first part was programming the SPIKE PRIME robots to complete different missions all around the mat. This is where the MGSC RoboSapiens showcased their impressive programming skills in the Robot game rounds. They performed exceptionally well, earning a total of 195 points, ranking them in a very high position, even beating and outscoring Methodist Ladies’ College, which is coached by Ms Leong. This success can be accredited to Millie, Grace, Trudie, and CJ for doing absolutely amazing at the robot mat, whilst Elsa, Taliah, Parnian, Anuki, Mr Verimieff, Mr Murphy and Ms Leong all screamed and cheered them on.

The second part of the Competition was to make and present an innovation project. The MGSC RoboSapiens developed an innovative device for their innovation project that utilizes facial recognition technology to sense emotions and convert them into corresponding colours. The device, named ISAIAH (devIce uSes fAcial & voIce identificAtion and cHromotherapy), aims to boost the mood of its audience by projecting colours based on the detected emotions.

The device was created by Taliah, who programmed it using the Python language. She trained and tested the AI using the FER-2013 database on Kaggle, which contains a vast collection of 35,000 images of different facial expressions.

To build the device, she used a Raspberry Pi 4B and integrated a Raspberry Pi V1.3 Camera into ISAIAH. The camera is responsible for capturing facial expressions accurately, allowing the device to recognize emotions with precision.

Once an emotion is detected, ISAIAH projects a series of relaxing flashing light patterns in different colours that are opposite to the person’s mood. For example, if someone is sad, ISAIAH will project a yellow colour to uplift their mood. The purpose of this feature is to create a positive environment and enhance the emotional well-being of the audience.

The MGSC RoboSapiens’ project using ISAIAH’s emotion-sensing and colour projection capabilities earned them the Breakthrough award, which was awarded for their innovation and creativity.

We are super thankful to the PFA who provided us with this years FLL Masterpiece mat and the LEGO Foundation for supplying us with 10 new SPIKE PRIME robots, a grant to enter this competition and this years FLL Masterpiece mat; A very special thank you to Ms Gilbert for successfully being able to get the grant for us; Kingston Council for the $200 grant for team apparel; Taliah’s family for supplying everything for the innovation project; Staff members of MGSC for all the help, advice and luck for the competition; Mr Verimieff and Mr Murphy for being amazing coaches and helping us out weekly and driving us to Swinbourne!!!

If anyone would like to join us in exploring and building LEGO robots and learning how to code, we meet every Friday at lunchtime in the STEAM centre. You can also contact Mr Murphy (09751219@mgsc.vic.edu.au) for more information.

Taliah O’Quely and Elsa Yu

Co-Captains of the MGSC RoboSapiens