For the past year, students at the IdeaLab have been developing a project called “Lemon.” Lemon is a learning kit aimed at building a solid foundation of mechanics, electronics, programming, and computer-aided design(CAD). The kit is a product in development that is targeting first-timers in these fields without age restrictions.
Lemon contains 3 biometric and bioinspired robots: a fish, a turtle, and a dog. These robots are meant to be levels of difficulty for the user. Learners assemble the robots from their pieces according to a manual, solve a challenge by targeting a certain skill and control the robots as a result. When successfully assembled and the CAD-design challenge is completed, the fish begins flapping around. The turtle robot contains electronic mechanisms such as sensors and motors that lead it to wave its legs, when successfully assembled. Finally, the dog robot uses code and servo motors to be put together by the learner to walk.
This October, the Lemon team traveled to Bali for the 17th Fabfest and the Fabcity Summit 2022 events. At the week-long event, the lemon team gave daily workshops for 3 days: each day focusing on one robot and the skill it teaches. As the only workshop given by high school students at the event, Lemon had the most consistent participation with about 40 participants each day from ages 10 to 50 all around the world. Among the participants was Neil Gershenfeld, an American professor at MIT and the director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, a sister lab to the MIT Media Lab. Prof Gershenfeld gave his feedback on Lemon kits during the workshops. Fabfest and Fabcity Summit 2022 became a major marketing opportunity for Idealab, as it led to many offers from international FabLabs to purchase and integrate Lemon in their own trainings.
Looking forward, Lemon is working on commercializing the kits. They are renovating the pieces of the robots to be interchangeable and sustainable. Currently, each robot can be assembled once, as they require glue to hold the pieces together. The Lemon team aims for learners to be able to reassemble the pieces to form all three animals. They are also developing their research report to submit to international conferences and be patented.
It is possible to see some member of the Lemon team working on the next phase of their project in the IdeaLab at all times. As active members of NoktaParantez.), they visit the idealab to check on and develop Lemon kits in their breaks, free hours afterschool and even during some lessons. Lemon can be a great inspiration and example for students who wish to jumpstart their own projects and explore their interests in CS or business.
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