The multi-lingual classroom robot

Dinesh Kunwar Patel, a scientist and educator, has developed the world’s first artificially intelligent social and educational humanoid robot - ‘Shalu’ that can speak 47 languages including 9 Indian and 38 foreign languages. The humanoid robot was made with domestic waste materials. He is posted as a PGT (Computer Science) at Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Bombay, and his family considers Shalu as their daughter.

Born in Jaunpur, UP, Dinesh did his BSc in Biology from the University of Allahabad, followed by a master’s degree in computer application (MCA). His first job was with a software company, which he found quite boring, as he loves sharing his knowledge with others. So, he quit the job and became a computer science teacher. Currently he is posted at Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Bombay, in Mumbai.

After watching a Rajinikanth starrer ‘Robot’ movie, he got inspired to build a humanoid robot. Sophia Robot, developed by a Hong Kong based robotics firm, also motivated to keep working on the project. The biggest challenge was to find the required components at an affordable price, which was not possible. Therefore, he used waste materials available in the house and few components readily available in the local market like plastic, cardboard, thermocol, wood, cloths, wire, aluminum, etc.

With proper research, he started his project ‘Humanoid Robot Shalu’ in 2017, working in his free time. It took him 3 years to give it a presentable shape. Robot Shalu was awarded with the ‘Most Innovative use of Science & Technology’ for the year 2021 by Jagran Josh Education Awards. Shalu is included in the Computer Science syllabus for class 6th of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.

Robot Shalu, popularly known as ‘Apni Robo Shalu’ on social media, is capable of speaking in Hindi, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Bangla, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Nepali along with 38 foreign languages including English, German, Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latin and Korean.

Dinesh has deep interest in theatre and poetry. He has done Prabhakar course in Tabla and has published his poems. He wants to motivate the world for innovation and creativity. In his school days he used to get appreciation for writing multiple names on a single grain of rice. For this micro writing he developed his own thin pen by sharpening the tip of a fountain pen nib. His art got a mention in Surabhi, a weekly popular show on Doordarshan.

Dinesh believes that idea is important and not the execution. Useful models can be developed with a smaller amount using the waste materials. He himself spent hardly 50 thousand rupees on the world-famous Robot Shalu. He thinks that one should have a passion and creativity for new things. Everything is possible if passion is there.

Robot Shalu has a lot of scope of further development, says Dinesh, adding that “the present model is hardly 20 percent of the total work, which is likely to be done in the coming time. The present model is of the basic level. Still this robot is capable of teaching children in the classroom. It can give answers and can teach with the help of the PPT slides.”