The AFRON “$10 Robot” Design Challenge Winners On Display at the CITRIS Tech Museum 1/24 to 3/1/13

The AFRON “$10 Robot” Design Challenge Winners On Display at the CITRIS Tech Museum

Winners of the three categories are on display at the CITRIS Tech Museum from January 24 – March 1st, 2013. The CITRIS Tech Museum is located at Sutardja Dai Hall, UC Berkeley.

The goal of the AFRON “10 Dollar Robot” Design Challenge, which ran from June 15 to September 15, 2012, was to design a new class of affordable robots for learning (especially in primary and secondary schools).

The three categories were tethered, all-in-one (self-contained), and traditional (roaming).

In the tethered category, the winners are:

1. Suckerbot (Thailand)
http://www.tomtilley.net/projects/suckerbot/

2. Baobot (United States)

http://baobot.org/

3. Afrobot (United States)
http://www.afrobot.org

4. RoboArm (Nigeria)
http://www.roboa

rmblog.wordpress.com

In the traditional category, the winners are:

1. Kilobot (United States)
https://sites.google.com/site/afron10dollarrobot/

2. SwarmRobot (China)
http://wiki.xinchejian.com/wiki/Xinchejian_Shanghai_Hackerspace_AFRON_$10_
Competition_submission

3. SEG (United States)
http://people.csail.mit.edu/cagdas/tmpAFRON//SEG/SEG__MITs_Origami_Inspired
_Submission.html

4. DiscBot (United States)
http://arcbotics.com/afron-submission/

And in the all-in-one category, the two winners are:

1. MITBOTS (India)
http://mitbots.com/proposal_3/

2. N-Bot (Brazil)
http://www.natalnet.br/~aroca/afron/index.htm

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The African Robotics Network (AFRON)
http://robotics-africa.org
http://robotics-africa.org/design_challenge.html

Since it launched May 2012, AFRON has 300 members from 25 countries
including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Algeria, South Africa, Egypt,
Tanzania, Cameroon, and Ethiopia, as well as affiliated members from
the US, Switzerland, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and
Argentina.  With guidance from an esteemed Advisory Board, AFRON’s
first project was the “$10 Robot” International Design Challenge
(sponsored in part by IEEE RAS) which sought designs for extremely low
cost robots for education.  The ten winners (and six Honorable
Mentions) were announced at Maker Faire New York in September 2012 and
reported in WiRed, IEEE Spectrum, Popular Mechanics, and Slashdot:
http://robotics-africa.org/design_challenge.html

The African Robotics Network (AFRON) is a community of institutions,
organizations and individuals engaged in robotics in Africa.  AFRON
seeks to promote communication and collaborations that will enhance
robotics-related education, research, and industry on the
continent. To achieve this, AFRON organizes projects, meetings and
events in Africa and at Robotics and Automation conferences abroad.
Established in April 2012, AFRON hosts a website, Facebook page, and
moderated email list.  There are no subscription fees or dues.  To
join, please visit the website above and click “Membership”.

Co-Founders:

Ayorkor Korsah <akorsah@ashesi.edu.gh>
Asst. Professor, Computer Science, Ashesi University, Accra, Ghana

Ken Goldberg <goldberg@berkeley.edu>
Professor, IEOR, EECS, Art, Information, UC Berkeley, USA

AFRON Advisory Board

Patrick Awuah, President, Ashesi University, Ghana
Jenna Burrell, UC Berkeley
David Cuartielles, Arduino
Dale Dougherty, Make Magazine and Maker Faire
Robert Mullins, Cambridge University and Raspberry Pi Foundation
Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media
Peter Staecker, IEEE President-Elect
Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, NASA JPL
Gregg Zachary, Arizona State University
Ethan Zuckerman, MIT Center for Civic Media