By TellZim Reporter
Junior High School’s robotics team wowed judges and visitors at the just-ended Masvingo Agricultural Show, taking first place in the robotics display category with a trio of impressive, tech-driven projects, all developed by form one learners.
The team, part of the school’s Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Programming Club, showcased projects that tackle real-world problems using cutting-edge technology.
Club patron Harmony Nyamhunga Mlambo applauded the learners for their innovation and focus.
“At Junior High School, we do not just teach, we train learners to build solutions using robotics and software. Our motto is ‘Catch them young.’ Science is endless, and our learners are constantly improving their projects,” said Mlambo.
The winning projects include a Robotic Medical Assistant designed to assist surgeons during operations and can carry medical tools, respond to voice commands, and follow a doctor using an ESP32 camera — mimicking human vision.
““The Robotic Medical Assistant is a robot created to assist medical specialists when performing surgery. The robot is responsible for assisting them to carry medical equipment during operations and this means that there is no need to have nurses around the doctor. Nurses can now do other tasks while the robot does the same tasks. The robot is made up of different components, for example an ESP32 camera that can act as a normal human eye, allowing the robot to follow the doctor wherever he is. There is a microphone that will allow the doctor to give instructions to a robot. The robot can decode the instructions and do exactly what it is instructed to do. It has some wheels so that it can move from one point to the other and an obstacle avoidance sensor so as to avoid accidents while moving. Both the Judges and the Minister were impressed seeing Form 1 being creative and innovative to such an extent,” said Mlambo.
The second project, Mediconnect, a mobile application which delivers accurate medical information and personalized support to patients particularly designed to assist folks in rural communities where access to medical services might be a challenge.
“Mediconnect is a mobile application software designed to help our community with accurate medical information and personalized support. The application communicates with the server that acts as the information hub. This application is important especially in rural areas where people might not have money to buy medicine from pharmacies.
“It has a comprehensive medical database with reliable wealth information about various diseases and their treatments. It provides suggestions for home remedies for example if someone is suffering from influenza, the mobile application can suggest home remedies for the patient. This application has a voice recognition system to assist those who cannot write and read and there is also a language translator which converts one language to the other for instance English to Shona so that the elderly can understand and use the mobile application,” said Mlambo.
The third project, Point Rush, is an innovative environmental app that uses geo-location and camera tech to detect litter hotspots. Users earn points, convertible to real cash, by cleaning up those areas. A smart before-and-after image system verifies clean-ups before awarding rewards.
“The system can detect areas where there is litter using the Geo Location camera. Users of the system can get points after picking litter and those points are converted into real cash. For one to install the application on his/her phone, they should pay a subscription fee which will be channeled towards rewarding those who are picking litter from the environment. The system can actually supervise whether litter has been picked up or not. It uses a GeoCamera to detect where litter is and also to capture areas after litter has been picked up. It compares the 2 pictures before awarding points,” he said.
