Mechatronics MSc Students Unveil New Version of AKI, the Social Robot
MSc Mechatronics students, supervised by the Robot Design Lab, present second-generation prototype of the tabletop robot
In the annual presentation of the Mechatronics Capstone Course, students from the MSc in Mechatronics presented the second iteration of the child-centered social robot AKI. The project was supervised by the Robot Design Lab, which also acted as the stakeholder. The Capstone Course is a nine-month project course where students apply the full mechatronics system design methodology to address real-life challenges placed from our industrial and societal partners.
At the public event, the team revealed a mobile platform that moved beyond the limitations of a tabletop design. With a wheeled base and improved autonomy, AKI could navigate within a room, enabling richer interaction scenarios in educational and healthcare environments.
The students emphasized reliability, wireless operation, and interaction cues as central design goals, ensuring that the robot could operate consistently while expressing itself through sounds, movements, and colorful light signals, all while maintaining the expressive qualities of the original concept.
The unveiling of AKI's new capabilities demonstrated both the educational value of the capstone format and the ongoing progress of this project, showing how successive student teams can refine and expand this setup.