Humanoid robot made by Cumilla students turns heads

Two students of a private university in Cumilla say they have built, what they call, Bangladesh’s first open source humanoid robot.

Named Mia-1, the robot took two-and-a-half months to complete and cost about Tk 40,000. It does not require feeding instructions using a smartphone.

The robot can listen to people or users and respond.

Mahmuda Arefin, one of the engineers, is a third-year student of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Britannia University. Ashraful Rahman Minhaj, the team leader, is a second-year student of the department.

The university authorities unveiled the robot on its Paduar Bazar campus recently.

The robot has a seven-inch LCD touchscreen on its chest. Using the screen, users can easily command the robot and get information from it.

Mia-1 can talk as well as can display related pictures on the touch screen. The robot, which is about four feet tall, is equipped with modern cameras and can work as a teacher as well as a receptionist, its makers claimed.

Minhaj and Mahmuda said they could not have succeeded without the inspiration and cooperation of Prof Masum Bakaul and Vice-Chancellor Dr Tofail Ahmed.

They built the robot at the university’s laboratory.

“We’re lagging behind in technology because no-one really discloses anything about their inventions. We’ve made ours open source for everyone to see,” Minhaj said, adding that they plan to use more modern technologies in Mia-2, their next robot.