Sandy’s little robot is a winner
Enterprising PhD student Sandy Enoch has scooped several awards for Marty, a robot that children can build and programme for themselves.
Remotely controlled over wifi, Marty can walk, turn, dance and even kick a ball. Setting up and customising Marty can help users to learn about programming, electronics, mechanical design, 3D printing and robotics. The 20cm-high robot uses half the number of motors normally needed to make it move, which cuts down its production costs.
Awards
Awards so far have included:
- A Scottish EDGE Award 2016
- Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship
- Innovation forum What IF? Accelerator Award
- 2nd Prize in the EU Robotics Forum entrepreneurship award
Now operating as Robotical, Sandy also won awards for his earlier work as Red Robotics:
University support
University support in developing Marty as a business concept has come from Launch.ed, which helps student enterprises and Edinburgh Research and Innovation, the University’s commercial liaison unit.
PhD in Robotics
Sandy is graduating this month with a PhD in Robotics achieved under the supervision of Professor Sethu Vijayakumar. He developed Marty as a side project, alongside his studies.
Sandy says:
“I'm the only full time person involved in the project right now, but I do have some help from friends in Informatics including Alejandro Bordallo, a PhD student being supervised by Dr Ram Ramamoorthy, Nantas Nardelli who is about to graduate BSc Computer Science and Angus Pearson, who will be going into fourth year Computer Science after doing a summer internship with me at Robotical.”
Starter packs
Sandy has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help kick-start his company. Advance orders for Marty ‘starter packs’ can be ordered via Robotical’s website, with delivery expected from January 2017 if the crowdfunding campaign is successful.