KEN donned a pair of safety classes at The Forge Downtown’s Hopewell Academy site for the 2016 kickoff meeting of the IEEE ENCS Humanoid Robot Project and partnership with The Forge Initiative on Wednesday, January 13, 2016.  We discussed our plans to build four new robots this year starting with a copy of KEN.  Ideas were shared about enhancements that we are considering for the V2 design, of which we hope to build three copies by year end.  Some ideas being considered are articulated eyes and blinking eyelids, a soft chest with breathing motion, articulated arms for gesturing and pointing, improved hearing and conversation handling, improved face and object recognition, and customizable personality.

Students will play a key role in building the new robots.  Our new meeting schedule is weekly on Wednesdays from 6:30-8:30 pm.   The first half hour is for the adult mentors to meet and plan with student build activities beginning at 7 pm.