Sherfield pupil builds innovative hand sanitising robot

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A pupil at Sherfield School, part of the Bellevue group, was inspired by the Bellevue Education team to create an innovative hand sanitising robot out of Lego.

Samuel, a Year 10 pupil, came up with his idea after speaking to Adam Atkinson, Bellevue’s Head of Digital Development. Adam explained that a pupil at another Bellevue school, Bruern Abbey School, had created a similar hand sanitiser dispenser out of Lego, and Samuel was inspired to make his own as a result.

The intelligent robot dispenses hand sanitiser without the need to touch the bottle and provides just the right amount, reducing waste. It even says ‘thank you’ after dispensing.

After researching existing designs, Samuel programmed his robot through a Lego Mindstorms intelligent brick. It works using cameras at the back, so that when a hand is placed under the ultrasonic sensors, the rotary motor spins to create the movement required to dispense the sanitiser. Samuel programmed the sensors to sense a hand from 7cm away to avoid users having to touch the robot.

Samuel worked on his robot in his own time and during Robotics Club at school. It now sits proudly in the entrance hall at Sherfield School for students and staff to use.

Ben Marshall, Head of Design & Technology at Sherfield School, comments:

“At Sherfield School and especially within the Design & Technology department, we champion innovative problem solving projects like this. Samuel has worked extremely hard to develop the product through research and hours of testing, in order to make it a high quality reliable product.”

Visit Sherfield’s YouTube channel for a short video of Samuel explaining how his robot works. Read the original article on the Sherfield School website.