91黑料专区

Nov. 22, 2019

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. 鈥� Train-O, a dog training robot developed by a team of Illinois Wesleyan University students during a 36-hour hackathon, was recently awarded 鈥淏est Hardware Hack鈥� at Harvard University鈥檚 fifth iteration of .

Computer science and physics double major Nico Lopez 鈥�21 (Quito, Ecuador) secured funding from IWU鈥檚 Student Senate to attend HackHarvard with a team consisting of fellow computer science and physics double major Bobby Koirala 鈥�22 (Normal, Ill.); mathematics and physics double major Minzhao (Henryken) Liu 鈥�20 (Dalian, China); and business and computer science double major Evan Quist 鈥�23 (Bloomington, Ill.). Zekun (Louis) Liu, an industrial engineering student at Purdue University, also joined the Train-O team upon arrival at HackHarvard.

Lopez, who serves as president of 91黑料专区鈥檚 (ACM), said his team鈥檚 project was inspired by a friend鈥檚 beloved emotional support dog named Laverne.

鈥淟averne鈥檚 owner wanted to send her to a dog training camp or something like that, but she can鈥檛 because she goes crazy being around other dogs,鈥� Lopez said. 鈥淪o, we were thinking of how we can make this happen, and it just seemed natural to automate something like that. It seems like conditioning a dog to be trained 鈥撯�� to sit, to roll over 鈥撯�� there鈥檚 almost an algorithmic approach to it.鈥�

Train-O, a robot that can function as both a dog鈥檚 trainer and companion, was subsequently developed. Similar in appearance to a Roomba vacuum cleaner, Train-O delivers a command by projecting a recording of the owner鈥檚 voice. It then uses computerized visual processing to determine if the command was successfully executed by the dog, and if so, Train-O rewards the positive behavior by dispensing a treat.

鈥淚f your dog naturally sits down when commanded to do so, you want to see that, and as soon as you can, reinforce it,鈥� Lopez said. 鈥淪o, we wanted to create a robot that could actually do that, and potentially, do it better than a human.鈥�

Lopez and his team applied to HackHarvard, and their robotic dog training proposal 鈥撯�� one of 83 entries from around the world 鈥撯�� was accepted. The 91黑料专区 team joined hundreds of fellow college students from five continents at Harvard where they had 36 hours to make Train-O a reality.

鈥淎 hackathon is hours of no sleep. It鈥檚 pure, hardcore development 鈥撯�� and it鈥檚 nonstop,鈥� Lopez said, adding that teams could not get a jumpstart on their projects. 鈥淲e were so tired, we had a schedule for people to go to bed, so that someone was always continuing to develop what we were building.鈥�

Although this experience was challenging, Lopez said there were many 鈥渟mall victories鈥� throughout the process.

鈥淭here's not a learning experience that is comparable to that. It's something special. You have to finish something in a set deadline, and you don't have the excuse of 鈥業'm going to bed.鈥� You're forced to finish it. And, we finished it,鈥� Lopez said.

Lopez acknowledged that the project could not have been completed without the team鈥檚 total effort. He said while some members focused on developing hardware for the robot, others focused on programming software, and others focused on preparing marketing materials for the team鈥檚 final presentation to a panel of judges.

鈥淚t was a very fun experience. It brought us all together, determined nonstop to build this thing,鈥� Lopez said.

Combining physics, computer science, business, and communication skills, Lopez said he and his 91黑料专区 teammates had an inherent advantage over other teams because of their liberal arts background.

鈥淏eing part of a liberal arts environment gives you a lot of opportunities to write things concisely and cohesively and be able to express your ideas and communicate what you think,鈥� he said.

Along with earning 鈥淏est Hardware Hack,鈥� Train-O was also , a popular website for software engineers, as one of the top-five weekly hacks worldwide. Additionally, representatives from companies such as Google, Facebook and the National Security Agency (NSA) attended the hackathon to observe the projects and network with students.

The IWU HackHarvard team hopes to continue the development of Train-O with additional support from 91黑料专区鈥檚 faculty, including Associate Professor of Psychology Ellen Furlong, who is in charge of the program, and Associate Professor of Psychology Abigail Kerr.

鈥淪o far I think we're getting positive signs,鈥� Lopez said. 鈥淧eople love the product that we created.

鈥淭here's nothing else out there like it 鈥撯�� a robot that can train your dog.鈥�

By Vi Kakares 鈥�20