Robotics, Art, and Empathy: Meet Mumbai’s Young Change Maker

Aarav Vijai (Guest): It was ‘Sketches for a cause’, now it's called ‘Kensho Foundation’, which is an NGO I started. So in this I have many products and inventory of products, which, the sketches that I have made, I print them on these products.

At the beginning, like during lockdown, these sketches, my first product was a badge.

Like during Independence Day, Republic Day, we wear badges, so for those I had made badges.

The first time that I really felt that it counted, it mattered was when I initially, it was not like I would charge because it was just something I did, as a passion, sketch, make badges and just give it to people. So during the lockdown on Independence Day, I was distributing it to people, the staff in my society, the watchmen, the lift man, and all.

So when I gave it to the watchman, I remember one watchman, he, looking at it, he smiled because at that time, all of them, they were all stuck in the society, because they couldn't leave with the risk of COVID, and they had to stay there.

So just seeing them and they had something new with them and that was really fulfilling.

So through ‘Sketches for a cause’, by the money that I get, 90% of the profits, the proceeds go to an NGO for HIV aids.

So I still remember the first time when I had gone, it was with a small amount, and I had gone to donate 5,000 rupees.

The first time I had gone to donate and I remember I took a photo with the head of the NGO for that branch and the students.

So just seeing them all happy, just seeing that smile on their faces, the children, and it was really nice and emotionally also, I felt like there is a good purpose that's being fulfilled and that made me feel like the path that I'm following is very much good.

Aarav Vijai (Guest): So, I have a very deep passion for robotics. So for this, I started FeedEase. So it is, basically I started building FeedEase, which is a robotic arm feeder for children with cerebral palsy. And now I'll also extend it for people with disabilities.

This started when I was in sixth grade and I had a fracture during that period that I was able to connect with people, especially people who have disabilities, and that just made me feel how there is so much more that engineering is something that can help society, but there's so little that is being done.

So I felt that I should also do my part, and then as lockdown got over, I decided to build this Feed Ease for an NGO, with Cerebral Palsy.

I went to talk to them and one of the biggest surprises was when the first time that I saw children with cerebral palsy, initially I'd never seen or met, I didn't know much about this disorder.

It's basically about how their motor skills are affected, but just seeing that they don't have control over their actions, they're able to perceive everything, but they're not able to respond to it. It was really shocking because we, in our normal life, we experience so many things that we take them for granted.

But simple things like walking or talking or hugging your parents, that's something that I saw that they couldn't because of some disorder that they have had.

Now, for the build, during the building of the prototype, I have built at least two, three prototypes, which are on different stages.

At the first stage when I built it, it was a simple prototype. I had to use tape to keep it upright. Because of the weight of the device, it was dropping again and again and because of this, it affected the motion of the robotic arm.

Since the robotic arm has a vertical and a horizontal axis motion. So then the second time that I built it, I made sure that I made it more stable.

I used the most stable material and that really made a difference. Another of such surprises was like how they had certain specifications for the food that they had, the material that should be used.

For example, the program leader at the NGO for cerebral palsy, they specifically told me that when you're making a robotic arm, don't make the spoon out of plastic. Like, don't attach a plastic spoon because of the micro plastics that are there. It could affect the students and the children. So I had to specifically cater it for a metal spoon. So these were some of the surprises that I had to encounter.

Aarav Vijai (Guest): Like I mentioned before, these children with cerebral palsy, they don't have control over their emotions, so that was one of the variables that I had not taken into consideration.

Specifically because the robotic arm has limited motion in the sense it has vertical and horizontal.

When a child opens their mouth, there's a camera that detects the open mouth, and that will set the robotic arm into motion.

But one of the feedbacks that I'd gotten was how there should be a wider range. Like your wrist, it has a wider range of motion.

Similarly, the robotic arm—instead of a servo motor, which was used by me—they suggested that you should use one device which will allow it to have a greater range of motions.

So that was one of the feedbacks, another feedback was how it should be more stable. Although the second prototype was stable, there was also the problem that these children, since they don't have control over their actions, they may hit it or they may cause it to fall or damage it.

So how we should make it more stable on the ground or on the table and we should also make something that will help them to sit still. These are some of the feedbacks that I'd gotten from them.

Aarav Vijai (Guest): So this web app is for people, specifically children, who are mute or who aren't able to communicate or who have communication disabilities.

This could be for a variety of reasons, like they had to go through some trauma that has caused them to stop talking or they have some neurological disorder that has caused them to stop talking.

So this app is called SpeakEasy, this is basically, it's an AI powered app and it is very much personalized to the user.

Many times, for example, currently there are a couple of apps for people with communication disabilities.

The problem with them is that they have such a wide range of icons for the students to communicate. They need to type a sentence, it becomes very much confusing and they have to type and if they don't know, then it becomes more confusing and more cumbersome.

For example, there's an app in which it has icon images, but that is not catered only to the Indian context, it is very much catered to the global context.

Because of which the children, Indian children, will face difficulties in, so my app personalizes it to the users in such a way that the user has to only, at the beginning, click photos of everyday items and that will be saved to the gallery of the app and then the user does not have to do anything.

When the object or the image is saved to the gallery, the child just has to click on the image and as the app is powered by AI, will set in a sentence, like "I want to go to the washroom," for example, or "I want to play a game" or "help, I need to meet my parents."

So this is a way in which the users don't have to put much effort and they are able to use it to its fullest extent.

This app has a community section where students or parents specifically can connect with other parents of each impaired student and understand their difficulty.

They can exchange phone numbers, understand their experiences, how that will help them and that is how I have catered this app specifically to people with speech difficulties.

Now my future goals are also how to bring this to people with cerebral palsy or others. So the app, it's still in development, but it will soon be launched on Play Store or App Store.

But before that I also have to connect with a number of NGOs so that I already have a target audience and a consumer base that's going to use it. So I need to find the NGOs, hospitals, which will use the app, and then I can help them to set it up. I can help set it up for them, make it—cater it entirely for them, and those are strictly clear my goals.

Aarav Vijai (Guest): So when I had the leg injury, I was maybe like 11, 12, and during that time I had fractured my leg, specifically the tibia bone. So because of that, I couldn't even move around, for three, four months straight. I was bedridden and then again, I fractured at same place and that again caused more three, four months of being bedridden.

So during this period, one of the major things that I understood and I found out was how simple things were taken for granted, like doorways, when a person is handicapped or person can't move. For example, like I couldn't move, I had to go around in a wheelchair. So the doorways are very narrow.

That doesn't allow us—it's a very cumbersome thing that, for example, when I was in my room, the wheelchair couldn't come out. My parents had to support me to get out the room into the hall, and then I could sit on the wheelchair.

So that was one of the challenges that were faced, and I believe those were engineering failures, troubles.

One of the things that really motivated me was when I used to go to this physiotherapist, and during that I had, I couldn't walk up the stairs.

In that they had a device in which the person could sit on the chair and the chair would automatically go up the slope.

So that was a very unique thing that I had seen and, since it was a very steep one also, so the person could just go up without climbing the stairs.

That was something that really motivated me and that's when I realized that my injury was very much temporary. But there are so many people around the world in India specifically, who have to face this on a daily basis.

I had to face this for like seven months, but there are people who have had to face this for, for like, since their birth so for them, they can't raise their voice because they feel that this, they can't make any change and instead they accept it.

So that's what I wanted to change. That instead of accepting, we are changing it. We are making a change so that is how I came with the idea FeedEase people with cerebral palsy to eat food.

Aarav Vijai (Guest): So I use Google Sheets as one of my tools. I list down all my activities and I set up times where I should work on them. For example, in a particular day, I just need to work on my academics, someday I just need to work on my robotic arm or the app.

On another day, I need to work on Kensho Foundation, help it to extend, expand.

I also like having so many things also makes it very cumbersome because there are so many things to cover, and although I enjoy it, there are times when I feel tired, fatigued.

So in those times, I just take a step back, stay five minutes, listen to some music, read a book, sketch or maybe watch some show or something.

Then I ensure that after that period I am energized enough to move forward and work. Those are some of the ways in which I am able to help myself. I also keep whiteboards where I have at least five, six whiteboards that I just write on, that this is my schedule for this day, this is for my FeedEase, this is for my robotic arm, this is for my social outreach. So, I have so many boards that it's sometimes hard to find out where is what I'm looking for, where is it written.

So these are some of the ways.

Aarav Vijai (Guest): The first time that I was featured, I was featured as the Young Entrepreneur of the Year. I was awarded by a Business magazine.

So, in that, during the awards ceremony and post that, I was able to connect with many esteemed individuals who had their businesses in various fields like medicine or healthcare or engineering or communication, technology, these different fields.

So this award helped me to connect with such people. I was also given the opportunity, it motivated me in the sense that, it was the point where I was a hundred percent sure that, yeah, what I'm doing is right. I'm on the right track and, these are some of the ways.

Another was how I was able to connect with people with different businesses.

For example, there is a business where, the owner, the founder of that business, has similar passions as me. So how I was able to relate with them, connect with them really helped in me making a connection with them and even furthered.

Now I also hope to, after I fulfilled my academic, all the work that are there, I also hope to connect with them and work with them so that I can expand my products and my work.

Aarav Vijai (Guest): So currently I just finished working on the FeedEase prototype, and I want to now extend, expand it not only from a single NGO but to multiple NGOs.

I want to expand the manufacturing and I want to outsource it, or most of all, I want to bring in many hospitals, specifically hospitals that cater individually to people with cerebral palsy or specially abled so that I'm able to connect with them, able to pitch my idea, pitch my product to them, and so that, that will help for a more positive impact to be created.

For my social outreach work, I aim to, currently, like over the last, I started it like three years ago, and over the last three, four years, I have been able to, every year bring in new products.

It began with a badge, then moved on to a calendar. Then I co-created a card game, an educational card game.

Last year I had an inventory of products I made, like mugs, small, everyday objects but those had my sketches on them and those helped.

That was the time when I was able to bring up my donation to up to Rs 1.5 lakh plus, so these are some of the ways, and what I want to really do is that not only in India or not only in Mumbai, I want to extend it nationally and then internationally, then globally.

I believe that it's maybe a small act, sketching, but it is something that if you bring in different artists, like we can all collaborate and work towards a specific goal of these many products to build this much money to get.

Maybe, bring in a logistics team and work on how to bring in more NGOs together, collaborate with them.

It's a booklet called Starter's Guide to Social Entrepreneurship, which I wrote. So it is based on my experiences of how to start a business, how to be a social entrepreneur, how you expand it.

Basically, like what are the main things that are required? For example, ikigai, this is a very key concept in business that ikigai is something that helps you, is a work, is an occupational job where you do what you love, you do something that helps you earn money, good enough money, and it is also something that helps you to serve the society.

So I believe that I want to expand that, so this booklet, it will help me to reach out to a larger audience, specifically the younger generation, and, moreover, the product that I made, the educational card game, that is, I want to extend it to more schools for nursery or Senior KG, Junior KG, and extend it to that and allow them to know more about India's Freedom Fighters, India's history.

These are some of the future scopes, I believe. My FeedEase and my Kensho Foundation can teach.