Where did the Jambot idea come from?

Growing up in the 1980s we were surrounded by sci-fi cinema and TV programs with very cool robot characters. Star Wars, Star Trek, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Battle Star Galactica were a few big titles that come to mind. Personal flying transport vehicles and robots were just the norm! R2-D2 and C-P3O were main characters in Star Wars. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century had Twiki, Buck’s knowledgeable and humorous robot side kick. As a kid I often dreamt of having my own personal robot friend. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a robot that understood you, that would play with you whenever you wanted to, and that would never argue or fight with you?

Fast forward to 2014. I’m a grown-up and have been for some time! I’m a software engineer and I worked as an electronic engineer earlier in my career. I was asked to visit my son’s school to speak to his class of six-year-olds about what engineers do. I decided we could design a fun robot on the whiteboard. If I can explain how smart AI robots work, I can explain many areas of technology. I described all the parts needed to make up the robot - the computer brain, the motors, the batteries, the cameras for eyes, the microphones for ears, and the software programs that make the robot smart.

The kids loved it. The engagement, energy and enthusiasm from the kids was mind blowing. The questions they asked were incredible. The ideas they had for the robot were enlightening. Kids love robots and kids have an incredible imagination. Who knew?

It was on that day that the idea for Jambot was born. What if we taught kids about technology through the application of a friendly, fun, smart robot? If you can understand the technology used in a robot like Jambot, you can understand many aspects of the technology used all around us today.

It wasn’t until the end of 2018 that I decided to write this book. I had the idea for the book, but I needed a robot. I needed a robot with character and personality. I needed Jambot.

Where did the name Jambot come from?

I came up with the name Jambot very early on. ‘J’, ‘A’, and ‘M’ are the first initials of my three sons’ names - Jonah, Adam and Max. ‘Bot’ is obviously short for robot. ‘JAM’ plus ‘bot’ makes Jambot! I also wanted Jambot to be fun, love to dance and love music so Jamming was a characteristic that was incorporated from the start.

I started to write down some of the other characteristics of Jambot the character. The colour, the materials, the height, the friendly face and the personality.

How was Jambot designed?

I didn’t have the full skill set to develop my own 3D model robot, so I worked with an expert mechanical design engineer - Philip Nilsson. I sent Philip the blurb from the book ‘Jambot’s Guide to Technology' and a brief description of Jambot the robot. The description summary was as follows:

• Jambot is a kid size bi-pedal robot.

• Jambot is yellow with a large head and 2 large eyes; maybe a thin line smile.

• Jambot is warm, likable, cool and fun.

• Jambot loves to dance and listen to music.

• It might be nice if Jambot had a ‘HUB-s1’ badge or crest (robot like lettering).

Philip came up with this amazing first sketch. This was so close to what I had in mind. Note the signature headphones, the eye mask and sneaker details.

Over the next six months there were many meetings and discussions where the fine details were discussed. Below is an early work in progress model of Jambot. I learned that Jambot’s head was a real challenge to design. It’s a non-standard shape and non-standard shapes are more difficult in 3D.

How did you bring each Jambot to life?

My original plan was for one Jambot type. Jambot was yellow with gray and black features. It was simple.
But then, I realised that personalisation would be a great thing for kids. Kids play computer games and love choosing different skins. Why can’t Jambot have different skins with different personalities? That’s when I came up with the idea of having six different Jambot types (or skins), each with their own programmed personalities. All children will have their favorite, and this will only help drive engagement and learning in the book ‘Jambot’s Guide to Technology’.

Once I received the 3D model of Jambot, I was able to give Jambot some personality. For this I used a program called Blender. It’s free software for rendering, modelling and animating models, and it’s available for download from blender.org.

I spent a lot of time picking the coloured skins and the materials for each part of Jambot. It took some time, but it was worth it. I’m an enthusiastic photographer, and this really helped me when I had to light and pose Jambot in blender. The colours, the materials, the poses and the lighting all came together to bring Jambot to life.

The six skins I settled on, consisting of Sunny, Cool, Earthy, Stealthy, Eco and Fiery Jambot, are shown at the bottom of this page.

Above - Jambot 3D model in blender with basic rendering.

Is there anything you had to compromise with Jambot?

The were some ideas that proved difficult from a 3D modelling perspective. Initially, I wanted Jambot to have a crested badge on its chest with the detail ‘HUB-s1’ (Jambot is a HUB-s1 robot standing for Home Utility Bot - series 1). I had to make some compromises with this feature. It was making the model more difficult, so I decided to drop this feature - at least for version 1.0!

I also had a concept for Jambot whereby the hands could be detached and replaced with various tools. The wrist had a universal connector. Plug out the hand and attach a Jambot drill attachment, or a Jambot vacuum cleaner. Extend that to a food mixer, a flashlight, a circular saw, a blue-tooth speaker - anything that could be powered by a battery. Jambot was adaptable. I’ve decided to leave this feature until Jambot 2.0 :).

The six available Jambot skins posed below - Sunny (sun yellow), Cool (sky blue), Earthy (baby pink), Stealthy (grey/black), Eco (vibrant green) and Fiery (flame orange)