Reprinted from the PEG page, a programming education project promoted by CANVAS.

*********************************************

Today, we’re holding a series of robotics workshops at the University of Tokyo, organized by Accenture and CANVAS. Following up on our
previous session with Artec robots, today we’ll use “drones” as teaching materials and explore the future of drones together with the children.

In the morning, the children programmed several basic movement patterns one by one, such as takeoffs, landings, turns, and taking photos. Although
the children were a little nervous, they looked very happy when the drones moved exactly as they commanded!
In the afternoon, each group will discuss the potential uses of drones in various fields.
I wonder what kinds of ideas the children will come up with?
*As safety measures, we require the use of goggles, work gloves, and long-sleeved shirts, and facilitators in each group monitor the program and operate the drones.

In the drone workshop, participants split into teams to create prototypes based on the theme “A Future with Drones.” They expressed their ideas through models
made from cardboard and paper cups, and sometimes even incorporated theatrical performances.
Here are some of the ideas the children presented!

There are three teams in total.
The first team is working on a translation and interpretation drone.
It uses facial recognition and other technologies to identify the nationality of foreign visitors to Japan and assist them with language barriers during their travels.
The second team developed a security drone that tracks convenience store robbers.
Their idea is to use the colored balls
currently installed in convenience stores—treating their “color” as a sensor—to track suspects! The third team developed a cleanup drone designed to protect beautiful natural landscapes and make hiking more accessible.
It collects litter discarded by hikers and picks up trash from designated collection points in the mountains.
During the idea presentations, the students also considered and presented rules to prevent the misuse of each drone’s features, as well as guidelines to ensure they do not harm the environment or disrupt daily life.They clearly conveyed the “important points” they realized precisely because they had come up with the ideas themselves—such as creating a
drone license, establishing a rule that drones cannot be used at night due to noise, building parking lots, and creating a system to identify who owns each drone.

In the hands-on sessions of the robotics workshop co-hosted by Accenture and CANVAS, we place great importance on working together as a team to brainstorm and bring ideas to life through programming and robotics, as well as on sharing those ideas with a wider audience.
We plan to continue hosting these workshops in the future! Please stay tuned.