At American School of The Hague, senior Kaden is working on something quite extraordinary: a robot that mimics human emotions. “It’s just a way to test my learning,” he says. “I’m just wondering—with the technology we have today—is it feasible?”

 

The project, built mostly from open-source materials and ideas, started taking shape earlier this year. “I built it—with instructions—as a bit of an overstatement,” Kaden admits with a laugh. Despite the lack of a clear manual, he’s managed to bring the robot to life using around 17 servos, small precise motors responsible for moving the different parts of the robot’s face—like the eyelids, eyebrows, jaw, and even the cheeks—to simulate human facial expressions, as well as a variety of custom components.

 

The ultimate goal? A robot that can express basic emotions. “I want to mimic human gestures,” he says. “I don’t know how feasible a really good one will be, but I’m going to try my best.” His robot-in-progress is controlled by a Raspberry Pi, a single-board computer serving as the ‘brain’ of the robots, and will be coded in Python. The robot’s face is strikingly lifelike, complete with a denture, eyelids, eyebrow bones, eye sockets, and a basic bone-like structure beneath. Once finished, a silicone skin will be attached using magnets to allow it to move with the servos underneath.

 

Kaden’s plan is to integrate a speech-to-text program that will recognize emotion-related keywords like “happy” or “sad.” “I could probably say a word and have it register and change expression,” he explains. “It would shift to those exact servo positions for that emotion.”

 

This isn’t Kaden’s first venture into robotics. He’s also captain of one of ASH’s robotics teams, Trojan Robotics. “I’ve been in robotics for a while now. I do a lot of STEM stuff,” he says.

 

As for what’s next, Kaden has been accepted to several aerospace engineering programs in the U.S., he says. With that same spark of curiosity and ambition, Kaden’s passion for building, coding, and innovating is just getting started.