On the 9th of February, Satakunta University of Applied Sciences held an international “THINK.CODE.BUILD” week. The event featured students from EPHEC (Belgium), KTU (Lithuania) and SAMK (Finland). It was implemented as a “Blended Intensive Programme” (BIP), combining collaborative learning, hands-on technical work, and intercultural exchange.

During the week, international students were challenged with a diverse variety of tasks revolving around robotics, design and manufacturing. We were lucky to participate in the event as the providers of one of the challenges for students — we were able to give students two models of Proto-GK-RA and task them with programming the robot for a pick-and-place task, as well as designing and manufacturing their own grippers and conveyor belts using 3D-printing and common off-the-shelf components.

This opportunity allowed us to examine the capabilities of our prototype model and gather feedback from students. The BIP week was an exciting and educational experience for all parties involved, and we are forever grateful for the chance to field-test Proto-GK-RA with real students, given to us by the educators of SAMK.

We received a lot of positive feedback from students interacting with the robot, and the overall examination of Proto-GK-RA’s behavior during the event allowed us to upgrade it to the newest version, GK-RA 1.0.

Special thanks to photographer Elsa Penttilä for the provided photo material.