TheraReach

A gentle robotic arm that plays an interactive and fun game to ease the mind.

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Inspiration

TheraReach was born out of a desire to support young people struggling with mental health. By combining play and technology, we aimed to create a comforting and engaging experience that sparks joy and offers a moment of light-hearted interaction.

What it does

TheraReach is a robotic arm that performs multiple functions by interacting with a variety of tokens, such as blocks. It offers a friendly, interactive way to take a mental break, encouraging users to engage in a simple yet fun game.

How we built it

The robotic arm was constructed using 3D-printed parts, powered by servos and controlled via a Raspberry Pi. A camera module captures the game board, enabling the system to detect player moves and respond accordingly. We used a convoluted neural network using EdgeImpulse to train an image recognition model using real time data into the Raspberry Pi and recognize different colors of physical cubes with 90% accuracy.

Challenges we ran into

Building the arm and integrating all the hardware and software components into one cohesive and functional device proved to be a major challenge. From mechanical issues to code integration, we had to troubleshoot every step of the way.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building the arm and integrating all the hardware and software components into one cohesive and functional device proved to be a major challenge. From mechanical issues to code integration, we had to troubleshoot every step of the way. We were also proud of training an AI model in a constrained embedded environment like a Raspberry Pi with excellent results.

What we learned

Though there were moments of “pain and suffering” (kidding… kind of), we gained valuable hands-on experience in robotics, computer vision, and teamwork.

What's next for TheraReach

We plan to expand TheraReach’s game library to include more fun and therapeutic activities, continuing our mission to use tech for good.

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Updates

posted an update —

We were not able to present this project and were disqualified from being considered for any tracks because the HACKAI team was unable to work with DevPost to fetch the required data for track submission. They instead sent out a form on Discord (not even an email), a discord announcement saying that a Google form must be sent out. The first member of the team we were able to talk to threatened to call security on us after we asked to speak with a different member of the team. We even tried to talk to a judge about it and were labeled with harassment of judges and HACKAI officers. Finally, we were able to talk to the organizing officer and the President, who allowed us do a 3-minute pitch in front of the other HACKAI attendees. However, since it was a pitch we were not given enough time to even set up our working robot to give a demo, and had to basically talk about it , limiting our project to basically a zero-progress idea. We would like to say to the HACKAI team that:

  • Email should always be sent on information this important, not a Discord notification. Especially when you are changing the way a hackathon is submitted. -Officers didn't know what was going on. For instance, while we were asking for location we should be to set up our project many officers said that we should just wait here and we will be fine. Later we found out that judging had already started in a different building.

-Also, if an officer feels the need to label or threaten our team with words such as "calling security", "harassment", when we are just asking for clarification and the opportunity to speak to a judge, then it makes it very hard to ever want to deal with your organization again.

Overall, very unprofessional handling of the situation.

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