Monkey see, monkey do – or so the saying goes, but when it comes to something as serious as prayer, an Iranian teacher figured out it would be cool if he could come up with a robot that actually teaches the Islamic way of praying. What you see above happens to be a class that is full of Iranian students who are intently watching a robot demonstrate prayer. The 27 year old teacher, Akbar Rezaie, did attend private robotics classes and figured out how to develop and assemble customized humanoid robots. Rezaie teaches the Koran to boys and girls at Alborz elementary school in Varamin, a town that remains 35 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of Tehran.
The praying robot was constructed at his home using nothing but the most basic of tools, where it has been given the nickname “Veldan“, which carries a Quranic connotation that means “Youth of Heaven.” Veldan comes in a humanoid robot form, and it has its building blocks from the South Korean robot manufacturer Robotis Bioloid. Introducing several modifications of its own including a pair of additional engines, Rezaie successfully enabled this robot to perform praying movements including prostration in a jiffy. It is nice to see robots play a peaceful role.
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