THE VILLAGE of Randwick could be immortalised as the home of school robotics if the brainchild of a local entrepreneur takes off.

Dan Warner, 43, who’s lived in the village since moving from London two years ago, is one of the partners behind Ohbot, a robot head that’s winning the attention of schools and academics across the country.

He says: “I’ve worked as a primary school teacher then a local authority advisor, and I now work independently supporting schools.”

His work on Ohbot started in March last year. Dan says: “I met Mat Walker, who’d developed a robot head that was working in reception at King’s College, London. We both thought we could produce an educational version, and last month we launched our creation, Ohbot, at BETT 2015, the educational technology show.”

He adds: “Ohbot attracted a lot of interest – we even made the BBC News – and we launched a Crowdfunder project, looking to raise £5,000. So far 38 backers have pledged £3,000 and we need to hit the target by 8am on March 18. With that funding we want to build a business and ultimately aim for every school to have one of these.”

Ohbot has been developed with the help of Dan’s two children, Alma, eight, and Innes, six, both of whom attend Randwick Primary School, with Alma actually introducing the Ohbot on the video on the website at www.ohbot.co.uk Dan says: “The robot head is aimed at primary schools, fitting in with the new national curriculum in computer science and programming. The robot has six motors and its created using software modelled on the Scratch programme which allows children to assemble blocks of code to enable Ohbot to interact. It can move its head, blink, and open and close its mouth, and children can program it to recognise that it’s talking to a human and interact.

“It really will take robots in school to a new level, and I can’t wait for the project to take off and for children to have access to it.”

If you’d like to help put Randwick on the robotic map, please visit the Crowdfunder website at www.crowdfunder.co.uk and search for ohbot-robot to pledge some funds.