Authors: Dinesh Kunwar Patel
Abstract: This paper describes the design, software architecture, capabilities, and educational deployment of Robot Shalu, a low-cost, social and educational humanoid robot developed by a schoolteacher using largely recycled materials. Shalu demonstrates multilingual natural-language interaction (reported 47 languages), basic perception and memory, scripted and AI-assisted pedagogical interactions, and low-cost hardware solutions intended for real-world classroom integration in resource-constrained settings. We present the engineering choices, discuss human–robot interaction (HRI) considerations, review public reception and recognition, identify limitations, and propose rigorous evaluation protocols and next-step research to validate Shalu for broader academic acceptance. The paper aims to bridge maker-community innovation and formal scientific evaluation to support adoption of affordable humanoid educational agents.
