Founded by Jimmy Lai in 2017, based out of Shenzhen, China, M5Stack makes a modular open source tool kit for rapid IoT (Internet of Things) development and deployment. This past year M5Stack had the opportunity to collaborate with Switch Science, a company the puts together electronics kits for education and IoT development, for their annual Japan Creativity Contest. Contestants had until September 7, 2021, to submit novel ways of prototyping products with the M5Stack. One of the participants this year, a team from Japan’s University of Tsukuba, used M5Stack to modify a drone.

University of Tsukuba Assistant Professor Yoichi Ochiai’s lab, the Digital Nature Group, researches ways to implement machines seamlessly into human ecosystems. Ochiai is interested in finding ways that machines can help people do everyday tasks without having to compromise their quality of life. One thing he and his students chose to focus on was how machines can be used to benefit differently-abled people, specifically those with low to limited visibility. Statistics show that people with low visibility are more prone to suffer from depression and obesity because of how there are only so many physical activities they can enjoy. In a video about the lab’s project, called Drone Badminton, the narrator says, “We believe that by diversifying the physical activities available to them {low visibility individuals} will improve their physical and mental health.”

Students from the Digital Nature Group held interviews with people who developed low visibility issues later in life, conditions that are not correctable with glasses or contacts. The students learned that these individuals had once enjoyed sports like badminton. However, the size of the birdie, and the speed and agility of the game, make it near to impossible for them to participate. This inspired the team to take a DJI Tello drone, one that is commonly used in drone soccer, and modify it for a game of badminton.

The DJI Tello drone is a small inexpensive, yet sturdy drone. In drone soccer, Tello drones are encased in a frame that prevents collision damage. Ochiai’s students soon learned that the protective frame was not enough to keep the drone from getting damaged by a badminton racket. So, they made a stringless racket that has the M5Stack on the frame. The frame of the racket can be made larger or smaller for a greater challenge but is still bigger than a standard badminton racket. The smallest setting is large enough for a basketball to fit through. The team also made the racket with a handle that is only about 8″ long to make it more comfortable to swing the larger frame.

As the drone moves, the player can hear it and feel the wind made by the rotors. The player can also wear headphones that give audio cues as to the position of the drone. The M5Stack sends haptic signals to the racket’s handle for the player to have physical cues as well. This gives the player the information they need to position the racket to intercept the drone. As the drone passes through the racket, the M5Stack communicates with it, telling the drone to stop. The player then moves the racket to send the drone back. The M5Stack sensors can recognize 4 different types of moves, a smash, receive, clear shot, or a hairpin net shot. Based on how the player moves the racket, the M5Stack has the drone complete the recognized shot.

Drone badminton is not played with as much speed and agility as regular badminton, but it provides people with vision disorders an outlet for a physical activity they can enjoy. “We believe,” the Digital Nature Group concludes in their video, “that Drone Badminton has the potential to become a platform of sports for people with low vision.” It is this innovation to help people with technology that won the Digital Nature Group the Imagination Award for the 2021 Japan Creativity Contest.