Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Dundee’s K9 gets new lease of life
HIS electrics shot and left to gather dust in an Abertay University lab for years, Doctor Who’s iconic companion was far from his glory days travelling across time and space in the Tardis.
However, when fourth year Abertay University computing science student Gary Taylor came across the neglected robot pooch in September last year, he made it his mission to bring K9 back to life.
The 25-year-old based his final year project around reviving the Doctor’s beloved companion, who was damaged and left immobile following a leak.
The K9 model is believed to be an original from the popular sci-fi show, one of only a handful, and will be unveiled by Gary on Friday at Abertay’s Digital Graduate Show.
The student’s huge task in rebuilding the TV character included writing almost 15,000 lines of computing code and fitting it out with a gyroscope, ultrasound sensors, and new boards, motors, shields and drives.
The finished product is described as an “autonomous obstacle-avoiding mapping robot”.
“It all started just as an honours idea that came out,” he said.
“It was pitched to me by a bunch of supervisors. As soon as I heard the idea I was so keen to get on to it.
“I emailed the supervisor that day saying ‘I have to do this’.
“I love robotics, I love programming, I love dogs and I love Doctor Who.
“It’s a good mix of everything – it kept me really invested in the whole thing throughout the whole project.
“He had a lot of water damage from a roof leak so all the electrics in him had just fried. “He was literally just a shell.” K9’s movements can be both tracked and controlled using a mobile app which Gary has specially created.
The student, who lives in Dundee but is originally from Kirriemuir, worked on the project without the help of other students – but credits his lecturers with guiding him through it.
He said: “It was a lot of work. If it wasn’t for the university l ecturers helping me and guiding me along the way and showing me how to do things I’d be nowhere near finished.”