Name: Creating a Robotic Double Dutch Machine
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Double Dutch is a jump rope game that requires two people spinning ropes in opposite directions and at least one person to jump. Engineers Tahira Reid Smith and Sky Leilani are building a machine that would allow a single person to play whenever they wanted.

Blending innovation and culture, engineers bring a robotic Double Dutch machine to life.

Creating a Robotic Double Dutch Machine

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Double Dutch is a jump rope game that requires two people spinning ropes in opposite directions and at least one person to jump. Engineers Tahira Reid Smith and Sky Leilani are building a machine that would allow a single person to play whenever they wanted.

Blending innovation and culture, engineers bring a robotic Double Dutch machine to life.

Tech & Engineering

Creating a Robotic Double Dutch MachinePublished: November 18, 2024Narrator: Every invention starts with an idea.Tahira Reid Smith: We're trying to see how much play there is.Narrator: For Tahira Reid Smith, her idea comes from a childhood passion, Double Dutch.Tahira Reid Smith: Growing up in Bronx, New York in the 1980s, double Dutch was just what you did as a little girl.Narrator: This double roped version of jump rope was brought to New York by Dutch settlers in the 17th century. More recently, it became popular, particularly among black girls in cities across the US. To play, double Dutch requires two people spinning ropes in opposite directions, and at least one person to jump. Tahira dreamed of a machine that would allow her, an only child at the time, to play double Dutch whenever she wanted. In third grade, she won a contest for that concept, and in the years that followed, she never gave up on that dream.Tahira Reid Smith: Major passion project, talking about an idea that I've had for decades.Narrator: Today, she's a mechanical engineer and professor working in human machine systems, and she's building to her ultimate dream to create an affordable version of her invention that people everywhere could enjoy. After decades, Tahira is finally taking her own double Dutch design to the next level,Tahira Reid Smith: And when we've done small tests-Narrator: She's partnering with a product design company to turn her prototype into an affordable consumer-ready version.Tahira Reid Smith: Historically, what has been difficult has been how to design this system in such a way that it's fully functional and also cost-effective.Narrator: Which is why she still thinks that the most practical approach is to use only mechanical means to synchronize the motors. Tahira and Director of Industrial Design, Steve Escobar, are deep in the proof-of-concept stage. For now, they're working with a rudimentary plywood model to answer a few basic design questions.Andrea Armani: Once you have an idea, how are you going to actually execute the idea? How are you going to design the idea so that people will actually want to use it? How are you going to make it accessible, both from a cost perspective, but also from a user interface perspective?Narrator: This first iteration of the design uses just one motor on each side, plus some good old-fashioned mechanical hardware like gears, sprockets, and chains. Already, they're facing a few familiar challenges.Tahira Reid Smith: Looks like it's in sync, actually.Narrator: Including getting the ropes in sync.Tahira Reid Smith: It's starting to go out of sync. Okay.Narrator: With years of double Dutch experience, Tahira knows exactly what the ropes should sound like.Tahira Reid Smith: We need to be able to hear a consistent pat, pat, pat, pat, but we're hearing... It's very rhythmic. That's why when stuff's out of beat, it's just wrong.Steve Escobar: If anything slips, it would be a tooth.Narrator: Using gears is a common-sense way to keep the rotation of the ropes in sync, but something is wrong.Tahira Reid Smith: We think the weight of the rope is throwing this off.Narrator: When it's in motion, it's actually creating too much force for these arms.Tahira Reid Smith: Let's take some of these off and let's see what happens. Let's see. Let me just listen for it.Michael Sprauve: So how's it going?Tahira Reid Smith: Yeah, it's coming along.Narrator: Michael Sprauve, president of Spec Design, stops in to see how things are progressing.Michael Sprauve: Where are we at guys? How are we doing so far?Narrator: As a team, they talk about the day's testing and how to improve the design.Tahira Reid Smith: There's a lot to think about with some of the play that's still in the arms.Ali Hajimiri: It's extremely important to have different people who can see things from a different angle because each one of us have our own blind spots.Adam Steltzner: The best moments of ideation are, in my experience, collaborative, and they involve ideas bouncing off one another, being folded over. The negative of that idea being turned in into the positive of this other idea.Narrator: Though a lot more troubleshooting remains, Tahira's project is finally coming to life after decades of work.Tahira Reid Smith: Semi-surreal, exciting. It's a lot. It's heartwarming. I'm just glad. There's a message behind this product. When it gets on the market, there's a story to inspire young girls, young inventors, young minds, dreamers.

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Creating a Robotic Double Dutch Machine

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