City's very own 'Master Gadget'

Everybody is fascinated by new technology. Some are slow and are unable to cope with the rapid advancements while some absorb these changes like a sponge absorbs water. This 13-year-old kid from the city has gone even further than that. He has taken up the innovative task of designing his own robots.
Kapil Agrawal has made solar-powered, sound-sensored and programmable robots.He doesn't stop at that. He even built a water level detector and a customisable sign board.
His solar powered 'crawler' is a real treat for the eyes. It starts moving the moment it is exposed to sunlight. Kapil has carved its parts himself and designed it after doing a lot of research. His sound censor car takes a turn when someone nearby claps.
Kapil's excitement is almost palpable. A student of Bhartiya Vidya Mandir, Kapil cracked open his first toy car when he was just 7 years old. Curiosity got the better of him and he began opening old mobile phones, remote controls and toys. Generally, parents do not approve of their wards indulging in 'destructive' activities, but with Kapil, it was different. While Kapil went about his business, his parents, Dr Ajay and Seema, just watched him wreak havoc at home.
"He was very much interested in opening all his toys," says Dr Ajay, adding, "He fiddles with circuits, interchanges wires and makes the device do something else than what it is designed to do. He always comes to me and asks me to buy some complicated electronic parts. At first I didn't understand what he was asking for, but as the years went by, I got to know a bit about circuits."
Kapils parents have given him a separate room to conduct his 'experiments'. "Sometimes I get worried when he sticks some wires into the wall socket," says Seema. "But he seems to know what he is doing and is careful. I gave him the room besides my kitchen so that I can keep an eye on him at all times."
The talented youngster has made a 'cloak room sensor' which sounds an alarm if someone approaches the bathroom. He explains its working like the back of his palm. "I just used two infrared ports. Whenever someone breaks the connection between the two, an alarm goes off. It is battery operated so you can use this sensor anywhere you wish to," he says.
Kapil's masterpiece is a programmable robotic car. It follows instructions fed to it through a simple USB port. Feed a program that instructs the car to go straight and then turn and it will exactly so that.
Kapil wants to be an electronics engineer. He is constantly encouraged by his parents to push and probe further. His mother is very happy with her son's progress. "He is now moving on to advanced gadgets. He is trying to master a stepper motor which is used in factory assembly lines. They work according to defined time intervals. Kapil is trying to make devices by using one of those motors. He is constantly bugging his father to get him one of those stepper motors," says Seema humorously.