Earlier this year [2020], someone posted on Twitter about improving the process of cooking Pap, i.e. "4th industrializing the process". I decided to take on the challenge and do some research. In this article, I'm answering these questions: What is Pap? What problem is the device I invented solving? How does it function? And why am I open-sourcing it?
Pap can simply be defined as a maize flour porridge. It is South Africa's indigenous staple meal. About 46% of South African households consume pap daily. In many cultures a woman's ability to cook pap is associated with her value in marriage, and this notion has compelled females to learn to cook pap from the ages of 12 years until marriage.
For generations, pap had been prepared manually using spoons and pots to preserve its delicate texture and consistency. However, this process is strenuous, time consuming, potentially hazardous, and difficult to master.
My invention (named Lobola) simply removes the human element in the process. It simplifies the pap cooking process through automation, while observing the desired texture and consistency. It prepares pap in about 10 minutes, consumes less than 200W of power, and handles the strenuous mixing. It uses an Arduino microcontroller, a hot-plate, several motors, and 3D-printed parts. The video below depicts how the system functions:
The product in the video above is a rapid prototype I built during South Africa's 2020 lockdown, though I had filed a patent for the concept back in 2017 (CIPC No. ZA 2017/34494). After discussions with several people, I realized that the project can do more good by being open source.
Anyone with a reasonable level of engineering skill can build their own Lobola and improve on its design and implementation. In that way many people can have access to it at low costs. Design files and software of the device can be found HERE.