Robots warming
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up for world cup
A congress on robots throws up machines that do chores and train youngsters; now, they are ‘training themselves’ for the big day
S
Sahana.Charan
@timesgroup.com
cientists and students are
getting a kick out of robot-
ics right here in Bangalore.
The 15th Robot World
Cup and Congress of the
Federation of International Robot-
soccer Association (FIRA) at the
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
campus, which kicked off on
Wednesday and will go on till Sept
19, saw mind-boggling presenta-
tions being made. The highlight of
the programme is a World Cup
that will see robots from 15 differ-
ent countries fighting it out for the
cup. We bring you some of the
unique projects that were show-
cased.
New software helps helps impart
vocational training for rural youth
TECHNOLOGY FOR
TRAINING
The staff and students of Amrita Col-
lege of Engineering at Kollam and Ban-
galore have together developed a soft-
ware which allows you to experience
sensations through a computer appli-
cation.
The software helps impart vocational
training to rural youth in plumbing, fab-
ric painting, beautician course, car-
pentry and so on. Users can receive
feedback from computer applications
in the form of sensations in the hand
or other parts of the body.
“This technology can be used to train
people for tasks requiring hand-eye co-
ordination. The project, called SAVE
(Sakshat Amrita Vocational Education),
is funded by the HRD Ministry and we
have already trained rural boys and
girls in plumbing and fabric painting.
The hardware as of now is off the shelf
but they are also in the process of de-
veloping their own,” said Akshay Na-
garajan, technical manager, SAVE.
The tank developed by Fateh Singh Arora (below)
WHIZ KID
Fateh Singh Arora built a robot model
that could pick up things with its
hands when he was only 10 years’ old.
He then developed a robot which
could kick a ball around when he was
in the 8th standard and now, at 17, is
busy improvising an unmanned army
tank that can be controlled from a dis-
tance through vision robotics (using
web cameras).
“My dream is to get into higher studies
in robotics in the US and develop really
hi-tech robots that can perform spe-
cialised tasks,” says the 11th standard
student of Vivek High School, Chandi-
garh. When Fateh was in the 8th stan-
dard, he participated in a competition
by IIT-Mumbai meant for engineering
students and was adjudged the best.
Because of his interest, IIT-Mumbai
has set up a Think Lab in his school so
that other children too get the benefit
of robotics.
BangaloreMirror | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010 8
RAMESH H S
A device used for teaching robotics in colleges
MAPPING THE OCEANS
Scientists from the National Institute
of Oceanography, Goa, have devel-
oped two pioneering unmanned un-
derwater vehicles — Maya which can
capture vital data from ocean waters
by moving horizontally, and an AVP
(Autonomous Vertical Profile) that
can study the waters vertically to
find information on changes at differ-
ent heights. Both capture data at
200m from the shore.
“We developed Maya six months ago
and the technology has been trans-
ferred to Larsen & Toubro which will
manufacture these vehicles. We
have developed a US patent for APV.
It is vital for people doing spatial
studies, environment impact assess-
ment, studying pollution levels in the
ocean, fisheries,” says Gajanan
Navelkar, information technology
scientist at the institute.
His colleague R Madhan adds, “The
APV has not yet been released for
commercial use but scientists are
using it to validate data from the
satellite Oceansat 2. The best thing
is it simplifies data The unmanned underwater vehicle
collection and is cost-effective.” developed by National Institute
of Oceanography
CLEANS ON ITS OWN
The Bangalore-based company Robot-
ah has developed a robot that can
dust your house, mop your floors and
then go to its station to charge itself
when its chores are over. It doesn’t
matter if you are not at home. This
technology is now being used to
make commercial robot vacuum
cleaners by Eureka Forbes.
This robot does not need supervision
SWARM ROBOTICS
The concept of swarm robotics was
also demonstrated at the congress.
This is a new approach to the coordi-
nation of multi-robot systems which
consist of a large number of mostly
simple physical robots. Their technol-
ogy is based on the behaviour of cer-
tain insects and ants that move in a
group. These robots will be used dur-
ing the soccer game at the World Cup
during the event and have also been
featured in the soon-to-be-released
Rajnikanth- and Aishwarya-starrer
Endhiran (Robot).
The swarm robots, left, are set for
a game of soccer at the world cup