Children wake to dawn of robots

Robotics has long been a field which has been deemed too geeky for a normal person to try their hands at for a long time, but a few companies are trying to change that perception in India.

Enthusiasts can now get started with simple workshops which offer Do IT Yourself (DIY) kits which even school kids can assemble and even program with a GUI based programming system.

Companies like ThinkLABS, incubated at IIT Bombay, and Techtronics have in the past months organised workshops which make not only introduce those interested to the field of robotics but also enable them to build robots of their choice. The camp by ThinkLABS, which was spread over 6 days and certified by the Indian Innovators Association (IIA), provided hands-on exposure to robot programming using hardware and software.

Participants spent two hours every day building and programming robots using robotic kits provided by the company. Depending on the type of programme they choose, at the end of the camp, the children were able to take home the robot they built. Techtronics on the other hand encouraged students to build robots using Lego blocks and NXt kit they provided as part of a robotics Olympiad which was organised in Bangalore a few weeks ago.

Rohit, a ninth standard student from Chennai, was one such student who created a robot which could navigate a simple obstacle course using their kit. "It took me and two of my friends around three days to create the robot and another day to program it. We created it fully on our own and it wasn't so difficult. We had to reprogram the robot on the spot to suit the obstacle and it was a lot of fun. In the future I want to create a whole robot on my own," Rohit said.

The event was won by three ninth grade girls, Ramita Kondepudi, Jung Eun Lim and Takita Momoko, from Canadian International School in Yelahanka who defeated 174 other participants from across the country. While such kits make it easy for kids to enter the field, a few experts are of the opinion that this may not be the right way to teach robotics in the city.

Dilipkumar, managing director, Tenet Techtronics, who is a distributor of robotics components for a US-based company and also provide guidance for engineering college students, it's always better to create the robot from scratch. "A lot of engineering students come to us for guidance on building robots, a lot of readymade kits are available in the market but when students have to make a robot with very particular customisations, it's always better to create it on your own," Dilipkumar said.

Cost is a big factor that still keeps a lot of interested students out of the field as the components are not available in the market on a demand basis. Most of the components barring motors and a few basic sensors have to be imported and can cost a lot. Even DIY kits such as the one offered by Techtronics can cost a few thousand, but a lot of enthusiasts don't mind spending so much money to follow their passion.

"A few students from an engineering college in Mangalore are interning with us to create a robot that can fly and also travel on land. Such a robot cannot be created using one of those kits. The problem with such robots is that it requires components which are not easily available in India and have to be imported. The cost can also go up depending on the number of sensors and can on an average be around Rs20,000. And these students are able to bear the cost as they are working in a group. For a lone hobbyist it would be very difficult to afford something like that," he added.

A few of these specialised robots were on display recently at the FIRA World Cup for robots in Bangalore which saw 52 teams from 10 countries fight it out on a mini turf. According to the organisers, the number of Indian teams was low as it was the first time the event was organised in India. Most of the participants were teams from colleges or experts in the robotics field, mainly because of the complex nature of the robots at the event.