Smart Robots

With the entry of more number of people taking interest in building robots for practical applica­tions, robotics in India is coming of age.

Imagine sitting in your favorite couch, watching televi­sion with the remote in your hand, while your house gets automatically brushed and mopped and polished. The housemaid robot Rosy from the futuristic cartoon Jetsons might very well be sharing our living rooms very soon. We may also see robots on the streets and inside build­ings acting as smart surveillance and security systems. And with other countries foraying into combat robots for war operations, India too is catching up fast with the defense showing avid interest in combat robots developed by vari­ous companies. Taking a cue from the November 26, 2008 terrorist attack in India, a handful of enterprising compa­nies have developed robots to tackle critical terrorist situations.

INDIGENOUS INNOVA­TIONS Gridbots is one of the companies in India developing new kinds of industrial and con­sumer robots.

(Photo Courtesy: Gridbots)

The word “robot” literally means “forced labor,” imply­ing a machine designed to automate any manual work or labor that a human has to do, to make lives easier. It would typically be a machine which can interact with its environment and respond accordingly. One might think of a simple, but intelli­gent automatic machine part or, at the other extreme, an ultra-intelligent robot featured in science-fiction movies such as iRobot. But it is not just that. Robotics is undergoing a facelift. Now robots are being developed to do cumbersome and humanly-impossible tasks. Kushal Nahata, CEO and director of Roboticwares says, “The need of the time is to simplify the day to day tasks and render the lives of the common man to be simpler, easier, and hassle free. And that is where we get the inspiration to build useful robots. There is no use of being engineers and being adept in technology if we can’t apply it to solve day-to-day problems.”

Story continues below

INNOVATIONS GALORE

Started in 2007, Roboticwares has developed a device which is useful in detecting dangerous gas leaks. Nahata had ideated the device when he heard of a gas leakage incident in Bhubaneshwar in 2008. The explosion had caught people unawares and a few people lost their lives in the accident. “The incident reminded of another similar but bigger accident that occurred near my parents’ house in Chandni Chowk, New Delhi a few years back,” recalls Nahata adding, “I immediately felt the need of an alarm system which could warn people in time to save lives or even avoid such hazards before it is too late.” Nahata’s device is based on the olfactory kind of sensors which enables an intelligent machine to detect a certain type of smell and perform the actions which are programmed in it. This device sounds an alarm and sends a short message (SMS) to inform the concerned people about the impending danger so that they are warned against starting any kind of fire or light­ing a cigarette in that area. “The device can be configured to communicate to anyone and anywhere if an SMS number is provided. We were contemplating an alert communication to fire stations, but unfortunately right now fire stations in India don’t have an SMS number,” says Nahata.