Alive For Go-Ahead Men : A Delhi Press Magazine

Smart, dynamic and improved robotic systems, endowed with the faculty of reasoning and intelligence, are today playing an increasingly important role in diverse sectors. They are of immense help in industrial production, defence, security, space exploration, cleaning of households, handling of hazardous substances, surgery, as well as many other chores, that are difficult and time-consuming for humans to perform.

Robots feature advances in electro- mechanics, electronics, systems software, embedded systems and related tools of information technology (IT), and are immune to tedium and exhaustation. They can also perform a specified set of tasks in a costeffective manner, with a high degree of accuracy and precision. Thanks to the advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), robots (meaning serf or slave labour) could change the way humans live in the future.

According to Robotics Institute of America, a robot is a “reprogrammable, multi-functional manipulator, designed to move materials, parts, tools or specialised devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks.” As such, the physical appearance of a robot is less important than its functional attributes.

In keeping with the trend across the world, robots are also gaining in popularity in India. Many leading automobile companies in India are now regularly using specially-built, industrial robots for spot and arc welding, spray painting, materials handling and other routine tasks.

The Gurgaon-based Kuka Industrial Robots specialises in providing robots for industrial applications, including ones for use in automobile companies. Kuka Industrial Robots, which says that it has introduced the world’s heaviest palletising robots in the Indian market, offers a full range of industrial robots of varying description.

Blue Star, the air-conditioning and refrigeration engineering major, makes use of over 20 robots for its duct-cleaning services. These robots were supplied by the Mumbai-based Robosoft Systems, which specialises in producing robots for use in both industrial and educational segments.

It also has a plan to develop robots that can do sewage cleaning in a hassle-free manner.

According to a spokesman of Kuka Industrial Robots, about 400 - 500 industrial robots are sold annually in India.

Sources in the industry feel that robots can reach their full potential in India only when computers also achieve their full potential.

There is no denying the fact that India, with its large pool of talented engineering experience and an excellent level of expertise in software and AI, has an environment tailormade for sustaining the growth of the robotics industry. But as things stand now, the robotics industry in India lags behind its counterparts in North America, West Europe and Japan, in terms of growth and level of sophistication.

Ubiquitous presence

According to a research study, the global robotics market, which was worth an estimated $ 17.3 billion in 2008, could touch $ 21.4 billion by 2014. “Everybody, who is consuming computer technology, will want to consume robotics technology in some way, in the coming decades,” says Dr Odest Chadwicke Jenkins, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Brown University, USA.

In recent years, robots have been making forays into the area of surgery with the potential to change the way operations are performed. Rapid expansion of health-care services, supported by advances in medical technology, is expected to fuel the demand for robots that are custom-built for carrying out complicated surgeries.

For instance, the laproscopic surgery robots enable the surgeons to work inside the body of a human patient without going in for a major surgery. The non-invasive surgery, performed with the help of a robot, paves the way for faster recovery.

In particular, robotic cyber knives are emerging as a favourite tool for operating upon malignant tumours.

As it is, a robot helps a surgeon get a 3-dimensional view of the site required to be operated. And this makes for fewer. more precise and accurate cuts and incisions. This kind of surgery leads to less pain, faster recovery and shorter hospitalisation, according to a researcher specialising in robotics surgery.

Many of the ambitious, deep-space exploration missions, including the ones meant for studying the terrain of Mars and the Moon, have been carried out with the help of robotics technology.

For instance, India’s Chandrayaan- II spacecraft mission, a follow-on to the country’s maiden lunar probe Chandrayaan-I, will carry 2 robotic systems — one Russian and the other Indian — to study the lunar soil samples.

Chandrayaan-II is slated for launch in 2012 by means of India’s 3- stage Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

Robots are also evolving as an invaluable tool in expanding the frontiers of astro-biology, which is aimed at studying the dynamics of life in the universe. The rover robot Zoe, developed by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) of the USA, in association with Carnegie Mellon University, was deployed to zero-in on microscopic organisms in Atacama Desert, Chile, considered the driest arid stretch in the world.

Security forces across the world are increasingly falling back on robots for diffusing bombs and handling hazardous materials. Robots are also used in nuclear-power plants, to handle radioactive materials and nuclear waste. Small, robotic, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), controlled from the ground, are also used for reconnaissance and surveillance.

Moreover, robotic systems, equipped to improve agricultural productivity, are also in the pipeline.

Robots, equipped to monitor the health of plants by zeroing-in on the diseases and insect infestations are under development. These robots are equipped with the latest-generation sensors.

Resembling humans

The so-called humanoid robots, developed by Japanese industrial outfits, are slowly gaining in popularity. Roomba, developed by iRobot, is most popular among the systems meant for clearing operations.

Roomba is now active in 2 million households around the world. Looking into the future, the plans are to develop a range of robots that could mimic humans and be closer to the human decision-making ability. It is planned to make robots more autonomous in that they would be in a position to function on their own.

The thrust is also on evolving robots capable of entertaining humans. Robots of the future will be smaller, cost-effective and more practical, in comparison to the present- generation systems. Of course, the development of robots, as projected in science fiction, is not yet on the horizon.