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The art and science of making robots

By Unregistered Visitors, Section Education
Posted on Mon Oct 30, 2006 at 04:33:00 AM EST

Ever thought of making a robot out of a toy car. You don't need to be a mechanical engineer to do that. The niche art of robotics is now being customised to suit the intelligence of even a high school student by the Robotic Society of IIT Kharagpur.

At a workshop held at a city auditorium on Sunday, the Robotic Society tried to provide a basic knowledge on robotics to participants from major tech colleges and schools of the city.

"Robotics is a relatively new field of science with limitless scope for expansion. We want to provide information about autonomous, semi-autonomous and manual robots, differential drives and all the basics required for one to create his own robot," said Karan Bawasinka, head of the core team of Robotic Society.

The students were shown various nittygritties of robot making. "Robot making is based on a few fundamental principles. The installation of different kinds of motors helps it to move in different direction or perform various activities," said Amir Ahmed, another head of the core team. Also on display were videos of prize winning robots created by the students of IIT-Kgp.

Not only differential drives, which are considered to be of simplest variety, making more sophisticated types like step climbers, meant for engineering students, were also demonstrated.

"I love gizmos. I am specially fascinated by robots. After attending this workshop I can try few of my own since the mechanism is quite simple and the raw materials are also easily available," said Siddharth Sinha, a student.

"If not a career option, robotics can turn out to be a good hobby if a student pursues it carefully. Keeping this in mind, we have invited some school students in addition to those from the tech colleges. Barring a few, the response has been overwhelming," Bawasinka said. The workshop was held as a prelude to Ksitij, the annual techno management fest of IIT-Kgp, which will be held from February 1 to 4. "We have organised a series of events on robotics. The workshop will help the students to gain knowledge on robotics," Bawasinka added.

Incidentally, Ksitij is considered to be the second biggest fest of its kind in India.

"This year, we are planning to go international. The Robotic Society till date has devoted itself to developing sophisticated robots. This year, we are planning to market our products," Sinha said.

By- TOI,30/10/2006

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