Good Reads: July 1 to 15, 2023

 

Quiz 2: Basic Robotics

 

रोबोटिक तंत्रज्ञानाची उपयुक्तता

Need for legal framework, new global norms before using robotics, AI in defence: Lieutenant General P J S Pannu

SOUNDING A note of caution on incorporating robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in warfare, deputy chief of Integrated Defence Staff (doctrine organisation and training) Lieutenant General P J S Pannu stressed on the need of a legal framework and fresh international convention for using the twin technologies in the defence sector.

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“When you are defending your nation, the legal provisions of your country will obviously be supportive of you. But when it comes to fighting a human being, ethics will come in. What if something goes wrong with the system, which has been created by human beings?” Lt Gen Pannu said. He was speaking at the inauguration of a seminar-cum-exhibition on ‘Military Robotics and Autonomous Systems’ at the Military Institute of Technology (MILIT), Girinagar, near Pune.

The event, which seeks to commemorate the Raising Day of MILIT, is a first among a series of seminars planned on the topic of military robotics, autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (AI).

To read the full article, please visit:

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/pune-seminar-military-robotics-autonomous-systems-artificial-intelligence-defence-5651797/ (Accessed on April 1, 2019)

High school robotics students build power wheelchair for 2-year-old

When Cillian Jackson needed a power wheelchair, the members of the Farmington High School Robotics team got to work.

Read the full article at:
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/land-of-10000-stories/high-school-robotics-students-build-power-wheelchair-for-2-year-old/89-b9219b88-1ba7-4c8e-abff-b3e6b880c16e (Accessed on April 1, 2019)

New interdisciplinary course in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence: BEg Mechatronic can help you be a cobotisist

If you are imaginative and creative and want to play a part in developing the robots of the future working alongside humans, then you are a future 'cobotisist'

Interested candidates can apply at essex.ac.uk. (Representational Image)

The University of Essex, United Kingdom is set to launch a new course called Bachelor’s in Engineering in Mechatronic Systems – an interdisciplinary field of electrical, mechanical, robotics, electronics, computer engineering, telecommunication systems and product engineering. The three-year undergraduate course will begin from the academic year 2019-20 onwards and the applications process for the same has already begun at the official website — essex.ac.uk. The last date to apply is June 30, 2019.

According to Anthony Vickers, head, School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, the course will teach students to design, build and test robotic systems and including the structural frame. The design of the structural frame is the unique element that separates mechatronics from electronic and robotics.

Modules include 3D printing technology, drives and power electronics, computer programming, sensors and digital signal processing, motion control algorithms, computer vision, robotics and embedded systems are also going to be part of the course curriculum.

Talking to indianexpress.com, Vickers said, “If you are imaginative and creative and want to play a part in developing the robots of the future working alongside humans, then you are a future cobotisist”.

“If there is one thing that we can be sure about the 21st century, it is that robots will be with us in increasing numbers. Here in the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering at Essex, we like to use the term cobotics — the collaborative working of humans and computers. The new course will align with new research areas within the school, and to provide completeness to our work in cobotics,” he adds.

Who can apply?

Indian students who have completed class 12 or equivalent can apply for the course. The minimum marks required for the course includes an overall average from the four best subjects (excluding PE and local language). For CBSE, CISCE and other regional and national boards, the minimum requirement is 75-70 per cent, including 60 per cent marks in mathematics and 70 per cent in English.

For Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh boards minimum requirement is 60 per cent, including 60 per cent marks in mathematics. Students who have cleared class 12 from West Bengal board will need 55 per cent marks, including 55 per cent in Mathematics and at least 60 per cent class 10 Science exam.

Placement Scenario

As part of the course, students can undertake a placement year but students will be responsible for finding their placement. The university, told indianexpress.com, that it would ‘support and guide’ them to find a placement.  If students complete a placement year they will only pay 20 per cent of their usual tuition fee to Essex for that year.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/education/study-abroad/new-interdisciplinary-course-in-robotics-ai-beg-mechatronic-can-help-you-be-a-cobotist-5643840/ (Accessed on March 27, 2019)

IISc engineers take fetch to a whole new level

India's first commercial walking robot Stoch uses machine learning to move around


The robot is the size of a small dog with four legs and a thick but flexible spine. When connected to a battery, it starts walking on slender, articulated limbs, like a canine. 

It even has a 'face' that looks vaguely like that of a pug. The developers at the Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber-physical Systems at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) are calling it 'Stoch' and they say it's on target to become the country's first commercial "walking" robot.

Stoch has been under development since January last year. The first version was displayed a month ago at Aero India - it was heavy-footed and clumsy. A sleeker second version was developed just two weeks ago and a third will be ready in three months. A commercial variant is about a year away. 

The robot uses machine learning to figure out how to walk by itself. Specifically, it uses reinforcement learning, where the machine learns over time to take the best possible action in return for the best reward. 

After several million attempts - performed in computer simulation - ؙthe robot learns to walk. Some Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and IISc have been working on such devices in the past few years. There aren't any commercial versions in the market and no institution other than IISc has a prototype that uses reinforcement learning to teach the robot to walk.

The IISc project started when a student, Shounak Bhattacharya, did a master's project in the department of mechanical engineering. After the project, the Bosch Centre at IISc took over development by bringing together professors from other departments. 

It also hired engineers and put together a development team. "We wanted to explore the field of data-driven robotics," said Bharadwaj Amrutur, professor of electrical engineering at IISc and chairman of the Robert Bosch Centre.

Data-driven robotics is a set of technologies that use data to get a robot to learn by itself. As the IISc project got off the ground, it was joined by Shishir Kolathaya from Georgia Tech University. Kolathaya, who has been working with walking robots since the undergraduate level, studied legged robots for his PhD.

When he joined, the Bosch Centre had a non-working prototype. The first real prototype - Stoch 1 - didn't carry batteries. Stoch 2 was twice as powerful, was designed to carry batteries and could walk for 15 minutes without being plugged into an electrical outlet. The third version will improve on looks and be even more powerful. The commercial prototype, when ready, will be bundled with an applica tion.

The Bosch team is mulling several applications - climbing coconut trees, doing surveys in difficult terrain, inspecting construction sites and so on. The project now has five engineers, apart from some faculty members. "We are planning to put a software development kit for people to programme," says Dhaivat Dholakiya, who is technical associate of the project.

Source: https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/technology/iisc-engineers-take-fetch-to-a-whole-new-level/68418892 (Accessed on 16 March, 2019)

Gridbots: Robotics For Effeciency and Accuracy

Team Gridbots;

Credits: YourStory

In earlier articles on robotics, we have discussed how the industry is (very predictably) going to be the future. The industry is growing at an exponential scale. However, this is not only true for western countries but startups in India too.

Multiple companies are now venturing into the foray of robotics and applying it through different perspectives. While the layman’s understanding of robotics may only be through mechanics or humanoid looking things moving around, robotics is so much more. It can be very obvious or it can be inconspicuous. In this series, we shall be discovering startups in the country that are looking at Robotics through different niches and are on their way to creating successful companies.

This time we will be looking at a company that goes by the name Gridbots.

What Is Gridbots?

Gridbots picks two subsets of robotics and works with those- Artifical Intelligence and Machine Vision. Those familiar with the robotics industry will know that machine learning and artificial intelligence are two sub-industries that are thriving under robotics. And Gridbots has found its calling in these sub-industries. But what does the company exactly do?

Gridbots as a company wants to make the advantages robotics has and make it a part of everyone’s daily life. They are in the business of identifying jobs that are currently done manually and replace them with more efficient robots.

Before we take a look at what the company does or makes, let us take a look at the start of the company and the founders.

The Beginning:

Gridbots was founded in August of 2007 by Pulkit Gaur. This was fairly before robotics had entered into mainstream startup culture or consideration.

He was a student of engineering from Jaipur, dabbling in various aspects of the field at a graduate and postgraduate level. His curiosity knew no bounds and because of his constant experiments and creations in engineering, he was awarded Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Young Creator of the Year Award in 2012.

Gaur is said to have founded this company out of pure love for the industry. He wanted to build useful products that are run by intelligence and not just instructions.

The Products

Gridbots operates in a number of various sectors. There are 5 major industries for which the company makes specialized robots:

1. Defence and Homeland
2. Space Robots
3. Nuclear Robots
4. Power Plant Robots
5. Underwater Robotics

You may see a pattern. All of these industries involve high energy or high-risk material which can endanger human working conditions. They also require a terribly accurate application- something that humans are not very capable of. Robotics becomes a gift in these high-pressure industries.

Let us take a little bit of a dive into what kind of products this company makes by taking a look at some examples. This will give us an insight into what they mean when they say “robots” and how they operate in the above industries. Some of its products include:

• 1. The Sleuth Hound

Industry: Defence and Homeland

What It Does: The Sleuth Hound is 360 pan-tilt-automatic tracking camera that can be used in the defence industry for security reasons. It can withstand harsh environments and is more durable than regular CCTV camera which makes it an optimum choice in high-risk, combat settings.

• 2. The Hexamove

Industry: Space Robotics

What It Does: The Hexamove is a positioning system. To put it simply it can help position and repair machines in space that require a high level of positioning accuracy. The job of repairing space machinery is extremely difficult as it requires the job to be done in the quickest manner but with no room for error.  The Hexamove with its 6 degrees-of-freedom movement and an accuracy of 50 microns. This makes it a robot that is doing a job that a human cannot accomplish with the same level of accuracy and efficiency.

• 3. The Nu Crawler

Industry: Nuclear Robotics

What It Does: Nuclear material is extremely dangerous when directly dealt with by humans. Extreme precautionary measures need to be taken to ensure that a person is not affected by the radiation which is why replacing them with robots is the next big solution. Which is where the Nu  Crawler comes in.  This machine can climb completely vertical and inclined surfaces and detect faults in machinery or be used for regular inspection. It can point out faults in the welding work or any other errors in the machine. This robot can access parts of a machine that just cannot be inspected manually.

• 4. The Gridbots Stinger

Industry: Power Plants

What It Does: This is a miniature robot that can perform checks and inspect space that is anywhere between 150mm to 5000mm large. It can carry payloads inside hard-to-access pipelines which can help rectify clogs, blockages, or rectify errors. The robot is also waterproof and equipped with cameras so the person in charge can assess the situation remotely if needed while the robot is on the actual site. In a hazardous power plant environment, these robots can secure human lives. There are also autonomous modes available on the robot.

Revenue and Growth:

The initial operations for Gridbots have kicked into through funding of Rs. 10 lakh from the Union Government’s Science and Technology Department.

Because of Gridbots’ inventive offering of products it now holds tenders in various Public Sector Units. The company supplies and earns its revenue from various industry deals and sales. Clients of Gridbots include the Indian Navy, ONCG and the Institute of plasma research. Small and medium enterprise sector also take a sizeable chunk of the Gridbots revenue section.

Growth and The Future:

The company is now 72 members strong and has offices in cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Delhi and Bangalore. Since its first funding from the Union Government, the company has been on its own, operating on revenues. Gridbots has an estimated annual revenue of $2.6 million USD and the graph is only predicted to go upwards.

Source URL: https://techstory.in/robotics-gridbots-tech-story/ (Accessed on 11 Marchm 2019)

Now, companies are deploying robots to decode CVs

As robots tread their way into every industry from hotels to healthcare, how could human resources (HR) and recruitment remain far behind?

With automation gradually seeping into various levels within organisations, resumes are getting increasingly scanned by robots, or rather specialised applicant tracking systems (ATS).

According to TopResume.com, a leading global resume service provider, about 95% of Fortune 500 companies today use ATS software in their recruitment process, with Greenhouse and Bullhorn being some of the most popular ATS that are used. The global industrial robotics market is predicted to reach $41.23 billion by 2020, as per a report by Grand View Research, and robotics in resume scanning is expected to gain greater credence.

In India, however, the usage of ATS by HR departments is rising at a gradual pace. “ATS is not used thoroughly in India as yet. We observe large organisations who undergo recruitment volumes of over 300-500 candidates in a year for junior level positions utilising ATS. Advanced recruitment companies who use technology as a differentiation factor have adopted these platforms too,’’ says Nicolas Dumoulin, managing director, Michael Page India.

“Resumes are being read by tools using natural language processing techniques and software tools,’’ says Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO, CIEL HR Services.

Experts believe as ATS seeps into the recruitment process, it is becoming vital for job seekers to make their resumes ATS=complaint. According to Nida Shahid, associate director – advisory, SHRM India, resumes in India are often not well optimised for ATS as they weigh low in grammar and formatting.

“Even a LinkedIn profile that is not recently updated may not support an ATS to make the correct decisions. The algorithm works basis the data it is fed and analysed in a format that is readable by the software,” adds Shahid. Experts say ATS is designed to pick out keywords in the resume and analyse if the keywords match with the job description. “Earlier, we would advise candidates to highlight important points, niche skills, experience and education. Now, as a machine will scan through the data, candidates should use keywords that match with the job description,” explains Shahid.  

For example, if the job description says “time management’’, the same keyword should reflect in the resume, instead of something like “managing time’’. 

Moreover, job titles should match those in the job description. If the job requirement reads as “Brand Manager’’, then a resume using the fancier “Brand Evangelist’’ might find no favour with the ATS.

Secondly, the resume should be clear and simple while quantifying the work, as the algorithm gets confused by the use of jargon, says Shahid.

Moreover, candidates should include key information in a concise manner and avoid long narratives, adds Dumoulin. Experts add that neither do the tools undervalue a concise resume that uses keywords sparingly but intelligently, nor do they give more importance to resumes that overuse keywords.

ATS carries a host of benefits for HR teams and organisations. “On an average, one job posting receives about 250 resumes. It’s impossible for an HR person to go through and vet each resume minutely. 

In fact, almost 75-88% of resumes that are received do not qualify for the job that is available. ATS reduces human intervention and thus cuts down the cost to the company. We weave in AI and human insights to predict absolute quality in recruits,” says Umasanker Kandaswamy, joint director and chief operating officer, Bruhat Insights Global.

Kandaswamy explains that ATS optimises the turnaround time for recruiters. He says that companies invest up to Rs 50,000 per hire, which also includes 23 working hours taken to thoroughly screen each resume. 

“The biggest shocker is that a candidate stays up in the market for only 10 days, as they are gulped down by other hungry recruiters.”

Besides optimising the cost of hiring and the time taken, ATS enhances recruiter efficiency by as much as 20%, says Mishra. 

FINDING A MATCH

·         Large organisations who recruit over 300-500 candidates in a year for junior level positions utilising ATS  

·         Resumes in India not well optimised for ATS as they weigh low in grammar and formatting

Source: Daily News and Analysis dated 28 February 2019
URL: https://www.dnaindia.com/business/report-now-companies-are-deploying-robots-to-decode-cvs-2724840 (Accessed on March 4, 2019)

Marshall Breeding: Artificial intelligence has made only a few inroads into the library sector

Marshall Breeding is one of the celebrated American library professionals known worldwide. He is an independent consultant, speaker, author, blogger and tech-expert. He is known for his expert-articles, on technological issues related to the libraries are being published in leading international periodicals. His books and articles are widely read and he has got a strong reader base globally. He has spoken on a wide range of topics in several workshops and seminars in several countries.

 Open Interview brings you Breeding’s interview with Gopakumar V. The interview was aimed at knowing the global technological trends in the libraries.

While sharing his observations on the trends, Breeding also shares his ideas and observations on the status of acceptance of artificial intelligence and robotics; level of adoption of open source software as compared to the proprietary software in terms of market share; and technological acceptance by the libraries and disparities. Being a prolific author, he gives some valuable tips for the library and information professionals who aim to excel in academic writing.

To read the full interview, visit:

https://openinterview.org/2019/02/07/marshall-breeding-artificial-intelligence-has-made-only-a-few-inroads-into-the-library-sector/ (Accessed on February 28, 2019)