Mobile robots can be classified as legged, wheeled, or tracked. Legged robots are further classified based on number of legs and so on. Some of the successful mobile robots have either wheels or tracks.

Already many countries use mobile robots in military, police and fire­fighting and rescue applications. The applications include surveillance, reconnaissance, rescue missions, and to detect and diffuse bombs. Unmanned aerial vehicles, ‘Drones’ are already proving their mettle in several military applications. Robots are also making entry into our homes. Robots that do boring chores like vac­uuming and mopping floors around the house are getting popular.

Humanoids are another category of robots that resemble and mimic human behavior. They are more com­plex and expensive to build and so far have remained as technology demon­strators. Patient care and elder care robots are emerging in Japan, Korea, and western countries due to aging population. Robots that can take care of delicate and aged patients with tender touch are being demonstrated. Even though great strides have been made in technologies like balancing a biped (two legged) robot, practical use of these robots remain questionable.

In India, robotics attracts lot of bright and young students and teach­ers alike, but does not cross a basic level of complexity of design due to several factors. Robotic contests con­tinue to set simpler targets to ensure participation in the face of factors like cost of building and time. Indus­try investments are also low due to long-term investment of both money and time.

Cost of good quality sensors and actuators are presently high, though they have seen a steady decline in pric­ing and an increase in reliability due to MEMS (micro electro-mechanical sensors) based chips. Sensors will continue to evolve in smaller form fac­tors and low cost, as more advances are made in MEMS and nanotechnol­ogy based sensors in the next decade.

Building robots require multi­disciplinary engineers and skills in mechanical, electronic, and software engineering. Research in Indian colleges, including that in premier institutions, focuses mainly in areas of robotics that is specific to their respective engineering field. Cross-discipline collaboration can change the way robotic research is done and can move a step closer towards useful applications.

In India, unmanned aerial vehicles have been developed successfully over the last decade by both govern­ment and private players. However, robots are still not a phenomenon in the country. Worldwide, robotics as an industry is relatively new and is highly fragmented with very few common platforms and standards. Robotics around the world today resembles the computing industry in 1970s before the boom happened. The complexity involved in making them and the lack of standards presents a huge opportu­nity to be there first.

Our idea of robots is sometimes tinted by Hollywood movies. To even envision and build a robot that can remotely threaten mankind or play that perfect robotic butler that does all the hard work around your house­hold will take several decades of technology advancements. Both the Indian industry and academia have a great opportunity to enter robotics field now as pioneers.

Nagendra R Setty is a roboticist and founder of Ideas Unlimited in Mysore.