With advancement in technology, scope of robotic engineering has increased manifold offering lucrative options, says DR ABHILASHA GAUR
Robotics is the engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction, and operation of robots. Robots were originally built to handle monotonous tasks but have since expanded well beyond their initial uses to perform tasks like fighting fires, cleaning homes and assisting with incredibly intricate surgeries. Each robot has a differing level of autonomy, ranging from human-controlled bots that carry out tasks that a human has full control over to fully-autonomous bots.
As technology progresses, so does the scope of robotics. These robots consist mainly of mechanical arms tasked with welding or screwing on certain parts of a car. Today, we’re seeing an evolved and expanded definition of robotics that includes the development, creation and use of bots that explore the harshest conditions, robots that assist law-enforcement and even robots that assist in almost every facet of healthcare.
AI and robots are a powerful combination. Some of the applications where the teo can bring more optimisation are:
Agriculture and farming: With the food supply chain facing a crisis, courtesy of centuries of environmental abuse, over-farming, labor shortages, and population growth, it is threatening our most basic needs. AI and automation are believed to provide relief from the effects of an aging agricultural workforce. With the likes of autonomous drones, self-driving agricultural machines, etc., farmers can spend more time focusing on creating sustainable harvests and less time watching the path in front of them.
Autonomous flying: Autonomous flying uses computer vision technology for hovering in the air while avoiding obstacles and moving in a straight path. With the introduction of artificial intelligence, these flying machines are getting smarter. From aerial view monitoring to security surveillance, video recording, rescue missions, and more, drones and unmanned aerial vehicles are revolutionising and replacing many job roles. The application of computer vision in autonomous flying includes obstacle detection, collision avoidance, self-navigation, and object tracking.
Manufacturing and production: The evolution of the manufacturing and production industry is seen with the implementation of robotics and AI. The primary reason for the introduction of AI in the manufacturing industry is to cover for the lack of workforce, simplify the whole production process, and improve efficiency. Earlier, it used to take a whole team’s effort to manage one task system. Now since bots have taken over, it has helped manufacturers boost production speed.
AI is helping the industry by making product decisions instant and smarter. This is an era of customized products, and AI is helping manufacturers gather useful customer data, which is used to make product-based decisions. Also, it has helped the companies to reduce the overall cost of production. AI and robotics is the future of manufacturing.
Sports analytics and activities: The sports industry is embracing artificial intelligence and robots to make games more exciting and fairer. AI is helping players improve their fitness and help teams discover new talents. In some sports, robot referees are already a thing, while smart machines are assisting spectators in finding their seats at the stadium. Artificial intelligence is also helping clubs and teams come up with strategies based on previous data.