Three ambitious Class XII students who are fairly new to robotics, made a robot named—‘Sparsh’ which acts like humans and adapts to change according to the surroundings and offers live video streaming. Prepared by using domestic waste materials, few electronic circuits and equipment, the robot can be controlled from any part of the world through a cellphone based on its ‘autonomous mode’.
Saurav Aryan, Subham Kumar and Aniket Kumar Sinha students from Chinmay Vidalaya Bokaro Steel City, quite new to robotics made it possible with their hard works and complete dedication towards their goal. ‘Sparsh’ is adapted with varying temperatures, heights, obstacles and can be controlled from any part of the world through a cellphone. It even offers live streaming (video) of its surrounding which anyone can watch on a Wi-Fi video device from any location on the earth," said Aryan.
"It took six months time to build ‘Sparsh’ which is basically based on DTMF (dual tone multi frequency) and this machine is programmed on C++ language," said Subham. DTMF, better known as touch-tone, is a system of signal tones used in telecommunications, in voice mail, help desks, telephone banking and others, he added.
There are twelve DTMF signals, each of which is made up of two tones from the following selection: 697 Hz, 770 Hz, 852 Hz, 941 Hz, 1209 Hz, 1336 Hz, 1477 Hz and the tones are divided into two groups (low and high), and each DTMF signal uses one from each group. This prevents any harmonics from being misinterpreted as part of the signal, he said.
"Each and every number pressed in our mobile phone’s dial pad (while calling) sends out two varying frequencies and the difference between the two is automatically used by our robot which can be controlled from anywhere.The whole idea of robotics is interdisciplinary. We have gone through a lot of mathematics and a lot of engineering. It needs high presence of mind”, added Aniket.
Elaborating the specific qualities of ‘Sparsh’ Aniket said: it can follow light; can detect temperature and stay away from high temperature. It can be edged safe and cannot fall into a pit, detects moisture, avoids obstacles, can be controlled through a remote or run on autonomous mode.
“It has a spy camera and live streaming facility. It is also eco-friendly and can be operated with solar power", he added. ‘Sparsh’ may be helpful for the farmers as it can tell them about moisture content and temperature of soil, sowing season, reaping season. It can also be used as a super spy device. "As it gives live streaming ‘Sparsh’ can be utilised in rescue work after natural disaster and other hazardous conditions”, said Aniket.