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During his visit to Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was given a presentation of a special robot called ‘AgBot’ which has agricultural applications.
He was also given a presentation on the Integrated Biofuels Project under which cutting-edge, collaborative research is being carried out as part of the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund Grand Challenge Initiative. While congratulating the scientists and writing on AgBot, PM Modi said research is the mother of development, and is intrinsically linked to the development journey of mankind, and that agriculture would benefit from the use of science and technology.
Robots are hardly new. World War II first saw military application of robots in the form of use of the Goliath mobile landmine by Germans marking a turning point in the history of military robots, as did the Soviet Teletanks that were wireless remotely controlled unmanned tanks. Later, the US MQ-1 Predator drone enabled the CIA to collect intelligence, as is being done in Syria and Iraq today for operations against the Islamic Caliphate of ISIS. Existing military robots include guided missiles, military spacecraft, UAVs, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), smart ammunition, surveillance and navigation (GPS) satellites etc. The ICBM itself is a very large type of rocket with guidance systems. Then missiles are of multiple types and are deployed depending on the type of targets. Armed UAVs / UCAVs are in prolific use. It is largely felt that military robots are autonomous or remote controlled devices designed for military applications, different from robots used for industrial production in that they do not produce things, but interact in warfare like control of missiles and vehicles in order to have unmanned devices that are either tele-operated or find their way, automatically guided by laser beams or GPS satellites. But then there are dual use technologies in robotics that contain many commonalities between civil and military applications. Actually R&D for a military or a civilian robot is the same, only difference being the function that the robot is required to perform. So, robotics technology inherently contains dual‐use elements for both civilian and military applications. Akin to the AgBot demonstrated to PM Modi, there are multiple civilian applications for robotic technologies including in the spheres of engineering, infrastructure maintenance, surgeries, agriculture, rescue and disaster response, care and life support and other services like guiding and aiding the needy etc. While military robots have applications in war and in life threatening tasks, equally life threatening tasks can be accomplished during disaster relief and rescue operations. Research is ongoing to solve multiple challenges, combining technologies, to make robots with more advanced capabilities and make them increasingly autonomous.
Simultaneous to robot armies being developed, robot restaurants have already gone public in countries like Japan and China, latter also having demonstrated a gigantic fire breathing dragon to entertain public. These robots have artificial muscles instead of electric motors. Our Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) has developed the Sarap; snake-like modular robot that uses genetic algorithms to perform various functions. Drone cameras are in use with our police already, even as Amazon is readying for drone deliver orders at your doorstep. Toy and gaming robots are quite common. Fully autonomous heavy robots are likely to advent around this decade. Robots will increasingly be used in manufacturing like in the automobile industry. The IBM keyboard manufacturing factory in Texas is reportedly 100 percent automated. Robots such as ‘Hospi’ are used as couriers within hospitals for movement of medical documents and files. Such automation has been in use in developed nations more than two decades back and could be part of hospital modernization in India. Indian industry too has fair share of automation using robotics. Automation in the Reliance Refinery in Gujarat is well appreciated by first time foreign visitors. Remotely controlled flying robots are increasingly cheaper and sometimes more capable in flight endurance than manned flights. Their equipment and capacity in imaging and recording is affordable and available as COTS. A flying drone may take in more information, fly longer and cover areas where manned flights would find it difficult and dangerous to fly.
Robots have extensive applications in civil engineering. They can be used for quantifying settings of an alternator, determining position of an underwater object in real time, three dimensional mapping of a structural surface, spatter collection for cutting a tubular object, aligning one or more wired in a plane, tooling a structural part underwater, submersible robot for operating a tool relative to a surface of an underwater structure, moving ultrasonic sensors and measuring devices along a pipe, motorized assembly for moving sensor modules around a pipe, remote controlled inspection and intervention vehicle for high tension power system, remote controlled vehicle travelling on conductors which can also pass over obstacles by means of temporary support rotors, remote controlled vehicle designed to be mounted on a support and capable of clearing an obstacle etc. Use of robots in civil defence is catching up. Saudi Arabia plans to utilize robots to rescue victims who fall into exposed artisan wells having asked King Abdullah City for Science and Technology (KACST) and other international companies to design a robot for such rescue missions. India could take a cue from this with numerous cases of children falling in bore wells. The world's largest civilian research and innovation program in robotics was launched in June 2014 by the European Commission involving some 180 EU companies and research organizations, covering areas such as manufacturing, agriculture, health, transport, civil security and households. The SPARC initiative is EU’s industrial effort to strengthen Europe’s position in the global robotics market. This new public-private partnership, under the umbrella of euRobotics is expected to create over 240,000 jobs in Europe, and increase Europe’s share of the global market to 42 percent (a boost of €4 billion per year, £3.244 billion).
Though global robotics market is not fully mature, robots are becoming all pervasive. Their application goes much beyond factories. Technically, one or more software compatibility layers have yet to emerge to allow the development of a rich robotics ecosystem similar to today's personal computers but research is ongoing by Microsoft and others. Japan already has agricultural robots and is developing robots to care for elderly, medical robots for low-invasive surgery, household robots and nano-robots. China and South Korea are undertaking similar developments. US DoD in 2006 had said that by 2015 one third of US fighting strength will be composed of robots and b one third of US fighting strength will be composed of robots and by 2035 the first completely autonomous robot soldiers in operation. Helen Greiner, Chairman iRobot had predicted that by 2034 robots would be performing most household tasks, and by 2050 robot "brains" based on computers that execute 100 trillion instructions per seconds will start rivaling human intelligence. India has abundant manpower but for its economic development, we must optimize on robotics in all possible spheres of agriculture, engineering, infrastructure maintenance, surgeries, disaster response, rescue, care and life support, in addition to requisite military applications for India’s defence. A focused vision and roadmap with timelines is required for advancing artificial intelligence and robotics. Leapfrogging technology should be possible with opening up of the defence-industrial complex and liberalizing FDI in defence. With proliferation of robots in the government and civil domains, particularly drones, regulating and privacy regimes would need to be evolved. Robots are essential and inclusive to India’s development and we need to get going. The Prime Minister’s call “research is the mother of development, and is intrinsically linked to the development” should act as the catalyst.
By Special Arrangement with The Centre For Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) (http://www.claws.in)