By Prof Prashanth N, Head-Centre for Robotics Research Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology Bengaluru, India
Several decades ago, the need for improved productivity, efficiency, quality of products, and the lack of a skilled workforce triggered the widespread development of intelligent machines in the form of Robots in Industries. At that time, most of these robots were only seen in factories or in research laboratories with minimal to no interaction with the common man. As technology evolved, the application of Robots has significantly increased. Today, we can see robots in our day-to-day life in the form of autonomous cars, vacuum cleaners, drones, ATMs, etc. As the supply and demand for robots are rising, so does the need for skilled engineers who can develop them. In this article, I have listed the top five skills that you need to succeed if you plan to pursue your career in the robotics domain.
1. Applied Basic Science and Mathematics
Every engineering discipline requires the application of science and math for the development of products or processes. For robotics, it is no different. A strong foundation in mathematics will certainly help you in the design and development of robots. For instance, let’s say you want to simulate the movement of robots in 3-dimensional space. For this, you may need to develop mathematical equations of motion describing the robot system using calculus. Similarly, if you need to develop a machine learning algorithm or implement artificial intelligence in the robot, you may have to revisit the probability theory or let’s say you want to develop a walking pattern for a four-legged robot, for this, you may need to analyze the physiological mechanism of how a four-legged animal walks. In a nutshell, you need to inculcate the art of relating robots in the physical world with basic science and mathematics.
2. Mechatronics
The development of a physical robot requires a synergistic integration of various engineering disciplines such as Mechanical, Electrical/Electronics, Computer Science, etc. The focus of any robotics aspirant should not only be acquiring the essential skills from the above disciplines but most importantly how to integrate them as a system. The knowledge of Mechatronics will help in the system-level integration of sub-systems. For example, Let’s say you want to design a robot gripper (fingers) for a pick and place robot, for this, you need to design a gripper mechanism using Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Select an appropriate motor by analysing its mechanical, and electrical characteristics, integrate the motor to the mechanism and select appropriate motor drivers, interface with embedded system, and finally develop control algorithms to operate the motor.
3. Robot Operating System (ROS)
ROS is a popular open-source middleware suite managed by Open Robotics for fast-tracking the development of Robots for various applications. ROS is preferred by many robot developers because it provides services for hardware abstraction, seamless low-level control, and communication of various Robot sub-systems. ROS along with its various visualization tools such as Rviz and Simulation tools such as Gazebo is helping in the faster development of Robots and as a result, it is one of the most sought-after skills in the market. Since ROS is a middleware, it runs seamlessly on Linux operating system. It supports software libraries for popular programming languages such as Python, C, C++, etc.
4. Programming
Robots by nature are re-programmable multipurpose intelligent machines. Programming implies providing a collection of instructions to the robot to perform certain tasks and take decisions. As a Robot Developer, one needs to have essential programming skills in various programming languages such as C, C++, Python etc. Further there is a huge demand in the market for developers skilled in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which is a software technology to control nonphysical robots. Further, programming also requires critical/logical thinking and problem-solving skills.
5. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI & ML)
Today robots are not only intelligent to a certain degree, but they are also trying to emulate the natural thinking capabilities of humans. This is achieved with the implementation of AI & ML. Robots are usually deployed in dynamic environments and as a result, they are expected to overcome ever-changing challenges accordingly. There are various AI/ML algorithms that are helping robots to evolve naturally. Broadly these algorithms may be classified as Supervised, Unsupervised, and Reinforced. Most of the AI/ML techniques utilises neural networks to establish the relationship between various robot decision-making parameters. For instance, the ChatGPT utilizes both supervised and reinforced learning techniques. A Robotics Developer with an experience in the application of AI & ML to robots is the most sought-after in the job market.