Proceeding of National Level Conference 2013 “Technologies For Developing Nation” 12th October 2013, LTCOE, Navi Mumbai-400709

ISBN-978-93-5137-807-5

Robotics: Past, Present & Future in India

H.S. Gill P. M. Menghal Vaibhaw Kala Archana Singh
Faculty of Degree Engineering,
Military College of Electronics & Mechanical Engineering, Secunderabad, 500 015, Andhra Pradesh
71lines@gmail.com
prashant_menghal@ yahoo.co.in
vabykala@gmail.com
hiarchanasingh@gmail.com

Abstract—Technology does not win wars or make nations
safe. The quest for national security is shaped by large
cultural, economic, political factors and strategic choices.
Innovation will always be a national security wild card.
New technologies may unleash or accelerate social and
cultural changes that affect how nations protect
themselves—on the battlefield or behind the scenes.
Emerging technologies will have a dramatic impact on the
future of Indian National security. The fields of medicine,
homeland security, defence, non-conventional energy
sources and manufacturing will be at the center of
scientific advances for years to come and perhaps will re-
define not only Indian national security capabilities,but
also how the citizens of India conduct their daily lives. One
such technology is ‘Robotics’. From manufacturing to
defence, from surgery to disaster relief, robots can go
where humans cannot and can do what humans cannot
thereby acting as force multipliers. The majority of recent
technological advancements could not have been
accomplished without the help of robots. The purpose of
this paper is to review major milestones that set the stage
for the development of the today’s robotics technology
including sufficient detail to acquaint reader with the
future of robotics in India.
next move. Robots easily and safely perform tasks that would
otherwise endanger human lives, and do so faster and more
efficiently than is possible with conventional methods. Robots
play a vital role in maintaining the competitive edge in national
security. These manipulators are anthropomorphic, our
fascination with humanoid machines has not dulled, and
people still envision robots as evolving into electromechanical
replicas of ourselves. It is fair to say that we have made a great
deal of progress in introducing simple robots with crude end-
effectors into a wide variety of circumstances. The goal of
robotics is to mimic natural systems as closely as possible. For
this, the developers need to draw inspiration from man, even
birds and animals that can communicate (move around) with
the help of their wings and/or legs. Fig 1 shows the evolution
of robots over the ages.

Keywords- Robot, Control, Artficial Intellignce,Nano-robotics.

I. INTRODUCTION
The term ‘Robot’ got prominence way back in the 1950s
when Karl Capek in his play Rossum’s Universal Robots
denoted the birth of a superior race that had intelligence similar
to that of humans. Later on Issac Asimov introduced his laws
of robots and finally Eric Elenberger, who is considered as the
father of robotics, introduced real-time robots to the world.
Fig .1 Evolutions of robot
Robots are, in a sense, made by humans in the ideal image of
the Human in the human mind. In their perfection, they are II. ROBOTICS IN INDIA
more human than the flesh and blood humans. They
The term “Robotics” applies to how robots are designed,
demonstrate the human qualities of minds and soul, reason and
manufactured, programmed, and used. Robotic technology is
emotions. Robots across the world now traverse hazardous
not new. In ancient times, Ctesibius, an Alexandrian inventor
terrain, carry out surveillance missions, and perform remote
and mathematician, invented a robotic water organ; 1,500
surgery. They are becoming ever more sophisticated and
years later Leonardo da Vinci developed a mechanical knight.
autonomous i.e. capable of taking own decision and plan their

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 Proceeding of National Level Conference 2013 “Technologies For Developing Nation” 12th October 2013, LTCOE, Navi Mumbai-400709
ISBN-978-93-5137-807-5
According to the Institute of Electronics and Electrical
Engineers (IEEE), the world’s robot population had reached
4.49 million in 2008, a number likely to almost triple by
2035.One of the biggest impacts of robotics on the world
economy resulted from automation. “Automation” refers to
robots whose actions are dictated by a computer program. With
the advent of automation, robots like those in factories could
run with minimal human presence. In a bid to familiarise the
common man with the concepts of robots, Microsoft has
launched software (free for academia) in the country that can
create robotic application and simulate them. A robot
comprises a repertoire of sensors and actuator together with a
“Brain” (a Microprocessor) and communication capability.
Fig 2 indicates the rise in use of robots in different part of
world including India.
Fig.2 Use of Robotics in the Society
TABLE –I
TIMELINE – ROBOTICS IN INDIA
Developments related to robotics from the NISTEP 2030 report:
 By 2013-2014 — Agricultural robots
 By 2013-2017 — Robots that care for the elderly
 By 2013 – 2020 - Nano robot
 By 2015 — To have one third of its fighting capacity provided
by robots
 By 2017 — Medical robots performing low-invasive surgery
 By 2017-2019 — Household robots
 By 2035 — To have first completely autonomous robot soldiers
on the battlefield
Table-I gives the overview of future of robotics in India
which is a road map for development and implementation in
various fields which was published in National Institute of
Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP). This is an
indicator that India realizes the importance of robotics in
various fields which will enable it to create a mark in the
global arena. This will also open up the avenues in the field
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of Research activities, Manufacturing, Academia, Space
technology, Defence industries, Medical, Agriculture
industry etc. The Battlefield in the years to come will be
dominated by robotic power. Hence, there is a lot to be done
by each one of us in this area of research in the near future in
order to exploit this technology to its utmost potential to our
benefit. Table II explains the components of robots.
TABLE –II
COMPONENTS OF ROBOTS
 Structure: mostly mechanical, usually referred to as a kinematic
chain formed of links, actuators, and joints which can allow one or
more degrees of freedom. Robots used as manipulators have an end
effectors mounted on the last link that could be a welding device or
a mechanical hand used to manipulate the environment.
 Power Source:
 Batteries –LiIon/LiPo
 Pneumatic (compressed gases)
 Hydraulic (compressed liquids)
 Actuation: Actuators are like muscles of a robot, the parts which
convert stored energy into movement.
 Motors: The vast majority of robots use electric motors,
including brushed and brushless DC on many robots and CNC
machines.
 Piezo Motors: A recent alternative to DC motors. Work on a
fundamentally different principle, whereby tiny piezoceramic
elements, vibrating many thousands of times per second,
cause linear or rotary motion. Advantages include nanometer
resolution, speed, and available force for their size.
 Elastic Nanotubes: A promising, early-stage experimental
technology. The absence of defects in nanotubes enables these
filaments to deform elastically by several percent, with energy
storage levels of 10 J/cm3 for metal nanotubes.
 Sensing (Touch): The sensor array is constructed as a rigid core
surrounded by conductive fluid contained by an elastomeric skin.
Electrodes are mounted on the surface of the rigid core, and are
connected to an impedance-measuring device within the core. When
the artificial skin touches an object the fluid path around the
electrodes is deformed, producing impedance changes that map the
forces received from the object.
TABLE –III
CLASSIFICATION BASED ON LOCOMOTION
 Walking Robots. Eg. Humanoids
 Tracked Robots. Eg. NASA’s Urban Robot Urbie
 Flying Robots. Eg. Cruise Missiles.
 Snake Robots. Eg Japanese ACM- R5
 Swimming Robots. Eg. Aqua Penguin Germany.
 Legged Robots – DARPA Eg Big Dog
TABLE –IV
HUMAN ROBOT INTERACTION
 Proceeding of National Level Conference 2013 “Technologies For Developing Nation” 12th October 2013, LTCOE, Navi Mumbai-400709
ISBN-978-93-5137-807-5
Table-III, IV and V illustrates the classification of robot on the
basis of locomotion, interaction of robot with human being and
controls respectively.
TABLE –V
CONTROL
 The mechanical structure of a robot must be controlled to
perform tasks.
 The control of a robot involves three distinct phases - Perception,
Processing and Action.
 Sensors give information about the environment or the robot
itself (e.g. the position of its joints or its end effectors).
 The information is then processed to calculate the appropriate
signals to the actuators (motors) which move the mechanical
linkages.
 Processing Phase.
 Ranges in complexity.
 At a reactive level, it may translate raw sensor information
directly into actuator commands.
 Sensor fusion may first be used to estimate parameters of
interest (e.g. the position of the robot's gripper) from noisy
sensor data. An immediate task (such as moving the
gripper in a certain direction) is inferred from these
estimates. These are then converted into commands that
drive the actuators.
 At longer time scales or with more sophisticated tasks, the
robot may need to build and reason with a "Cognitive" model.
 These represent the robot, the world and
how they interact.
 Pattern recognition and computer vision
used to track objects.
 Mapping techniques used to build maps of
the world.
 Motion Planning and other Artificial
Intelligence techniques.
III. ROBOTICS: THE AGE OF MACHINES
Practical robotics had its origins inside factories
manufacturing products on assembly lines, where speed,
precision and reliability were paramount. Thus, both human
tedium and imprecision were done away with whilst
improving the uniformity of a quality product which could
come off the assembly line relentlessly around the clock.
With the flexibility of programming and the training supplied
by a skilled operator, robots could carry out very complex,
humanlike, repetitive tasks; however the task could be
changed at short notice by using a different program. Now
we have access to a very rich set of sophisticated sensors,
powerful computing platforms and all variety of agile
mechatronic devices. The first industrial robot appeared in
1961 when a Unimate was supplied to General Motors for
tending a die casting machine. The Unimate, the brain child
of Joseph Engelberger, the “Father of the Industrial Robot”,
was hydraulically driven, a technology that dominated the
fledgling industrial robot business for its first decade. Then
3
in  Speech Recognition. 1974, the
 Gestures. Swedish
 Facial expression. company
 Artificial emotions. ASEA
 Personality. developed
 Motion Sensing
the IRB 6, the
first all-electric industrial robot. This 6 kg capacity device
was unique, not only in the drive system but also in its
anthropomorphic configuration and its use of a
microprocessor control system. It set new robot standards in
the small footprint, the speed of movement and positioning
accuracy and gave rise to a number of IRB 6 look-alikes.
(a) Defence: - Imagine the face of warfare with advanced
robotics. Robots that could make decisions, such as to fire
upon a target without human intervention can replace the
human soldier in an increasing range of dangerous missions:
from tunneling through dark caves or forests in search of
terrorists, to securing urban streets rife with sniper fire, to
patrolling the skies and waterways where there is little cover
from attacks, to clearing roads and seas of improvised
explosive devices (IEDs), to surveying damage from
biochemical weapons, to guarding borders and buildings, to
controlling potentially-hostile crowds. Many of the most
advanced Indian Defence Technologies in times to come
would comprise of robots. As is evident, thousands of robots
were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan by the United States
of America, supporting military operations on land, sea, and
in the air. Some robotic military technology is completely
autonomous. Intelligence gathering is often achieved by
unmanned aerial, ground, or underwater vehicles. Unmanned
autonomous vehicles have been deployed for reconnaissance
(such as detecting anti-ship mines in littoral waters),
monitoring coastal waters for adversaries (like pirate ships)
and precision air strikes on evasive targets. Some of the most
exciting military technologies center on robots working in
concert with humans. Boston Dynamic’s robotic Big Dog (a
remote-controlled robot that looks like a big dog) enables
soldiers to transport heavy equipment over ice, heavily
forested areas, and steep, narrow foothills. DARPA has
developed a six legged robot which is all terrain and all
weather robot having a capability of passing intelligence
from far flung areas to the control station with the help of
wireless communications. Robot powered exoskeletons give
soldiers super-human strength. Remote controlled explosive-
disposal robots, such as Talon, keep soldiers from physical
danger while the robots destroy mines. Andros II and Mini-
Andros are used by bomb squads across the world; they can
see in the dark, and defuse or detonate bombs without risking
human life. While robotics is not a panacea for all situations
where manpower is necessary, they are a vital tool in India’s
military prowess in present scenario.
 Proceeding of National Level Conference 2013 “Technologies For Developing Nation” 12th October 2013, LTCOE, Navi Mumbai-400709
ISBN-978-93-5137-807-5
Fig. 3 Big Dog
Daksh is one of the most current military robots of India. It is
an electrically powered and remote controlled robot which is
used to locate, handle and destroy risky objects safely. The
main role of this military robot is to recover improvised
explosive devices. This robot can even climb stairs. Moreover,
it can also scan objects using its portable X-ray Device.
Fig. 4 Daksh Military Robot
Robots would be developed with very high level of
intelligence to enable them to differentiate between a enemy or
a friend. These can then be deployed in difficult warfare zones,
like the Line of Control (LOC), a step that would help avert the
loss of human lives. In the initial phase, the robotic soldier will
be trained by the human soldier to identify an enemy or a
combatant. The ‘Robotic Soldier’ would be at the front end and
the human soldier would be assisting him from far away.
Fig. 5 Robotic Soldier
(b) Manufacturing: From cars to computers, robotics and
automation play a part in creating many types of consumer
goods. Bottling plants, automotive makers, and appliance
manufacturers have increased the number of industrial robots
in their assembly lines. Robots make manufacturing processes
more efficient by making assembly faster and more consistent.
They can work in unsafe conditions and in tight spaces. They
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can do heavy lifting, work overtime. A single software
engineer can “retrain” an entire fleet of robotic assembly line
workers in a matter of minutes. The physical size of
technological machinery has been shrinking at an amazing
rate. Today, the manufacture of many of the world’s most
innovative technologies and nanotechnologies requires super-
human precision. The steadiest of human hands cannot
consistently place one molecule of carbon on another to create
a synthetic diamond, or correctly place a microscopic electrode
onto a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) device.
Fig.6 shows the use of robots in industries.
Fig .6 Robots in Manufacturing Industries
(c) Medicine: Robot-assisted surgery has been occurring for
more than a quarter of a century. Since the 1980s, robots have
been assisting doctors in repairing knee ligaments, removing
gallbladders, and performing hysterectomies. With the help of
better and smaller robotic tools and software systems, patients
require smaller incision wounds and shorter time under
anesthesia than with conventional surgery, which translates
into faster healing times, less pain, decreased risk of infection,
and less blood loss. In remote surgery, or telesurgery, a doctor
controls a robot that works on a patient even if that patient is
thousands of miles away. With remote surgery, city doctors
can operate on rural patients, decreasing transportation costs
and increasing options for both patients and doctors. In the
current surgical world, the majority of doctors are limited to a
geographic location and population. As a result they need to be
able to perform a broad range of services. Remote robotic-
assisted surgery would mitigate or even solve this problem:
Not only would it bring medical access to people in rural areas,
it could also be useful for new doctors who currently must
choose between location and specialty. Moreover, in the event
of a bio-terrorist attack or an epidemic, immune robotic
medical personnel may be the best solution to contain and cure
infected individuals. In military medical care, remote surgery
can help provide soldiers with medical care more quickly than
under current conditions. Modified tanks could house remote
operating rooms. These tanks could accompany soldiers into
battlefields. Soldiers often lose their limbs or even their lives
because it simply takes too much time until they reach a medic
or hospital. There can be a robotic limb which can be attached
to the injured soldier in the battlefield whereby the soldier after
some practice or recouping from the injury can again be sent to
war depending on the gravity of injury or there can be a robot
who can replace the soldier on ground. Moreover, fewer
medics would be required in the field, since a single medic
could perform surgeries on soldiers from geographically
 Proceeding of National Level Conference 2013 “Technologies For Developing Nation” 12th October 2013, LTCOE, Navi Mumbai-400709
ISBN-978-93-5137-807-5
disparate platoons. Fig 7 shows the use of robotics different
sectors.
Fig.7 Robotics in Various Sectors
Fig .8 Surgical consoles for cellular surgery
(d) Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Relief: These are
vital elements of homeland security and robotic technologies
are some of the most innovative and effective means of
carrying out these activities. In the event of a national disaster,
roads may be in rubble or flooded. Telephone or Internet lines
may be down. Supplies and equipment may need to be
transported quickly over non-traversable terrain. Small
autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are robots that
can be used to carry supplies to remote areas. Denel Dynamics
has developed a “homing pigeon” UAV that can fly supplies to
a disaster area, drop them off, and return to home base all
without human intervention, and faster than conventional
carriers. In the event of a bio-terrorist attack, these UAVs
could deliver face masks or antidotes without risking a pilot’s
health. UAVs could also be used to create self-contained
communications networks. Currently, satellite communication
networks are used, but weather and other conditions,
particularly after a large explosion, could render current
technology useless. The Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at
the Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) has
designed a Swarm of Micro Air Vehicles capable of
autonomously establishing an emergency wireless network
between ground users in a disaster area. These robots could
replace damaged and congested networks. The advantage of
the robotic disaster relief technologies is that they can be built
5
ahead of time, and be deployed only if they are needed. While
an adversary could plan to knock out, say, satellites, it would
be much more difficult to destroy un-deployed response
robots, especially if their storage location is classified. After an
earthquake, missile attack, or tsunami, robot-assisted rescue
may be India’s most effective course of action. Recently cloud
burst in Uttarakhand claimed many lives and created havoc.
The rescue operations took lot of time which was crucial for
the stranded people waiting for help. In this scenario if India
had robots which could quickly locate trapped victims, send
images of them to rescuers in real time without unnecessarily
putting responders at risk, would have saved many innocent
lives. Taking a clue from this natural calamity we should now
be prepared with a Disaster Preparedness, Response and relief
plan incorporating the robots to carry out relief operations.
Fig.9 Flying Wi-Fi Robot for Disaster Relief
(e) Humanoid robots: When it comes to human
resemblance, one can just marvel at Honda’s ASIMO and
Sony’s SDR-3X and now the more advanced SDR-4X. These
humanoid robots walk on two feet with amazing grace,
replicating the walking movements of humans. The engineers
at SONY have given SDR-4X advanced features such as the
ability to remember faces and recognise emotions from facial
features in addition to improved voice and speech recognition
technology.
Fig.10 Humanoid
(f) Agriculture Robot: The advantages of Agri-robot which is
developed in India [10], is that it can become an admirable
agriculture aid for the farmer. The high cost of labor and the
increasing need for assisted living has led to the development
of the service robotics market. This automated system will be
most essential appliance for our society as India is the 2nd
largest producer of vegetable crops in the world. The
developed model avoids the wastage of precious seeds as it is
 Proceeding of National Level Conference 2013 “Technologies For Developing Nation” 12th October 2013, LTCOE, Navi Mumbai-400709
ISBN-978-93-5137-807-5
designed to pick and drop only one seed at an instant,
consequently it increases the percentage of germination which
leads to profit to the formers who are the backbone of our
nation. As a result the formers/society will be the beneficiaries.
The concept of Automation incorporated in the intended
system avoids the labors cost and reduces the process time.
Consequently it is cost effective.
Fig.11 Agri Robot
IV. DEVELOPMENT OF ROBOTICS IN INDIA
Over the years, lot of industry has developed cutting-edge
technology for its clients, which include several top-notch
private, public, and government sectors. Robotics has been
enabled by the semiconductor revolution and as long as
innovations in this field continue to evolve, robotics too will
continue to grow. Nanotechnology and robotics have to build
robust robotics products for use by the Indian industry. In our
past experience in attempting to build custom solutions, we
have discovered that by assembling imported components into
a functional system could not meet the affordability points of
most of our potential customers. On the other hand, when we
did meet the cost criteria by developing indigenous
components, the robustness and maintainability of the final
system left much to be desired. The robotics field is quite
promising, but to make a really intelligent robot takes supreme
efforts. The ultimate goal of robotics is a super-human system
that embodies all the skills (such as intelligence, touch, and
sensitivity) of humans without any of their limitations (such as
strength, aging, and reach). In reality, we can expect the degree
of autonomy to evolve to higher degrees very gradually.
Regarding Nano systems and smart materials making entry
into our lives. The futuristic scenario right now is just one’s
imagination of how technology would evolve. Indian students
deeply interested in robotics should start making robots and try
to implement circuits at their home, and not wait for an
opportunity to work in a big lab. They should not be deterred
by lack of tools, facilities, and even basic knowledge about
robotics. Just starting to create devices from junk parts and
hands-on work in an attempt to make and use circuits which
they see in magazines and books would add an engineering
insight, which is ‘the skill’. The school students are introduced
to simple electronics circuits such as relays, switches, and
possibly, diodes and microprocessors. These are used to
control simple functional devices that interact to the
environment. Often, the students will integrate these
components with the junk and the robot kit to produce novel
ideas.
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V. WAY AHEAD
India is now emerging as a destination for the production of
industrial robots. In fact, the size of the Indian robotics market
is large with sales figures hovering around Rs.3,500 crores.
Most of this (around 70 per cent), is in the automotive
industry. The robotics industry in India is expected to grow
substantially in the years to come. The Indian manufacturing
arena is poised to grow larger in the coming decades, thereby
increasing the demand for robotic solutions. As far as the
industry is concerned, India contributes significantly as far as
research / intellectual property (IP) generation to converting
LISP codes to C codes for industrial robots is concerned. A
large volume of work centre around these domains is
outsourced to India. Industrial robotics is mature as a
technology, and is well established. However, the mobile
robotics space is expected to witness significant growth in the
coming years. Mobile robots are utilized in industrial, military
and security environments. Autonomous robots with reasoning
capabilities and the ability to move around freely will be in
demand in the coming decades. Teams of smart micro-robots
could do regular maintenance in nuclear power plants and
other hazardous environments. Personal robots will change our
lifestyle altogether by assisting us in our disabilities and
nursing us in sickness. Artificial dogs or robot-pets with
emotions can soothen many, especially children, and the aged
and disabled. When it comes to real-world operational
conditions of mobile robots, the level of accuracy is also
important. The most advanced species on this planet (humans)
perform well out there with less precision and accuracy. Of
course, it is desirable to have mobile robots that are capable of
pin-point accuracy, which will depend on the application areas.
Human capabilities around “tracking” and “following” are
commendable, though precision and accuracy are not major
concerns as we are comfortable in continuously adjusting our
actions. There is a long way to go in bringing robots to the
level of human-like capabilities. All the dreams where robots
do our jobs will come true and military is not an exception. At
present there are many hostile and painful tasks that have to be
performed by humans but in near future most of them will be
done by the robots. In future news headlines would be like ‘a
team has destroyed a terrorist camp, no casualty reported’ and
many more. History has shown that the military makes use of
every innovation that has the potential to support military work
and robots are the future. Space exploration is another major
driver for innovation in robotics. Robotic arms are now being
used in space shuttles, building and repairing space stations,
robotic spacecraft and planetary rovers exploring the rest of the
solar system.
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