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2013: Humans are deployed to detech landmines
Fast forward to future: Humans control telerobots that are deployed to detect and destroy landmines.
Unarguably, robots are a safe bet when it comes to life-threatening tasks. but why aren't they there yet? Will robots take away our jobs? Pose those questions to Prof Subramanian Ramamoorthy of the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh in UK and he has answers for all that.
"Robots will only replace mundane aspects of our jobs," says Prof Ramamoorthy, who is hopeful that robots will soon revolutionise the tech world just like phones. That, he feels, depends on how soon companies and individuals realise the need to welcome robots into their realms.
Whether it is deployment of robots in bomb disposal squads or for landmine detection or for domestic chores, the future certainly belongs to robots, which can also be enabled to have meaningful conversations. Reality is fast catching up to fiction, if you believe Prof Subramanian. The brainy robots aren't far away, he says, but admits progress has been slow on that front.
In a chat with CIOL, Prof Subramanian throws light on the sectors that would see robot domination in the next five years and why India is slower, compared to other countries, in adoption of robotics. He strongly advocates that India should participate in Robocup, an international robotics competition. "There are teams from Taiwan and Iran. Why not India? All that it requires is a set of dedicated students to sit and do programming. I am always happy to help," he says.
Excerpts
CIOL: How do you see the future of robotics?
Prof Ramamoorthy: It is not all about when robots will come. It is more about when people are ready for it and will start realising the need for their deployment. To some extent start-up companies are increasingly focusing on autonomous robots, which are deployed outside factories. Robtots can be repeatedly and reliably do something like welding and we are now interested in sending robots for major tasks like bomb defusal, etc. The future of robots would be robustness of this kind in the real-world setting.
CIOL: Except for minor domestic and industrial adoption, India is still far behind western countries in robot adoption. What is the reason?
Prof Ramamoorthy: When cellphones entered the western world, infrastructure there was old. Copper wire was laid for phones. People had to struggle to set up base for cellphones. You look at Africa and China, it's a different story. They skipped a generation of technology saying they didn't have any infrastrucure. Instead of copper, they directly went for latest wireless technology and all of a sudden the entire country was run on that technology. It could be the same for India and other developing nations as far as robots are concerned.
In big universties in the West people have expensive robots comparable to telescopes which cost millions and need an army of people to take care of. One of the reasons why India hasn't seen huge adoption is because that kind of capital investment is not yet justified by the results people seem to get because here it is mainly for enterprise research.
CIOL: What kind of robots can enterprises expect in future?
Prof Ramamoorthy: Autonomous robots hold good for enterprises as well. Right now robots are special pupose machines but as with changing trends, enterprises need machines that are retargetable, reconfigurable, reusable and some of theses autonomous machines might fit the bill for those purposes, especially for SMBs because one day they might want a robot to conduct a workshop, the next day for searching something. They should be able to do different tasks at different times. So enterprises need that kind of reconfigurable robots.
CIOL: There has been a debate on robots taking over our jobs. Your view on that.
Prof Ramamoorthy: They don't have to take over our jobs. Once upon a time there was an entire pool of typists, but when computers came there were no more typists. You might say they took over those jobs, but they have gone on to do more interesting things than copying someone's letter. In the same way robots will replace mundane aspects of our jobs because that is a technology that has sociological implication too. It is possible to use robots as assistive devices that take over back-breaking and really dull things and let the person control those robots. So, you still have workers and some robots too.
CIOL: Which sector will see robot domination in the next five years?
Prof Ramamoorthy: There won't be just one sector. Most of the robot developers are trying to develop general purpose robots so that they don't have to guess which sector the robot would work for. In my view, it is going to be companies that have large infrastructure. An equivalent for a mainframe robotics would be a welding robot or a painting robot which are being used in automotive companies in India. Similarly, semiconductor manufacturing is a big industry for India. All these special purpose manufacturing units are increasingly using robots.
There is a clear business need. For example, Kiva Systems was acquired by Amazon for $700 mn. What it does is, it has a large pool of warehouse robots that move warehouse bins and stacks around. If you order a book through Amazon website, it will be optimised in such a way that it is not very far from the worker who packs it. Instead of the worker moving around, the warehouse moves around.
Those kind of advances will come first. It is the kind of savings that companies can see immediately. In medium term it will be robots depoyed in fields like environmental monitoring robots, submersible robots inspecting pipes etc. Potentially useful are healthcare robots where they can automate and assist doctors.
CIOL: How far are we from having meaningful conversation with robots?
Prof Ramamoorthy: Progress has been slower on that front. We are working on making them understand artificial intelligence. Motor control and the idea of understanding context and intention are harder problems. Work is under way, but has been slower.
CIOL: Do you feel the need to integrate robotics as part of academics? What is the tfirst step for robotics engineers?
Prof Ramamoorthy: Robotics is a fairly specialised subject. I don't advocate a special degree on that in India. We have foundational courses, good computer programmes and electrical engineering so I think what one might want to do is more than getting a degree, foster the community of robotics.
To be a robotics engineer, one needs to learn physics and maths foundation skills well. Get one's hands dirty with programming. For undergraduates, the question is not about knowing the names of robots. They need to know what are the foundational skills necessary to design tomorrow's robots.