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“Walk the talk” with IECSE’s convene Vipul

Puri

What’s cooking in the open source world?

IECSE Manipal | Bi-Monthly Cyber Tech Magazine 1

The logo has been inspired by the three earliest pyramids built by Egyptian Pharoah

Sneferu, the Meidum Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid.

The Meidum Pyramid was a step pyramid that was later turned into a true pyramid. The

Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid have arch like structures and the three pyramids con-

tinues to survive till date. The Red Pyramid, at the time of its completion was the tallest

man-made structure in the world.

The IE-CSE team has been inspired by this magnificent work by Pharoah Sneferu, and al-

so consists of the three pyramids namely

The Working Committee,

The Management Committee and

The Board.

We believe in delivering the best.

And we present to you the first Technical Magazine Manipal has ever seen.

Hope you enjoy it!

IECSE Manipal | Bi-Monthly Cyber Tech Magazine 2

The vast majority of robots are used by the man-

ufacturing industry, for repetitive tasks such as

painting auto-bodies and simple assembly. Some

100,000 new robots were installed worldwide in

2000, nearly half of them in Japan, the biggest

user. There were nearly 800,000 industrial ro-

bots in existence at the end of 2002 and this is

likely to rise to almost 1 million by the end of

2004.

In the last decade the performance of robots has

increased radically while at the same time prices

have been plummeting. Today, manufacturing

robots have a payback period as short as 1-2

years. In N. America, the price of robots relative

to labor costs have fallen to 26, and as low as 12

if quality improvements are taken into consider-

ation.

As robot intelligence increases, and as sensors,

actuators and operating mechanisms become

more sophisticated, other applications are now

multiplying. There are now thousands of under-

water robots, demolition robots and even robots

used in long-distance surgery.

Dozens of experimental search-and-rescue ro-

bots scoured the wreckage of the World Trade

Center's collapsed twin towers. Teams of robot-

ics experts were at Ground Zero operating exper-

imental robots to probe the rubble and locate

bodies. During the war in Afghanistan, robots

were being used by the US military as tools for

combat. They were sent into caves,

Robots and their dominion in the future

IECSE Manipal | Bi-Monthly Cyber Tech Magazine 1

buildings or other dark areas ahead of troops to

help prevent casualties.

After the recent anthrax scares, work has been

ongoing to replace postal workers with robots.

Indeed, there is huge potential to mechanize the

U.S. postal service and some 1,000 robots were

installed last year to sort parcels. The U.S. postal

service has estimated that it has the potential to

use up to 80,000 robots for sorting work, alt-

hough existing models are not suitable for sort-

ing letters.

Roomba is made by Massachusetts-based iRo-

bot, one of many companies planning to launch a

host of new robots over the next few years. New

robotics products that will soon be introduced

include autonomous floor cleaners and industrial

tools built to do boring, dirty and dangerous

work like inspecting oil wells. Of course, auton-

omous oil well inspectors aren't as thrilling as

the robotic servants that some visionaries have

predicted. But robotics and artificial intelligence

are working their way into everyday life, albeit in

less dramatic ways.

Rodney Brooks, Director of the MIT Artificial In-

telligence Laboratory and Chairman of iRobot

Corporation, has been involved in this transfor-

mation for decades. His latest book "Flesh & Ma-

chines" explores many themes related to life

with robots. The book centers on Brooks' own

passion for creating what he calls "situated crea-

tures" which we can eventually regard as our

teachers and companions.

Now iRobot has a US Defense contract to build a

robot, about the size of a suitcase, which can

climb stairs, crawl over ditches, survive three-

story falls. Instead of carrying bombs, this robot

has eyes and ears, transmitting what it sees and

hears over a wireless link. This is a "Packbot"

which can be thrown into a vehicle and then

hurled through windows of buildings where the

enemy may have hostages.

In general, robotic systems are of great interest

to the Department of Defense because they offer

the ability to perform military actions at greater

stand-off distances, allow dangerous missions to

be performed with minimal risk to people.