Some Inventions In The Field Of Robotics And Impact My Future Career Plan

INTRODUCTION

Who would have thought back in the days that a machine could make you communicate with another person or could wake you up or would help you store your memories or even look up a recipe for you that you had been waiting to prepare for a long time?!That’s the mobile phone which was first invented in 1973 with a pure intention to place a call and talk to someone but it has evolved so much in the coming years that it is just like a person who has answers to all of your questions. The mobile phone today isn’t exactly a robot but the idea behind it runs along the lines of a robot. Coming to the main highlight of this paper, the robot is a machine designed with artificial intelligence as a key component that conducts various functions that it has been told to do. This paper will give an insight in the latest inventions or discoveries in the field of robotics and how it will impact my future career plan.

NEW INVENTIONS

1) RoboFly

This era is giving light to a lot of new discoveries and inventions in the field of robotics. One such intriguing invention is that of a new flying lightweight robot which can literally lounge on your finger. This is a huge breakthrough in the blueprint of small airborne robots which are too tiny to hold onto a power source and hence had to been leashed to a battery in order to be able to fly. Thus, to diminish this hindrance, the RoboFly uses a very thin onboard circuit that converts the laser light into electrical energy to make it fly. The pair of intricate and translucent wings weigh in to make it as light in weight as possible.

One of the things that makes it able to fly freely is the employment of a photovoltaic cell on its body that converts energy from a narrow laser beam. It generates about 7 volts of electricity, which a supple onboard circuit is able to boost it to the 240 volts of energy required for takeoff. The brain that controls the entire circuit is the microcontroller which transmits pulses of voltage to its wings and makes them flap just like an insect would do.

The only obstacle it puts forth is that the cell does not hoard energy because of which the entire circuit must be contained by the range of the fixed laser to able to supply power for to bot to liftoff. So, if the cell moves beyond the laser’s area of projection the RobotFly’s journey is over. Major application areas of these RoboFlies can include the ones in the disaster rescue missions where if a building has collapsed they could waver in through the small crevices where the huge aerial drones would not fit. According to the inventors of this RoboFly from the University of Washington, they could also be used for environmental scanning to be scattered in a habitat to percept and map out the chemicals or other factors. One of the suggestions for a possible use for these mini insect like robots are that they can be used to find methane leaks and avert a possible emission of greenhouse gas if it is patched up.

2) Sophia

A Hong Kong based company known as Hanson Robotics has developed a humanoid robot named Sophia which is able to exhibit more than 50 facial expressions. The robot is most prominently known for its human like facade and how it behaves in comparison to its predecessors. It has been developed in a way that it represents the yesteryear actress Audrey Hepburn. It has been designed using artificial intelligence, visual data processing and facial recognition as the primary factors.

The humanoid can replicate human gestures and facial expressions in addition to be able to answer certain questions to make easy conversations on limited topics. Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc has provided the speech to text technology in building the robot. The AI software examines the simple conversations she has with people and gathers the data that allows her to develop her responses in the future. The cameras equipped with computer algorithms enable her to see and thus it pursues faces and perceives individuals. Earlier, Sophia was only subjected to talking but recently it has been provided purposeful legs with the capacity to walk.

Sophia’s ultimate goal is to serve in the areas of healthcare, therapy and education. Hanson had first developed it to help people in nursing homes or to entertain large crowds at various events. She is constantly being monitored and her AI is progressing at a rapid rate to be able to reach a point where she can talk like a normal human being and give out minimal errors.

Sophia has been awarded the United Nations’ Development Programme first innovation title. She is the first humanoid to be given a citizenship of any country. She has also appeared in high profile interviews and the list goes on.

Future Career Plan

Robotics is a vast and an interesting field with innumerable opportunities. These two inventions that I have mentioned rely deeply on digital image processing and artificial intelligence. I have done a project based on Swarm Robotics in my undergrad which relied mostly on communication amongst the robots in order to reach an object to its destination. All of these study areas can help me project my interest in this field. Designing the plan and then working on it will be the key aspect. Robotics is moving forward at a tremendously fast pace and the ideas and opportunities related are also growing at the same rate. There will be a time when robots will be outnumbering humans but we have to make sure that won’t overpower mankind.