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Find out how you can be a roboticist. UmmaSalma writes
What is Robotics?
It is the science of creating robots. The field requires a combination of electronics, mechanics and software. Someone who works in the field is known as a roboticist.
So define a robot.
By definition a robot has to have some mechanical functions and some electronic "sensory" and "brain" functions.
For example: A robot that sprays paint on car bodies has mechanical parts that move the spray nozzle over the surface to be painted and that force the paint out in a fine mist at just the right rate.
It also has instruments that detect the position of the target. Finally, it has a computer chip programmed to move the nozzle through a precise series of points at just the right speed. How complex is it to create all this?
The starting point
The programmes you need are BSc./B.Eng. robotics.
If you are good with computers, have an interest in knowing how things work, especially in artificial intelligence, then this is the course for you.
You can specialise in a number of sub-industries, leading up to careers in:
- Robotics in automotive manufacturing;
- Robotics in military applications;
- Robotics in space;
- Robotics in the home;
- Programmers;
- Systems engineers;
- Technicians;
- Database and simulation experts, and industrial engineers.
- The writer is a research scholar, a freelance trainer and an academic consultant .
Competing to build robots
Three Schools from the UAE - Al Mawakeb School, Al Barsha, the American Community School of Abu Dhabi and Al Mawakeb School, Garhoud, are busy preparing robots for the BOTBALL championship to be held this month in Qatar.
Wael, superviser of the projects from Al Mawakeb School, Al Barsha, spoke to Notes about what his students from grades 9 to 12 are up to:
The championship
- Three countries are participating from the region - Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE.
- Participants have 90 minutes to design a robot. It should have self-awareness, should be wireless and should complete a given task by itself.
- According to Wael, his students are creating two robots.
What will the robots do?
- Both robots collect pineapples (made out of sponge yellow and green colour leaves) in a farm; after gathering them, the robots have to pitch the fruit in one container and the leaves in the other.
- 55 seconds later there is a volcanic eruption and one of the robots swings into action to put it out by hurling water onto the fire. The action must be completed in the designated time of 90 minutes.
Incentives
Chuck Thorpe, dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar, has announced that the team winning the regional BOTBALL Championship will visit the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
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