Local Robotics startup to adopt and train 70 slum children

A local engineer who came up with a robotics training start-up last year, announced on Saturday he would adopt 70 slum children to sharpen their start-up culture.
A initiative was launched by young entrepreneur Akshay Ahuja under which these children will be trained on a fortnightly basis.
“Seventy slum children will be trained on a fortnightly basis at the co-working space, which has a number of start-ups working from its premises now,” Ahuja told IANS.
He said the participating children were brought in a radio cab to give the feel of an entrepreneur and were even trained how to use the mobile application to promote Digital India.
They were explained the basics of robotics on the first day. They were also given away certificates to acknowledge their participation in the workshop, Ahuja said.
Trained by the Chandigarh-based RoboChamps, Tushar Sarin, a class VIII student of Vivek High School here, would be part of the training module.
RoboChamps is a sister concern of Robotics Education World being run by Ahuja and is engaged in providing robotics- and technology-based education to the young minds through schooling education in India.
Ahuja said this initiative would bring a smile on the faces of the slum children.
“I have always felt education is for everyone irrespective of the social status. I felt these underprivileged kids who are otherwise deprived of quality education must be trained. Who knows some of them turns out to be an entrepreneur one day,” he said.
Former Indian Administrative Service officer Vivek Atray, who attended the training programme, said: “It’s highly important for the society at large to encourage children from underprivileged background to shine and realise their potential.”

In a step forward for robotics design, humanoid robot DURUS uses heel-to-toe walking.

Credit: Christian Hubicki / Georgia Tech

A bipedal robot can now put its best foot forward, stepping with a heel-toe motion that copies human locomotion more closely than flat-footed robot walkers can.
By rocking its "feet" forward from the heel and pushing off at the toe, the DURUS robot closely imitates the walking motion of people, making it more energy-efficient and better at navigating uneven terrain, according to Christian Hubicki, a postdoctoral fellow in robotics at the Georgia Institute of Technology and one of the researchers who helped DURUS find its footing.
Enhanced walking capabilities could help robots navigate environments that people move around in, and could improve the performance of bots created for disaster response, Hubicki told Live Science. [Robots on the Run! 5 Bots That Can Really Move]

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The humanoid robot DURUS was designed collaboratively by the research nonprofit SRI International and Georgia Tech's Advanced Mechanical Bipedal Experimental Robotics (AMBER) Lab. An earlier DURUS design was modified to accommodate the new manner of walking, enabled by a novel mathematical algorithm that adjusts the robot's momentum and balance, one step at a time.

Well-heeled

Robots that walk on two legs typically have "feet" that are large and flat, to provide a more stable platform, Hubicki told Live Science.

Heel-to-toe walking makes DURUS more energy-efficient and more stable than flat-footed walkers.

Credit: Christian Hubicki / Georgia Tech

"Bigger feet mean a bigger polygon of support, and the harder it is to fall," Hubicki said.
The algorithms that dictate a robot's forward momentum typically keep those big feet flat on the ground when pushing off, to minimize the risk that the bot will tip over.
"As soon as you lean on an edge, you're like a pendulum — on a pivot point that can fall forward or backward," Hubicki said.
But while a flat-footed walker might perform well on a treadmill, uneven terrain in the real world that doesn't accommodate a flat foot could confound the algorithm and stop a robot in its tracks.
Enter the AMBER Lab researchers, who designed a new algorithm that works to keep a robot upright and moving forward even if only parts of the foot are engaged. Hubicki and his colleagues tested DURUS using a modified foot with an arch; every step began with the heel making contact — the "heel strike," according to Hubicki — and then rolling to the ball of the foot to push off from the ground. Springs installed by the robot's ankles act like tendons, storing the heel strike's energy to be released later, as lift.