A Bangalore-based not-for-profit organization, AI & Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK) has launched the Robotics challenge for engineering colleges and universities to build a community of robotics enthusiasts in India.
“ARTPARK Robotic challenge will support, nurture and create a robotics ecosystem and make India the global leader in robotics production and technologies,” the statement said.
“The service industry is constantly struggling with rising labor costs with a lack of true performance standards—and a churning workforce. Despite all this, hardworking service providers are fighting to measure and prove their differentiated offerings in the market daily. Tackling these challenges can now be accomplished by automating routine and improving the lives of employees. This can all be achieved with a single deployment of automated technology,” it added.
Under this robotic challenge, ARTPARK has selected 27 teams for the next stage, and the four teams; Cerberus, Gryffindors, Giga Robotics & Robo Jyothians are further qualified for the Final Round. The challenge requires robots to demonstrate janitorial tasks that would be typically performed in a washroom.
In this challenge, the tasks are limited to clearing any rubbish that may be on the floor followed by cleaning the washbasin and the washbasin counter using a sanitizing liquid. The main technical challenges include (autonomously) creating an accurate map of the washroom and the surroundings by using appropriate sensors, designing a robotic platform and a manipulator to perform the navigation, pickup, mopping tasks, and devising perception algorithms for accurately recognizing, estimating the locations and orientations of the various objects in the washroom.
The robot will be given a brief opportunity to scout out the washroom area ahead of time so that it can assess the environment and create a representation of it for planning and navigation purposes.
“ARTPARK is looking to create a societal impact in healthcare, education, mobility, infrastructure, agriculture, retail, and cyber-security and focus on problems relevant to India and the developing world,” it further added.