Kochi  :

Team Autobots, a collaboration of two robotic start-ups in Kochi – Qbotics Labs and Sastra Robotics –  has bagged the first prize in the Humanitarian Robotics and Automation Technology Challenge (HRATC) held in Stockholm, Sweden.

HRATC is the biggest global robotics conference organised by Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). The International Conference of Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2016) brings together the brightest scientists and researchers working with cutting-edge robotics.

Team Autobots is one of the top four teams from across the world that made it into the finals of the challenge and is the team with the leading score.

Team Autobots comprises expert engineers from Qbotics Labs, which specialises in mobile robotics research, and Sastra Robotics, which specialises in robotic arms for testing of devices.

The members of the team are Lentin Joseph (CEO/founder, Qbotics Labs), who is leading the team, Achu Wilson (CTO/co-founder, Sastra Robotics) and Chandy Kunju Alex (robotics engineer, Sastra Robotics).

The challenge of the team was to find and defuse hidden unexploded landmines in an area, autonomously using a robot without human intervention.

The competition tries to find the best software solutions to avoid and defuse mines using a robot called Husky. There are three phases in the challenge. The first algorithm phase involves teams proposing ingenious algorithms to tackle the challenge.

The shortlisted teams enter the second phase called simulation phase, which involves implementation of the proposed algorithm on robotic simulator Gazebo using software platform Robot Operating System(ROS). Teams which perform best in simulation phase enter the testing phase, in which the algorithm runs on the real robot itself. The testing phase is the final phase and Team Autobots emerged victorious with top score.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Express News Service / May 29th, 2016