CHENNAI: The robot’s eyes flicker to life, blue LED lights surveying the room. Its grey arms move up jerkily and shake hands with the student standing before it. The robot greets the student, and the display panel affixed on the robot’s chest flickers to life with options for the student to select.
SARA, or Shasun Adaptive Robotic Assistance, is a life-sized humanoid robot built by the students of Shri Shankarlal Shasun Jain College for Women. The six-foot robot operates on AI technology to identify and welcome visitors to the college. It is the first time that the students of an Arts & Science College have developed a robot in Chennai.
“The robot will answer any questions our visitors have. It will operate near the help desk. It will tell visitors about our college and guide them around the campus too. It will also answer any queries the guest has on our college. It has a built-in sensor with facial recognition technology, so if you greet it again, it will call you by name,” said Madhumitha R, who, along with Khushi A, S Vithika, R Hemapriya, S Nivedeinee and M Bhavana Kanooga, developed the robot.
The robot weighs 29.2 kg and has a seven-inch tablet as an interface. It took six months to develop the robot, with assistance from the Do-It-Yourself Academy. The students say that they learned much about software and coding during the robot’s development.
“The future is mechanical, not manual. Robotics has transformed how we operate and interact with the world. We wanted to do something unique, and so we settle on making an assistance robot,” said Khushi.
The students urge more people to open themselves up to the world of robotics. They plan on bettering SARA before moving on to other projects. For example, SARA only speaks and understands English, so they hope to programme more languages into her, as well as make her into a one-stop-shop for all matters of the school as well as on current affairs.