THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) has launched a book titled ‘Building Smart Robots using ROS’ to attract young generation to the field. In the book, Robin Tommy, the head of TCS Rapid Labs, explains the making and working of humanoid robots. The book will be officially released by eminent personalities including chief principal secretary KM Abraham on Friday on the Technopark campus.
Robin says the book will help anyone freely explore robotics, which is the need of the hour as research programmes are progressing on humanoids across the country. According to him, after the success of Mithram — India’s first humanoid robot that practises social skills — the part of robots in supporting the neurodivergent community has become more relevant.
“To teach autistic children, we may need to repeat a word or sentence multiple times. However, many lack the patience for the task. Humanoids become more relevant in these situations as we can programme them to aid the children. The book was a means to help people who have basic knowledge in science to understand the mechanism of making robots. It explains how to make a robot from scratch,” says Robin.
Robin plans to utilise the profit earned from the book to support the NGO, Inclusys, which works with autistic children and other individuals with intellectual disabilities.
“As our country is celebrating 75th year of Independence, we have planned to support and educate 75 individuals in the neurodivergent community with the profits from the book. We will provide them vocational IT training, including in data entry operations and software analysis. It will equip them to earn a livelihood in the IT industry,” he says.