The ARC
Written on July 4th, 2018 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}Automation and Robotics Club, or the ARC, is the go-to place for a
robotics enthusiast. From line following to bomb squad, right from the
basics to the advanced – ARC does everything you dreamt of doing with
robots. Though the core team of ARC might be small with around
thirty-five members, their events invoke huge participation in the
campus. Their 2017 line follower workshop, on 23rd September, drew a
participation in excess of 74 teams (210+ people).
The next ARC workshop that has been planned is a Bomb Squad workshop,
as a precursor to the ATMOS event. The ARC began as a small group of
around nine tech-geeks in 2014 with no funding, no room to make stuff,
and almost no materials at the beginning. They could get a temporary
workspace in E123 with the help of Prof. YVD Rao of the Mechanical
Engineering Department. They started making stuff, beginning with the
Smart Inventory Management System (SIMS) to keep track of materials, and
drones.
Today, their work includes a Drawing Robot, a Scara Robotic Arm, and
three 3D printers, of which the Flash Forge Inventor is the best. The
Flash Forge Inventor was purchased after the current Secretary, Yohan
MMR, got a research grant from the DST, Govt. of India.
The ARC also gets grants from the Director’s Discretionary Fund. The
ARC also has a futuristic robotic arm that can imitate (or “shadow”) the
movement of our hand. The robot can play Tic-Tac-Toe with humans, and
can even detect what we played. Another work in progress for the ARC is
the chess bot, that was inspired by Wizards’ Chess of Harry Potter. The
chess bot, which runs on an AI built by the members of this club, has
strong magnets placed underneath the chess board, which can drag the
metallic pieces along with them when the robot is making a move.
ARC also participates in competitions like eYantra. In 2016, a four
member team consisting of Sharath Golluri, Abhinav Kumar, Shivam Bhagat
and Nikhilansh PV made it to the final stages of the eYantra, a
prestigious annual robotics competition conducted by IIT Bombay.
Sharath Golluri, Technical Secretary of BPHC and Treasurer of the
ARC, says that ARC for him is more than just building robots – “It’s
also about developing your interpersonal skills”. Sharath is an
excellent example to show that your field of study in BITS is not a
barrier to you following your interests. Even though his branch maybe
Civil Engineering, he is probably better known for his achievements in
Robotics. Inductions to ARC are usually announced late-November or in
the first weeks of December. Inductions are a two-round process, the
first round being a robotics project. To get inducted, you will have to
make a robot that does a basic task - like cleaning floors, following a
line on the floor, responding to a clap or noise, or recognize
handwriting. The robotics project, which will have to be done over the
winter break, will qualify you for Round 2, which is a personal
interview.
Ultimately, the ARC is the Mecca of BPHC for someone interested in robotics.
Article by Rohit Dwivedula and Shreyam Kumar. Edited by Rohitt Vashishta.