1. Metal Rapid Prototyping through Micro-Welding [DST]
   This project attempts to deposit metal in fine layers to develop metallic objects through rapid prototyping.

2. Hyper-Redundant Tele-Manipulators [BRNS] This project attempts to design highly redundant manipulators for reaching most parts of complex workspaces.

   

   Gesture-based Gantry Crane The gesture shown causes the crane to tilt anti-clockwise. (Click on image for more details)

3. Human Gesture Analysis [AICTE]
   In the Distance Learning project Virtual Kathakali, a guru at a remote location can follow the motions of a pupil (e.g. in in surgery, cricket, or dance) at very low bandwidth based on a single-camera human motion recognition system.

   Similar techniques have been used to control EOT gantry cranes by the same gestures as are actually used on the shop floor. [TISCO]

   Soccer Micro-Robots incorporate autonomous control with radio communication in a very small package. Three robots play in a team, sensing the board through an off-line camera.

4. Soccer Playing Micro-Robots [DST]
   Each micro-robot is a 3-inch cube. Contains autonomous power supply, radio control, and plays soccer in teams of three. A fast colour vision system tracks three robots in each team and the ball in real time (60Hz).

   How does a robot learn? Check out this older page on Learning to Shoot Goals)

   From Scripts to Animation A view from an animation created by the program Virtual Director. Text input: "The man gives the flower to the woman."

5. Teleoperated Mobile Robots [BRNS]
   The robot R.O.M.P. features a large payload and can be controlled very robustly from a remote control station, incorporating force feedback. The Teleoperated Fire Tending Robot [UP Fire Services] incorporates a water hose carrier that can be tele-operated into a fire.

6. Making movies from English Text [DST]
   Here the spatial constraints imposed by an english language story are used to control motions of humans and other objects

7. Reconstructing Vehicle Motion from Conceptual Descriptions
   Given a conceptual description of a vehicle's motion and the road geometry, what knowledge is needed to accurately place the vehicle?

8. Virtual Reality Games Several Gesture based VR games make the user imagine he/she is moving through a hyper space based on motions of the arms, which can bank like the wings of an aeroplane or move by jet thrusters.

You will find details about some of the other projects as recent M.Tech./PhD theses listed under our alumnus page.

Autonomous Soccer Robot learns to take motion decisions based on visual states alone. (Click on image for more details).

Total research volume for FY1998 was approximately Rs. 6 million. This is comprised of funding from

• DST (Department of Science and Technolgy)

Currently the Center has four projects funded by DST:
• Soccer-Playing Robots (PI: A. Mukerjee/ S. Sen): 9.8 Lakhs
• Parallel Manipulators (PI: B. Dasgupta): 8 Lakhs
• Text-Driven Animation of Human Characters (PI: A. Mukerjee / A. Raina): 11 Lakhs
• Walking Robots (PI: K. Deb / S. Sen)

Surface Inspection of Steel Sheets Visual Defects (dents) are detected at multiple scales in an image of a Cold Rolled Steel Sheet. The system uses parallel DSP image processing to handle online inspection on rolling mills running at 20 meters. Take a look at this Defect Atlas.

• MHRD
• AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education)
Funds a project on Distance Training.
• Industry
• Hyper-Redundant Tele-Manipulators (BRNS, Rs. 24 Lakhs)
• On-line Inspection of Cold Rolled Steel Surface Defects (SAIL, Rs. 47 Lakhs).
• Gesture-based Control of EOT Cranes (TISCO, 1.6 Lakhs).

Online information on a number of projects dealing with robotics may also be found listed under the individual faculty pages.