Geek Speak: Sendhan

“Distance means so little when passion means so much”. Words like these stand the test of time. What’s all the more impressive is the fact these aren’t false. Several instances that we come across in our daily lives reiterate these facts. It’s the weekend and students are back here at Kidobotikz as usual. Everybody is here already gearing up for the next of Kidobotikz’s festivities- KRG. Students discuss projects and ideas with their trainers in anticipation for narrowing down on ideas that they can make a working model out of so that they get to display the same at Kidobotikz’s coveted event. I enter a room full of enthused young guys who are all here working on some tech fuelled concept of their own. The fact that it is a saturday and they are learning some serious science seems to be lost upon them. Most other children would rebel against the idea of science on a saturday. But for these gentlemen, it is a part of their fun and frolic. I stumble upon a young gentleman, Sendhan, who is hard at work figuring out how to solve the issue plaguing the bot he has assembled. Following are the excerpts from this interesting conversation:

Hi Sendhan! Temme a bit about yourself:

Hi! I am Senthan of Class 9, RMK Senior Secondary School, Thiruverkadu.

Thiruverkadu? Isn’t that far?

Yes. It is quite far. Infact, it takes me close to an hour to come all the way from there. But, I don’t feel it so bad cos whatever time I spend on the bus, I still get to have fun building robots.

What level are you in? And how is your course progressing?

I am in the Advanced level. The course is going good. Infact, I am here to work on a project that could be displayed the upcoming KRG. I wanted to do something interesting and this I believe is the right platform for me to express that. I am developing a Self-balancing robot.

Project, you say. Can you explain what you are working on?

As I said already, I am working on a Self-balancing robot. It is a robot which has only two wheels. This makes it inherently unstable. I have developed codes that when executed will make the bot stand upright on its own without falling over.

How have you accomplished this?

Basically, I have used an 3-axis accelerometer which is capable of sensing movement in all 3 direction.  This means that the arduino microprocessor can keep track of the stability of the robot in all 3 directions and control the wheel rotation accordingly so that the robot remains upright.

This interesting. Are you aware of any potential applications for this kind of technology?

I am aware of many applications for such a system. Infact, most humanoid robots of the future could be stationed on self balancing wheels that are capable of standing upright and moving around with ease. Even the White ranger on Power Rangers SPD has a unibike which would use a similar principle. (laughs).

Moving on, what is your favourite course among the 4- Electronics, Mechanics, Algorithm and Programming?

I just love programming. I have always liked it over the other subjects. As a matter of fact, I can code on Arduino and I have learnt C as well. So programming ot is. But since the other subjetcs are important to build a bot, I try to keep in touch with them too.

What do you plan to do for your higher studies? Do you think the robotics that you learnt here is a part of your plan?
Robotics is the only plan. After class 10, I plan to take up computer science in 11 n 12. Since, computer science involves programming, I think I will be at comfort learning the courses. After that I am aiming to take up Mechatronics for my Bachelors. I wanna work towards making better robots.

Wow! That is quite interesting. I wish you all the best. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.