Shankar’s Enthiran is ready for release and all of a sudden the curiosity about robots and robotics has gone up several notches. We seem to have this thing for the machines which look and behave as men but which seem to be more equipped than we are and sci-fi films and comics can take full credit for stoking our interest in the automatons.
The filmi robot men who captured our imagination were those in the Star Wars. C3 PO and R2D2 robots with their raspy guttural voices were metallic humanoids, striding on wheeler limbs.
The movie had the two robots sharing a comical camaraderie that was only too amusing. With the Star Wars becoming a phenomenon, a slew of movies with robots, cyborgs and humanoids as protagonists followed.
Though there were damp squibs at the BO, a few like I-Robot, Transformer, Robocop series, Aliens series, Star Trek series, Matrix and Robot (animation) made it big. Tapping the West’s craze for movies based on lesser known or unknown elements, movies about robots have surfaced time and again and are most likely to be made in the future too.
When they were new, they unleashed the movie makers’ creativity. Soon directors made these machine men fight the baddies, seek revenge, kill their makers (I Robot) and even romance the heroine (buzz is that Enthiran is a pot pourri of all these?).
Kids merchandise has found a potential in these movies and robot toys have been very popular. Even TV shows and comics that cater to youngsters had to have a robotic character for extra appeal.
Irona, the robot maid and security guard to Richie Rich, who lives with Richie’s family or Rosie the robotic maid of the Jetsons Family are all examples of mirthful fembots, while the robot of Toy Story ( animation series) is an intellectual.
May be it’s not fair, but the robots on screen have overshadowed their behind-the-screen counterparts, which were responsible for the technical brilliance of movies like Jaws.
The shark was actually a robot and in Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs were robots too. The mechanical giants were remote controlled.
To give them their due credit, the filmi robots brought the obscure science of Robotics to the fore. Many avid fans of the Star War series have vouched that the movie inspired them to turn robotic engineers.
But what is Robotics actually ? Is it a field with scope only in tinseldom or does it find applications in real life too?
We posed our questions to Asokan, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Design, IITM, who is also a Robotics Expert.
We posed our questions to Asokan, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Design, IITM, who is also a Robotics Expert.
He says, ‘It is wrong to term Robotics as a budding branch of study. But there is no denying that over the last two or three decades, there has been a spurt of development in this field.
Now almost all engineering colleges in India offer basic courses in Robotics to their students and this is one subject that all students love. They eagerly await the annual robotics competitions that are held by various universities.’
‘What one sees in movies, books and serials are the fantasy applications of robotics. In reality, robots find many uses as industrial, medical and domestic robots,’ he says.
Explaining the term robot he says, ‘it is a mechatronic system that is a combination of electronics, software communication and artificial intelligence to some extent.
‘At IIT we have designed robots to carry out underwater research. We are also into developing cost- effective robots for industrial purposes.
They carry out operations autonomously in adverse conditions. There are cleaning robots too. Domestic robots find a lot of applications as teachers for the differently abled in a few countries, though it may take longer for them to catch up in the Indian scenario.
But here too robots are being increasingly used to provide assistance to the elderly. These robots fitted with prosthetic devices help old people to move about, open doors etc. The field of robotics is undergoing a lot of change.
‘There is a shift from industrial to domestic usage and this is welcome. Schools are introducing basic courses in robotics. This will kindle the children’s curiosity. They would want to know how the machine works. This is a good sign,’ he says.
But coming back to Enthiran. It is our first cine robot, though Hollywood may have had several of them. The average Indian movie-goer does not ga ga over sci-fi and such films have usually not been runaway successes.
Enthiran is a different thing, however. Director Shankar has made it and there is Rajnikanth in and as robot. The hype surrounding the movie has been huge and they say it can only be a stupendous hit. The good thing is, we don’t have to wait long to find if it will truly be what it is being made out to be.
‘What one sees in movies, books and serials are the fantasy applications of robotics. In reality, robots find many uses as industrial, medical and domestic robots,’ he says.
Explaining the term robot he says, ‘it is a mechatronic system that is a combination of electronics, software communication and artificial intelligence to some extent.
‘At IIT we have designed robots to carry out underwater research. We are also into developing cost- effective robots for industrial purposes.
They carry out operations autonomously in adverse conditions. There are cleaning robots too. Domestic robots find a lot of applications as teachers for the differently abled in a few countries, though it may take longer for them to catch up in the Indian scenario.
But here too robots are being increasingly used to provide assistance to the elderly. These robots fitted with prosthetic devices help old people to move about, open doors etc. The field of robotics is undergoing a lot of change.
‘There is a shift from industrial to domestic usage and this is welcome. Schools are introducing basic courses in robotics. This will kindle the children’s curiosity. They would want to know how the machine works. This is a good sign,’ he says.
But coming back to Enthiran. It is our first cine robot, though Hollywood may have had several of them. The average Indian movie-goer does not ga ga over sci-fi and such films have usually not been runaway successes.
Enthiran is a different thing, however. Director Shankar has made it and there is Rajnikanth in and as robot. The hype surrounding the movie has been huge and they say it can only be a stupendous hit. The good thing is, we don’t have to wait long to find if it will truly be what it is being made out to be.
