Robosapien

With Autopilot and Full-Self Driving (FSD) options, Tesla (Models 3, Y, S, X), cars are one of the most sophisticated and accurate Driverless cars on the road, and continually getting better and better. Rivian (R1S, R1T), the Waymo fleet of all-electric Jaguar I-PACE SUVs with Google’s autonomous driver technology are the others among the notable names. A milestone in the journey of Driverless cars, though, was the 2,850-mile, no-hands road trip called “No Hands Across America”, taken up by two CMU folks, in an almost completely autonomous car in 1995. In July 1995, Dean Pomerleau and Todd Jochem of CMU’s Robotics Institute took an epic, 2,850-mile journey from Pittsburgh to San Diego, in a 1990 Pontiac Trans Sport minivan. Their driver for more than 98 percent of the journey was a computer named the Rapidly Adapting Lateral Position Handler (RALPH), and their minivan was Navlab 5—the latest in a series of autonomous vehicles that had been developed at CMU’s Robotics Institute since 19...

In 2026, Tesla Optimus has become the de facto face of the new age Autonomous Robot revolution. Optimus is a 1.73 m, 57 kg, general-purpose humanoid robot designed for autonomous, repetitive, or dangerous tasks. It utilizes Tesla's EV battery technology, has end-to-end neural network AI capability based on Tesla FSD, and the ability to learn tasks by observing humans. And though it is difficult to fathom, the first humanoid robot belongs to the 1960s, a full 60 years prior to 2026. “Shakey” is the first mobile robot with the ability to perceive and reason about its surroundings. It was physically mobile, and had elementary computer vision, and basic navigation capability.  Shakey (https://www.sri.com/hoi/shakey-the-robot) was created from 1966-72 by the Artificial Intelligence Center at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International). Shakey could perform tasks that required planning, route-finding, and the rearranging of simple objects. Shakey could perceive its surroundings, ...

Long Post Alert!  IIT Delhi Tryst 2026   https://tryst-iitdelhi.org  I had the opportunity to visit IIT Delhi for the Annual Robotics festival TRYST 2026, and didn't miss it even though it was right in the middle of my final exams. A few days' break in the exam schedule due to Holi helped as well. Though I only had a 3-hour window, I got the vibe: the participants, the energy, the displays, the seminars, and the competitions. I liked the following:  1. The ISRO Exhibition, with models of Chandrayaan-3 (1:15), GSLV Mk III (1:20) and PSLV (1:20). Chandrayaan-3 had achieved India's historic soft landing on the Moon's South Pole on August 23, 2023, making India the first nation to do so and the fourth country overall to land on the Moon. The mission successfully deployed the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, completing all its scientific objectives, and demonstrating India's advanced space capabilities. The GSLV Mk III, now redesignated as LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-3), i...

Update: completion of my Udemy course 'Biomechanics: The Physics of Human Movement'. The course covered the following:  1. Basic terminology of Biomechanics 2. Physics Concepts: Mechanics  3. Statics of the Human Body 4. The Skeletal System 5. Stability and Resistance of the Human Body  6. The Muscular System 7. Kinematics & Kinetics of Human Movement 8. Motion Analysis

With the Biomechanics course completed, I moved on to a new project. In this and the next few blogs, I will discuss the same. The project is ‘Robotic Hand Assist for Rehabilitation’ for rehabilitation through robotic actuation using computer vision. The idea behind the project is to build a robotic hand-assist, which identifies objects using computer vision and helps a human hand pick and hold the object. This can help patients recovering from nerve damage affecting their hand movement. The robotic device can be strapped on the human hand using velcro, and has the following components - 1. A 3D printed human hand-like structure with velcro 2. A microcontroller 3. A camera for enabling computer vision 4. A servo motor with strings attached for enabling movement 5. Machine Learning component - a CV library Further details on the project in the next few blog posts...

Here is the muscle map of human body. Credit: Udemy Course ' Biomechanics: The Physics Of Human Movement' by 'Emil Cordes' 

Here is the bone map of human body. Credit: Udemy Course ' Biomechanics: The Physics Of Human Movement' by 'Emil Cordes'