In India a few research groups have been working in the development of robots but a break through is yet to be made in the field of robots for large-scale industrial application. The groups working on robotics include R & D of the Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), the Central Machine Tools Institute (CMIT), the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, the Indian Institute of Science of Bangalore and the Hyderabad Science Society, Hyderabad.
The public sector defense production unit, Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) was the first Indian Industry to introduce an indigenously developed robot in its production line. It introduced a Tick and Place’ type with a three- axis movement in its television tube production plant at Bangalore. The pneumatically operated robots were incorporated to improve the productivity, maintaining ability in the semi- automated plant, eliminating operator fatigue and other health hazards controlled by microprocessor.
The Hyderabad Science Society, which has done pioneering working in the field of robotics, developed a robot with the ability to move about using ultrasonic sensors just like a bat. The robot. With ultrasonic sensors could be used in industries involving health hazards, such as spraying chemical and nuclear plants. The robotic laboratory at the school of automation of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has developed a microprocessor- based robotic arm.
The arm has four joints, each of which is actuated by a steppar motor. The robotic arm can be controlled manually from a front panel or automatically through a video terminal and a keyboard. It can be commanded to pick up an object from a specified location or to search, locate and then grip an object within the work area. A joint venture of DRDO and Robotics in Bangalore have developed ‘Chaturobot’ an intelligent robot with vision sensors, which can pick up objects in its visual field no matter how they are oriented.