INDIAN ROBOTICS CAREER

Robotics is not just about building small robots. Robotics involves a lot of fields like electronics, mechanics, computers and is a very interesting and stimulation field to be in unlike building ERP and Banking Applications for some MNC. So for you as a person trying to get into this field will have to know some of the fields that are used in it. There will be mainly three types of projects you will be involved in which are industrial robotics constituting manufacturing robots, application specific which can be bomb disposal for defense to vacuum cleaners for your home and Research level which includes research projects. Each field of robotics will look forward for a different skill set and experience.

The following skill sets is what I think the recruitment person will look for when he is reaching out for candidates

Industrial Robotics: These will look for at least a B.Tech in mechanical engineering / mechatronics, proper understanding of control systems.

Application Specific: These companies produce robots that might involve everything from mechanical systems to high end embedded systems. So they will look forward for again a minimum B.Tech in Computer Engineering / Mechanical Engineering / Electronic Engineering. Skill set will be application specific for Computer Science students they might look for exp with Assembly, C, Embedded Systems, Basic Ai knowledge (Depends), Image processing, Exp with RTOS, f or Mechanical Students the skill set will be similar to the one required in Industrial robotics and for Electrical or Electronics Student they will look forward that you know Assembly, C, FPGA, DSP, Embedded Systems, Control Systems.

Research Level*: These companies will try to find people with higher degrees and a much more complex skill set depending on the field of research.

* don'™t expect to get paid much ( Research jobs a cool and fun but you don’t get paid enough . Ex - A new research scholar at IIT might get anything from Rs 6000 – Rs 9000 ) .

What should I do so as to get selected?

Get a B.Tech or a BE for starters (Computer, IT, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Electronics, Electrical etc). If you can go for higher studies do it will radically increase your chances for working in this field. In India many course are available here is the Indian Robotics Courses List. But try to leave for US based universities if you can there are many good universities in the US involved in robotics namely CMU.

Also try to do a decent robotics project in your Final year of undergraduate degree. Remember stupid robots like R/C, Object avoiders, LFR, and Object avoiders will not be considered anywhere try to build robotics with high end technologies are used and your expertise is highlighted. For ideas check out the projects page. Also keep updated with the latest news and what is happening in the world.

How much can I expect to get paid?

Why don’t you see many people working in robotics? Simple enough people don’t get paid enough … I’m not talking about IITians into taking into consideration general public. Reasons are quite simple Robotics is not a Big industry so how can a company pay you?? So you wont even get half of what you would make in the general industry (IT) .IF you make it though an MNC then its much better.

In India robotics has not taken up much due to the fact robotics being associated with unemployment that is not true at all also the initial design and development cost is quite high.

So I would say go for higher studies (preferably US) and join an MNC after that. Its really cool working in such a field but if you have problems with paying bills with what you earn consider doing something else (Ill do that at least) and continue with your passion for robotics as a hobby.