My interest in robotics germinated in my college undergrad years when I had the opportunity to design and build a full-fledged programmable gantry robot at Government College of Technology.  We called this robot, “Yanthra Hastham“, meaning, mechanical hand. 

On completing that, I had the opportunity to work for a project desigining and building a 6 legged, 7 feet high Walking Machine, at IIT Bombay.

A year later, I got admitted to University of Cincinnati and there I joined the UC Robot Team. There I worked on an autonomous vehicle that we called Bearcat I.  This robot was designed to navigate itself following white lines marked on the ground, avoid obstacles and pot-holes among other things.

Six months later we decided to build a more smaller and agile machine called Bearcat II. Bearcat II was designed from scratch over 6 months and was built within 40 days. 

Two years later, I left UC, and a year after that, UC students made the third version Bearcat Cub.  I am fortunate to contribute a little in this venture as well.