Team Vyadh: Journey not the destination

In my 2nd year at VIT I was recruited in Students For Exploration and Development of Space, VIT (SEDS-VIT) students robotics chapter. SEDS VIT, takes part in applied engineering national and international competition. I was then selected for the role of Robotics Engineer in Team Vyadh under SEDS-VIT.

Team Vyadh is a sub-division of SEDS-VIT focused mainly on design and development of martian rover prototype. The rover is aimed to be presented in University Rover Challenge, USA and European Rover Challenge, Poland. Since I took undergraduate course in Computer Science in VIT, I was always in search for a platform to contribute, to create and to work on some interesting projects and when I was selected as a Robotics Engineer in Team Vyadh, SEDS-VIT gave me a big opportunity to satisfy my quest.

Here I get to know about all the new robotics technologies present in the market. Learning to use all those technologies was a great opportunity to develop my programming skills and has made me capable enough to make a significant contribution to the team.

My major contributions to SEDS-VIT are specific to Team Vyadh for the development of the martian rover. Initially, I was assigned the task to automate the working of the robotic arm. I worked passionately and learned Robot Operating System, Gazebo and raspberryPi. I also learned how to control motors / actuators, integrate sensors, design web-based control system and automate robotics process with computer vision. Under the guidance of seniors I learned how to simulate virtual environment for evaluating the performance of the whole system .Investing all my time and energy I completed the task in the best possible way under the guidance of seniors.

After that, I expanded my circle of influence and started working on rover localisation, autonomous navigation and control with other team members and completed that too. Having all these technical expertise I was able to guide my fellow team members. With only one aim in mind, to build a better martian rover I am contributing immensely to the development of it. Having an adroit rover under the name of SEDS-VIT is what inspires me to contribute to its development.

Working for one whole year under the guidance of senior I gained enough experience and was promoted from Robotics Engineer to the Vice Captain of the team.