Kerala student wins award for his Xerobot innovation ‘Xerobot’ be taught to perform any activity within its degrees of freedom using a controller arm and could then be embedded on to a standalone system. A unique robot that can be taught to replicate a particular activity by employing process automation has won a student entrepreneur from Kerala’s Startup Village the best student award at the “Science & Tech Quest 2014” competition organised by the Brahmos Aerospace Private Limited. Jijo Paul, founder of Startup Village-incubated Resnova Technologies, walked away with the honour for Innovative Idea in Science & Technology’ at the prestigious all-India competition. He received the award from former president Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at a function in New Delhi. ‘Xerobot’ can be taught to perform any activity within its degrees of freedom using a controller arm and could then be embedded on to a standalone system. The currently developed model of the robotic palm has the potential to replicate the motions of human fingers. Paul started this project during his second year B.Tech course at Amal Jyothi College, Kanjirapally. It is undergoing further development at the innovation club at Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, where he is pursuing his M.Tech. The project was shortlisted for technology validation at DST Lockheed Martin International Summit. It was also evaluated by the University of Texas at Austin as ‘a valid and novel concept with potential application in industry’. “I am so excited and happy to receive this prestigious award. I sincerely thank my professors who have been the guiding light behind my achievement,” said Paul, who is an engineering student. “Ecosystems like Startup Village encourage students to work on multi-disciplinary industries like robotics, which require skills in computer science, electronics and electrical engineering. We are gearing up to support more students in their final year projects, which are highly relevant to bridge the industry-academia gap,” said Sanjay Vijayakumar, Chairman of Startup Village. “Startup Village is conceptualising training programmes in micro-processor based computing, electronics and robotics and creating the necessary infrastructure through Fablabs that will enable students to learn multi-disciplinary skills through do-It-yourself workshops. This approach will equip many more students in Kerala to build products like Xerobot,” said Pranav Kumar Suresh, chief operating officer of Startup Village.
