Delhi engineer's omnipresent robots

Simplicity and confidence runs parallel to Aakash Sinha’s personality who has many interesting work to his credit.  A Delhi-based engineer, Aakash is trying to make world where robots   can serve water, perform daily house chores and guard skies - and moving in this direction he is making robots for the Indian Armed Forces and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).  Aakash has widened the scope of robotics in the country where computer and mechanical engineering are the leading fields.

“I had a dream to make machines but I would enter robotics was never decided. As a kid machines always attracted me. I used to open them and make it work again. My father was aware of my hobby and   bought me an electronic kit,” says Aakash , who  recently  recieved India Positive Award and has won Gold medal from Department of Science and Technology this year.

Completing his basic engineering from Delhi, Aakash moved to Carnegie Mellon, USA’s top university in robotics and computer science and worked on US Army Research Project. This young engineer made a car that could drive itself.  He also assisted in making a ‘Packbot’ – a military robot   widely used in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“When I was in the US, I noticed so many critical projects being mentored by Indian scientists, who unfortunately do not get much scope and opportunity in our country. So I decided to come to India and find a way out and build robots for a much positive and secure purpose for the Indian armed forces,” informs Aakash.

Presently, he is working on Space Robotics and is a part of Chandrayaan – II project. “We are making a robot that will land on moon to collect some vital information. This, however, will take two years time.  In the meantime, we are also making Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Robots  are presently under trials and will be inducted in Army soon,” says Aakash, trying to  prevent 26/11 like incidents with the help of robots.

What we may picture of a robotics engineer is a busy man engrossed totally in machines and no time for family. But this does not hold true for Aakash, for he gives lot of time to his five-year old daughter Anisha and his wife Jyoti, an award winning engineer herself.  “My wife is also a robotics engineer and we met at Carnegie Mellon. She works with me and supports me in personal and professional life.”

Wanting to spend time with the family, Aakash has built a laboratory in his house and works from their most of the time. President of Omnipresent Tech, Aakash wants India to become leader in space and defence technology and to achieve this target he mentors talented Indians and absorb them into the company he runs.