Students of engineering at Covenant University have been encouraged not to see a Robot as extraordinary because of the lack of technology for its creation. They can acquire the capacity to create a robot if they so desire.
Engr. Olushola Akande, the Guest Speaker at the first Town and Gown Seminar of the Department of Mechanical Engineering for the First Semester of the 2020/2021 Academic Session, held on Thursday, March 4, 2021, handed down this message during his presentation titled “The Place of Robotics for Aspiring Engineering Graduates”.
He noted that the students could achieve a lot with the ability to create robot because it had a wide market. Robotics, he said, was now an exciting and fast-moving discipline as robots were fast replacing human activities in homes and industries.
While defining Robotics as a branch of technology that dealt with the design, construction, operation and application of robots, Engr. Akande said a robot was a machine capable of carrying out a series of activities automatically. He added that it could be as simple as a single action robot that stamped dates or put a lid on a pot or complex as a pilotless drone. “Robot is a human-made version of human-being. It has the eyes and ears as sensors, the brain as the controller, and hand as the actuator,” he stated.
According to him, there were different types of robots, including industrial robots, household robots, educational robots, and medical robots. “Example of a household robot is the Rockubot; it cleans the bed in just minutes with a smart navigation system and ultrasonic technology. An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing,” he explained.
The Guest Speaker, an automation and robotics expert, said robots were used in industrial automation to produce goods, earth and space exploration, and surgery. He said industrial automation was the use of control systems, such as computers or robots, and information technologies for handling different processes and machinery in an industry to replace a human being.
On who a robotic engineer is, he said, “Robotics are responsible for designing, testing, and building robots. A robotic engineer is a designer responsible for creating robots and robotic systems that can perform duties that humans are either unable or prefer not to complete, for example, the Roomba was created to help humans with the mundane task of vacuuming floors”.
According to him, Robotics engineering was a multidisciplinary field, with the three core disciplines within robotics being mechanical engineering, electrical and electronics engineering, and computer science. He stated that mechanical engineering focused more on the physical design and actuation; electrical and electronics engineering involved the electronics and embedded systems, low-level programming and control theory, while computer science dealt with the programming aspect.
Engr. Akande said that students who aspire to be robotics engineers could specialize in any areas mentioned above or even something else for a career in robotics. He noted that whichever one they picked would depend on what part of robotics they were most interested in.
The field of robotics, said the Guest Lecturer, had a vast range of job opportunities, such as working in the manufacturing industry, get a job to build robots for various industries, and opt for a teaching job in various government and private universities.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, the Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Professor Joshua Okeniyi, urged the students to pay attention and note the industry’s experiences. He said it was a sure way of gaining new knowledge.
The Town and Gown event was also witnessed by Professors, faculty, and staff of the Mechanical Engineering Department.
