Mr. Aaryan Oberoi, an undergraduate student (VII Semester) from the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Bengaluru campus, was the only student who has been selected from the state of Karnataka to participate in the Mobile Robotics Skill at India Skills South 2018. He competed with roboticists from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

On May 16, 2018, Mr. Aaryan Oberoi participated in the National Level Quiz on Mobile Robotics that was conducted through an online portal, where he was selected to enter the Practical Round (Track 2) held at MIT, Pune, on June 13, 2018. He was accompanied by Aditya Golawar, another student from MIT, Pune, for all the subsequent levels of India Skills 2018. Aaryan’s team placed third in the Indian Skill Sector Level Mobile Robotics held at MIT, Pune, where he competed with much more advanced robots and was selected to represent the state of Karnataka in the Mobile Robotics Skill at India Skills South 2018.

Having performed extremely well in the regional level, he was selected to the national level of World Skills India 2018 in the skill, ‘Mobile Robotics’. The task was to pick and place a set of balls from one part of the arena to another. Various rounds were conducted to identify the decision making of the robot. Colours of different balls had to be detected in the arena and balls had to be placed in the respective slot after detecting the matched pattern above the slot. Complex Image Processing Algorithms were involved in identifying the colour and the pattern.

The robot that was constructed by the team was built over Arduino MEGA for mobility, as well as arm movement, and with National Instruments myRIO for Autonomous Image Processing ability. This robot was funded by Module143, an electronics manufacturer and reseller based in Bengaluru. The robot required to be built for the national level is much more complex and Aaryan has received funding from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.

India Skills is a very large platform for students to exhibit their skills on the National and International Level. WorldSkills, India, is an initiative of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. NSDC, through its WorldSkills India initiative, has been leading the country’s participation at WorldSkills International competitions since 2011. This year India Skills 2018 is being conducted at different levels to select the top performers in more than 50 skills across the country. Top performers in the national level will represent the country at WorldSkills 2019, Khazan, Russia.