Robotics Engineering Fields of Study

With inputs from Aspire Magazine, 2011

Q: What is the field of Robotic Engineering?  What fields would I be required to learn?

A: Prof. Sethu Vijayakumar, Personal chair in robotics and the director of the Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour (IPAB), School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh says, “Robotics is a unique field with a combination of computer science, mechanical engineering and electronics and a lot of research options. Robots have proved to be very useful to humans in many ways; their role in medicine is worth mentioning. They are being developed for performance based augmentation to make human activities easier.”

Elaborating on the importance of multitasking, Prof Vijayakumar further adds, “A post-graduate study provides a platform for multitasking, bringing together different fields like maths, science and statistics programme. In the last few years, I have noticed an increase in the number of Indian students opting for courses teaching robotics. The Indian schooling system has also started encouraging students to explore this field. In Europe, we are driven by machine learning techniques with a focus on applications, techniques and operating systems to improve the control and not just focus on hardware.”