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IGCAR trying to develop robots

PUDUCHERRY: The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, is trying to develop robots that will work in radio active environment, its Director Baldev Raj said on Thursday.

“The next revolution, which is scaling up fast, is robots that could work for industries, nuclear energy and space shuttles. Robots will become essential security and healthcare equipment,” he said speaking at the fourth Indo-Australian Conference on IT Security at Pondicherry University.

At the same time, Mr. Raj said, robots could also carry information and do almost everything that human beings could do.

“We are developing robots which could work in radio active environment to examine reactors. We are also developing robots which can work without our supervision. They will have built-in knowledge and functions.”

With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling for harnessing of nuclear energy for electricity generation, the IGCAR would enhance its capacity with the Fast Breeder Reactors being built at Kalpakkam. “We have the technology, and everything depends on uranium resources. We are building fast breeder reactors at Kalpakkam. By 2050, 250 giga watts of electricity would be generated,” Mr. Raj said.

The first reactor with a capacity of generating 500 megawatts electricity would be ready by 2010.

The Ramanujan School of Mathematics and Computer Science and the Department of Computer Science of Pondicherry University organised the conference, along with the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and the Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Vice-Chancellor J.A.K Tareen said efforts were on to make the 800-acre university campus Wi-Fi in two-three months.

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