Teen makes wonders with his grip on robotics

CHENNAI: Fascinated by electricity and technology since his childhood, Krithik Vijayakumar wanted to make use of his knowledge of technology to make the world a better place to live. He started his venture, Futura Robotics, when he was in class 8. “Currently, I am training more than 5000 students across the world. As investment in robotics is high, I decided to start my own company to manage my project expenses,” starts 18-year-old Krithik, who is now in Singapore doing his undergraduation.

Seeing his interest in electrical gadgets, Krithik’s mother enrolled him into a robotics class for kids. After learning a few basics, the founder of Futura Robotics started learning and experimenting things on his own. “I wanted an open source syllabus that was essential to excel in the field. Through a few crash courses, I laid the foundation and started building advanced creations on the same,” he says.

Krithik’s first project is dedicated to save the environment from further deterioration. It is a smart dustbin that will segregate dry and wet waste by itself. Krithik built this when he was in class 8 and won an award for the same in IIT Madras. His second project was dedicated to a business plan competition held at IIT Madras. He created a home security system and won first place - It should be noted that he was the only school student to compete with the college-goers.

All of Krithik’s projects are created for the well-being of the society and environment. During the pandemic, Krithik built a life-size humanoid robot to help the frontline workers in the medical field. “The robot named Fura is designed to work as an alternative to nurses as they were more vulnerable in getting affected by the virus. It can speak, move and there is a voice recognition feature as well. It can supply medicines and there is a camera attached to Fura, through which doctors can join via video conference. The robot also knows to check the temperature of patients,” he states.

The idea was pitched to the government, however, was not pushed forward. Krithik is working on it to make this project come alive. Another project of Krithik’s that can help Chennai in battling floods is the Flood Detect System.

“Through the CCTV cameras placed in different lanes across the city, this system can report the issues with the underwater drain. By keeping a watch on the functionality of the drains, it can automatically send the report to the government and raise grievances,” explains the creator. Among his other projects, Krithik’s personal favourite is the life-size solar electric car, which can accommodate up to five people. The car doesn’t require frequent charging and runs on renewable energy. The production cost is between two to three lakhs.

As AI voice modelling is trending now, Krithik is working on building a personal assistant that can read our mails and messages and can give a summary like a human secretary or personal assistant. Talking about whether AI is a blessing or a curse, the 18-year-old believes that growth of technologies is a blessing.

“If an AI robot or model is deployed, around 10 to 20 jobs will be generated. This is because though AI grows, human intervention is needed to oversee the functioning of the same. Not everything can be automated,” he opines. Adding more about the field of robotics and automation, he remarks, “Currently, the industry is experiencing saturation as everything is experimented. We need to delve deep into this to come up with something innovative with the existing technologies.”

Apart from these, Krithik is also an author - his book titled Unbounding Artificial Intelligence is entirely written by an AI, programmed by Krithik. It was a surreal moment for Krithik as he met President Droupadi Murmu and presented the book to her. He also met Governor RN Ravi during the Tamil Nadu Young Achievers meet-up.

With the support of his parents, Krithik has his name carved in more than 10 world records. “Self-learning is the key. I learned, failed and again learned to reach here. Consistency and perseverance makes a lot of difference in our progress,” concludes Krithik, whose inspirations include APJ Abdul Kalam, Dr K Sivan, Bill Gates and Niko- la Tesla.