Why Mechatronics is crucial

for any robotics field

Steven Waslander on why Robotics and Mechatronics
are gaining popularity amongst Indian students

Professor Steven Waslander, who has spent his career

designing robots is now leading the Robotics and AI
Laboratory at the University of Toronto’s Institute for
Aerospace Studies. He brought his fleet of flying and
driving robots with him. Steven explains how those
enamoured by the world of robot must take a plunge into
the field.
Why is Robotics and Mechatronics exploding in
popularity?

A confluence of factors has led to the explosion of

interest in Robotics and Mechatronics. It is the new
sensor technologies, better artificial intelligence (AI) tools
as well as greater computing power and ever diminishing
size and cost. This means we can better address the
perception and planning challenges robots face and
deploy them in more complex environments. It is so
exciting to see demonstrations of robots that seem to be
working. Today there are hundreds of examples of new
robotic applications including self-driving cars, robots
that can clean and deliver things, even healthcare robots
that can help in surgery.
Photo Credit: Steven Waslander

What is the impact on job market? Will robots will take

away human jobs?

Students who want to future proof themselves might

think, 'if I'm the one building the robot, then the robot
cannot take away my job.'

Do not forget that for every new automation challenge,

we need a human who understands the technical aspects
and how to programme and manipulate robots. These
things will become more and more important. But if you
are training for a job that is repetitive, then yes, a robot or
AI system could take that task over. For example, driving
trucks, assembling products, data entry jobs, or
processing transactions in banks, or analysing legal
contract terms.

People should focus on areas that are analytical, creative

and interactive, and on problem-solving skills. They
should explore new things through online courses,
retraining in computer programming and in critical
thinking and systems design.

Please tell us more about your work.

I started working on drone research. I began building and

flying quadrotors (multi-rotor helicopters propelled by
four rotors) while doing my graduate degree at Stanford.
Then I spent a decade at the University of Waterloo,
where I continued to work on the quadroters and
developed control techniques so they could perform in
high winds. From there, I moved into generic robotic
tasks. I built up a level of autonomy in my drones so they
could do motion planning, collision avoidance, and
mapping. Over the last three years, I led a team of 60
students who wrote an entire software code base for a
self-driving car that drove 100 km smoothly on public
roads.
How should students prepare to take up this subject?

Mechatronics is a combination of computer science and

mechanical engineering to build the latest devices in
robotics systems. This area has a lot of mathematical
requirements including linear algebra, calculus,
probability etc. You also need to understand dynamics
and kinematics, and a strong programming background is
valued.

When we talk about creating intelligent robots, what

kind of world we are looking at?

Intelligent is a nebulous term. The general idea is that at

some point, the robot will become sentient and make its
own decisions. We are looking at the continuous
improvement in the evolution and capability of these
systems. Today you can get a self-driving shuttle. In the
next few years, you will be able to hail a self-driving taxi
for city streets. Then, that taxi will be capable of taking
the highway. We need a human who understands the
technical aspects and how to programme and manipulate
robots.

Do you see the growing interest of Indian students in

this subject?

Yes. We have a lot of interest from Indian students. Two

out of nine students in my graduate lab are from India.
We just launched a self-driving car course with Coursera.
The two countries that have shown the most interest are
the US and India. These online tools and learning
methods have a strong democratisation effect, and make
the knowledge accessible to everyone.

What are the job opportunities available after

finishing a course in Mechatronics?

Every student on our self- driving car project has gone to

Silicon Valley or to startups or research labs in Toronto
and Montreal. These are such robust fields. It is hard to
keep people in academia at the moment, there are so
many great opportunities in industry.