Statement of Purpose for robotics engineering
Hello everyone,
I am applying for a grad program in robotics and I am new to this forum. Please Help me improve my SOP
All suggestions are welcome
"Dream is not what you see in sleep, is the thing which doesn't let you sleep" - Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
My dream is to become a professional researcher in robotics and have to acquire skills for building a complete robotic system and start a robots manufacturing company.
My origin of interest was begun, when I was child, I used to watch English movies especially sic-fic movies and have a habit of skimming the channels in order check whether any sic-fic movies are being casting and accidentally came across the movie 'transformers', I was amazed and stunned while machines in the movie are transformable to different kind of vehicles. The impact of this move is more on me and make me to think a lot and have a question "how", the machines are capable of changing their shape and generating huge amount of energy and it changes the way I see things and imagining everything is transformable and had a visions, when I see any objects that they are transformed into the shapes what I dreamed off.
The change in interest to passion towards robots was occurred, on my 13th birthday I got a bumble bee toy as a gift by my parents, it was one of the most memorable toy of my life. Since the interesting part was, it has capable of transforming car to human. I was fascinated to it and my enthusiastic made me to dissemble it and I could see the parts that made up the robot toy. I still vividly remember seeing the PCB that had IC's soldered in it, the gears, actuators and battery.
"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen, and thinking what nobody has taught"- said by Albert Szent - Gyrui. I believe imagination is powerful tool, where taught are created and pursuing them with all my strength and shaping them into realty make what really I am. I believe imagination can be transformed into reality through progress in science and technology. An example of which is robots, intelligent creatures designed to perform several complex tasks. My passion for robotics was further enhanced by Robot wars, Battle Bots competition, especially DARPA Robotics challenge and decided to pursue this field.
I found, imagination alone cannot make us achieve our goals, unless when it combine with practical work. In order to pursue my passion or robotics, I have joined electrical and electronics engineering at SRM University. The curriculum introduced me to basics of subject like electronics devices, control systems, electronic circuits , electrical machines, discrete mathematics, microprocessor & micro-controller, solid state drives, expert system & fuzzy logic, embedded system etc..,
During bachelor degree, my passion towards robotics driven to pursue many course and work on research projects and build projects. In the fall of 2013, I joined in kaizen robotics program conducted by IIT-madras , where I gained basics of robotics , microcontroller programming and got hands on experience in building line follower robots, obstacle robots , table top robots, PWM robots and ADC based robots by using At mega 16 microcontroller with embedded C and gave a knowledge on controlling the robots.
As a part of course work, I took in-plant training and built a project "eco-friendly smart room design". The in plant training at electrical division of Vijay Wada thermal power plant (VTPS) not only taught me the concepts of each working model in the thermal plant through visiting it, but also gave me an opportunity to involve in project related to "generator and its auxiliaries", where I evaluate and submitted a report, consists of drawbacks of existing components of generator and stating benefits in the replacement of components leads to maximize generator capacity with parameters testing and mathematical calculations. This experience taught me a lesson that ever minute detail is important which make big difference in output.
During the academic mini project 'eco-friendly smart room design'. I have built a working prototype of room automation control system by using Arduino Uno as a controller and interfacing with sensors (temperature sensor, light sensor, humidity sensor), relays and RFID system in order to know the number of persons are in the room. The system is monitored through PC by using UART protocol with Max-232 and RS-232.
In 6th sem , I have involve in the work of prof. R. Senthil Kumar on induction motor. Under his guidance performance analysis of 3-phase induction motor was done with a aim to compare the PID, fuzz, neuro-fuzzy, H- infinity controller to state which controller is best for operation of speed control of 3-phase induction motor. Simulation was executed in MATLAB and built a real time execution of motor by using pic-microcontroller for pulse generation. This analysis was presented in national conference on advances in electrical and electronics engineering(NCAEEE-2015) .and even the work was published in International Journal of Applied Engineering Research with the title- Evaluate and Analysis of 3-phase Induction Motor by using Conventional & Non-Conventional Controllers. This project gave the experience of research work and boost my confidence in thesis work with time management.
During winter 2014, I was gone through internship in quality control department at Bosch electrical drives for a month. The training provides me to study the concepts of electrical drives like window lift motor, wind screen wiper motor, air blower motor and also testing methods involved for each product to maintain the quality assurement for the mass production process. The training gave me an opportunity to design a spot welding circuit for the thermostat coupling production, where I designed through simulation.
In order to extend my skills in robotics I took intern on 'Advance Robotics on Mission Vision' at Technophilia system. The course curriculum has been developed by Robotics & Computers Applications Institute of USA. During intern l have gained a knowledge on mission vision and sixth sense technology using mat lab. By using hand gesture controlled windows media player, power point presentation a mouse pointer. Successfully built a robot which recognize colors and interfaced with acceleration sensor, optical sensor and analog sound sensor. And also learned the concepts of circuits schematics drawing, layout editing and CAM processing for the single and multilayer PCB's and used protocols like UART, RC-5 and I2C.
During third year I was involved in part of prof. Dr. Bharathiraja research work in Mitigation of circulating current in multilevel fed Induction motor, recently the work is accepted and going to publish in next issue of Scopus indexed international journal title- Circulating Current Mitigation Strategies in Three level- Three Phase DC-MLI fed Induction Motor Drive using Carrier Shifting Algorithms. Under his guidance, I have did major project on 'Bi-Directional Z-Source Power Converter for Battery Energy Storage System'. In this project Bidirectional power converter has been in focus for battery energy storage system. Due to the exhausting of the fossil fuels there is a huge potential of battery energy storage system. Many renewable energy sources are now available; among them, PV is the most up-to-date technique to address the energy problems. In this project we planned to reduce cost, size, weight and losses in bidirectional power converter. A new circuit were designed for bidirectional Z-source power converter without using DC-DC converter and also found the operating modes of it. We designed efficient circuit and simulated it in MATLAB Simulink. We have designed hardware and also programming of pic-controller to control the semiconductor switching devices. Our proposed converter has less losses, cost and size.
Apart from academic, I worked as volunteer and committee member of Public Relations committee in Aaruush a techno-management fest, organized by students in my college and which attracted more than 10000 visitors. It was a colossal effort and I had learnt many things by working as the committee member. It involved publicity, coordinating between the various other domains of the fest and meeting their requirements by the stipulated time. And worked as a business development member in NGO conducted various activities and events in college. Being a huge fan of cricket I have been playing from my childhood and lead my team in inter school competition and secure second position.
All these experiences have motivated me to improve my knowledge and competence in the field of Robotics. I want to pursue a MS in Robotics Engineering now so that I will have time if I decide to pursue another master's degree. By taking up an MS program in Robotics Engineering I look forward in gaining knowledge in fields such as Space robotics, Swarm Robotics, embedded systems, human-robot interaction and interface, machine learning, etc...While keeping up with the recent advances and development in the field of technology. I am keen to expand my understanding of Micro/Nano robots, control system, choice of sensors, algorithms and actuators in particular.
After completing my MS in Robotics Engineering I would like to work for a few years in a technology company such as SpaceX, Boston robotics, Recon Robotics, IRobot, in role of Research & Development and I have to put the knowledge I have obtained through my MS degree into good use and new challenges are offered.
On the long term, I want do Ph.D. in the particular area I am interested and want to be a part of NASA or ISRO and work as a Research & Development of space robotics and built my own research laboratory. And start a robotics manufacturing company in order to give life to the research I have done, which introduce the robots in once daily life and do complex problems.
An MS in robotics Engineering will help me in receiving further experience in robotics, in addition to experience that I already have with electrical and electronics engineering, will give me a distinct advantage in leading the kind of multidisciplinary group that is required to design and build such a system from the ground up. I would hope to come out of this program as a strong candidate for an engineering position at a small robotics company. And realize my short term and long term goals by enabling me to develop and improve skills such as entrepreneurship, building a complete robotic system, communication skills, research work and good contacts by exposing me to real world applications and through the program's thoughtful curriculum.
Apart from its reputation as one of the premier institutes in the world, one of the main reasons I prefer WPI is that the program offered by WPI meets my career needs best. The work of professors M.B. Popovic, C. Onal, G. Fisher, R. Cowagli in the field of multi robotics, human augmentation, motion planning and control, embedded systems for robotics and sensors /actuators & robot design was very motivating and interesting. The amount of social activity, plethora of clubs and research labs exist like olin hall, higgins labs, wa shburn shops, and labs in 85 prescoot street that are some of the key features that distinguish your esteemed university from others universities.
The master's program in Robotics Engineering allows into the world of dedicated and enthusiastic faculty & staff which helps me to reach my dreams. Above all it will help me be guided by expert professors such as M.B. Popovic, meet people from various countries & cultures and learn along with them. I look forward to the positive response of the admission council.
