Karan GuptaKaran Gupta is a man with a mission. When he is not attending college you will find him engrossed in creating a different species that you and I know as robots.

This 20-year-old resident of Swapna Nagari loves the world of robotonics and dreams of becoming a robotic scientist. Gupta is a final year student of AC Patil College of Engineering, Kharghar and is pursuing a course in electronics.

When asked about what made him opt for electronics he says, I had made up my mind to study electronics and therefore chose it as a vocational subject for Class 12 exams. However it was only after I joined this college that I became increasingly fascinated with robots.

He adds, The first time I saw a robot was in my second year of college at a tech-fest. And that is when I realised that I wanted to build robots.

When quizzed about his first creation Gupta says, It was simply awesome! I felt omnipotent like God giving life to an inanimate object.

After that experience he began taking part in inter-college festivals and competing with other participants.

Abhiyantriki was the first festival he participated in and it was for this competition that he created his first model called Neo. He won the fourth place for it in the strategy task category making him eligible for a certificate of merit.

What is fascinating about Karans work is that he has always worked individually in his competitions and projects while others were in teams of four to six each. I strive for perfection and would settle for nothing but the best, he reasons.

Recently, I participated in Vivekanand Colleges tech-fest Praxis but on the concluding day of the two-day event, I was disqualified despite winning since I had not stuck to the specifications the dimensions of my model exceeded by 0.5 mm from the prescribed guidelines. This experience was an eye-opener, he says.

But this has not deterred Gupta, who is currently working on the model of a rover robot specially made for the purpose of assisting human beings in dangerous tasks like de-activating hazardous and explosive devices, surveillance and other features. He says, If I can manage to build a robot that scientists have already built and better it, it would give me a high.

Karans mother Kirti Gupta, teacher of St Pius School, Mulund (W), is a firm believer in Karan and his dreams. She says, I just want him to be successful in whatever he does.

Karan's favourite robots

Neo
It uses differential turning mechanism called skit turning. The robot can turn 360 degrees. The tyres can travel on any surface. It has detachable motors and tyres that can be reused in many ways.

Tarantula
It is a heavy and powerful robot. The main feature is its torque or power. The robot is mainly used in robot wrestling competitions. These features are imbedded in all terrain vehicles.

Freedom
This robot is a wireless one which can move on any surface. It has been created for very high speed, which is usually found in Formula 1 racing cars.

mulund@mid-day.com