Some of you already know that for my senior Bachelor project I decided to do Robotics & Automation, since it is a brand new field of study for me.
Due to the fact that this project includes a lot of sensor fusion techniques and algorithms for positioning, I had to go through lots of IEEE research papers, since our university library in Limassol doesn’t have many books on the subject.
What I noticed was the fact that most of the research work goes from Northern Europe and Northern part of the USA:
This is just a shallow list of countries involved in the research, however there are more to add. I’m not taking Japan or South Korea in account since this field of science is quiet popular there and it’s Asia - it’s completely different story. The main question of this article is: will this type of computer science and engineering become popular in Cyprus?
Industrial aspects
Most of the countries interested in Robotics and Automation issues rely on heavy industry and the implementation of exact science in it. For example, car manufacturing in the USA - automation impact in manufacturing process. NASA space programs for autonomous robotics. There’s a vast variety of fields where robotics and automation can be applied.
Mentioning Germany and Finland - we have the same story. A huge industry basis which pushes this branch of science.
Geographic aspects
These countries are on the continent unlike Cyprus, and even though it’s in the European Union, still, the import taxes are quite high. This thing slows down the industry too. It’s in a way cheaper to assemble something in Eastern Europe than in Cyprus. Furthermore, we should take in account the cost of work, which is expensive then in Eastern Europe. But expensive doesn’t mean good all the time.
Educational aspects
In contrast to Cyprus, there are lots of universities interested in this field of research and having a good engineering and computer basis to promote innovative technologies in Robotics and Automation in Europe and America. In Cyprus, we’re almost starting from the scratch. Starting by importing professors and lecturers to promote the fundamentals of this subject and to prepare the intellectual human base.
How the story ends
Nevertheless, they should work somewhere! For lack of this type of industry, these people leave Cyprus. Will robotics be claimed in Cyprus? - In my opinion, it should take a lot of time (few decades approximately) for this science to appear on the island. In case of some kind of industry will be in Cyprus demanding this type of specialists.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:27 am
So in other words you decided to drop your senior bachelor project from this field (robotics) because it hasn’t got many applications in Cyprus? or could it be that maybe it was a bit difficult area to venture into? Be honest man…
P.S. If you want to support your theory concerning the lack of robotics applications in Cyprus you should choose an industry which has nothing to do with automobiles or space exploration! (i.e. NASA)
I mean seriously since these are your examples doesn’t that mean that MAYBE there aren’t many applications about robotics in general?
October 30th, 2007 at 12:36 am
2 Alex (and Socratis),
Robotics mainly imply fixed work position, i.e. sticked to an office or a company, while you can get enough money working freelance.
Venturing into for Bachelor Project or for MSc or PhD degrees, I think that these are slightly different perspectives of research work and time duration given.
For instance?
I doubt that, just try googling a bit and you’ll other areas where robotics and automation are applied.
P.S.: I wrote this draft on Friday, so there’s nothing to do with changing my senior project, guys
October 30th, 2007 at 12:57 am
You are right about both of us writing man. Alexis wrote the first part while the P.S. was mine. The reason for writing the P.S. was the fact that you stated that it will take decades for robotics to be APPLIED (i believe you even said appeared) in Cyprus.
Well of course it will be, since I don’t see my country developing a car industry or a rocket launch station anytime soon.
In other, more common applications, i believe that it is sufficiently used(e.g. assembly lines). Here we don’t develop it, but we DO use it like any other country. I mean its a bit too much to say that it hasn’t even appeared man. Anyway thats my opinion and i am not trying to offend you man. I am sure you won’t take it personally.
October 30th, 2007 at 1:04 am
By saying this, I mean a manufacturing appliance of robotics. No doubts, that Cyprus, as any other country, does use robots at the point of consumerism: you can ship iRoomba or whatever you can get from eBay or any other shop. Appearence of Robotics or cybernetics (as other synonym) of this science is pretty weak in Cy, and that’s a sad fact
Unless some of your or my neighbours silently assemble their robots from Chinese details shipped through Syria or Lebanon
October 30th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Oil, anyone?
I doubt that even oil exploration in the region will trigger any serious research in robotics in Cyprus. Most likely the required technologies will be bought from long time players in the industry (USA, Arab countries, Russia, etc)…
October 30th, 2007 at 11:43 am
2 Leonid,
True, however will they buy the maintainers of these technologies too? For how old? It reminds me imported programmers 6-7 years ago in Greece and Cyprus, actually, this is the time they needed to grow their own. So there’s a small progress in it, the same can happen in other fields
October 30th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Andrey,
Of course. There are many different scenarios on how to do it. A partnership between Cyprus government and commercial companies from abroad is one of them.
Programming is different. Programming is easy to grow. I’d say it takes 5-7 years to build a generation of programmers (not very good ones, but good-enough ones). 5-7 years - is a very short period of time from the corporate point of view. Even shorter one from the educational and governmental points of view.
Robotics is different. Like pharmacology, space science, and many others, it needs much more time get on its rails. No matter how much money involved (although, money always help).
This difference is affects a lot.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Truly.
Maybe you’ve taken not good examples, but I believe that these subjects need more educational background in comparison with programming, thus it’s easier to grow a programmer then a pharmacologist.
Plus, we’ve forgot to mention a wvery-wvery tiny fact that there’s only 600k people living in Cyprus - IMHO, not enough to settle a space science at the point of build mini Baikonur or something even close to it