SOP Sample for MS Robotics in the US - Early Career Profile

My interest in robotics goes back to my first year of the undergraduate program. Elated at being able to get first-class and distinction in the first semester and having made a decent start to my undergraduate college journey, I heard the announcement about "[COLLEGE_EVENT]" - our college fest. One of the workshops under this fest that caught my attention was "GESTURE ROBOTICS". I had never thought of building a robot, let alone in my very first year of engineering. Interested, I attended this workshop and got acquainted with gesture robots. They even showed us one sample robot and I was hooked! I was extremely fascinated to see how that robot is controlled simply by hand gestures. We were given a robotics kit and were given instructions to build a simple robot that can be controlled by an Arduino UNO controller. The robot had one chassis and four wheels. We needed to build it step by step and give basic movement instructions such as Start, Stop, Left, Right, Straight and Backward Movement. After the workshop, I was elated to work with Arduino controllers, motor drivers, etc. - things I was not yet familiar with. Even though I just got a rough idea of how electronic components and controllers work in robots, the joy of building a system that moves on your instructions was surreal and my interest in Robotic Systems was born.

I chose my Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications due to my natural inclination towards electronic appliances and equipment. Pursuing an undergraduate degree in the electronics domain was an obvious choice to me and I am glad as this eventually resulted in my interest in Robotics systems.

Our college is the host of the [COMPETITION_NAME] - an international Robotics competition organized by [ORGANIZATION_NAME] - every year since 2005. Having developed my interest in robotics, I applied for my college Robocon team in the second year but got rejected in the interview. I realized my understanding of the design of electronic circuits and applications of microcontrollers was not up to the mark and thus decided to sharpen my technical skills. I therefore took part in another technical competition known as [COMPETITION_NAME], organized by [COMPANY_NAME]. I was part of a 4-member team and we had a problem statement in which we needed to implement an innovative idea for the smooth movement of emergency vehicles on the road through traffic. We designed a traffic system that helps to create a green corridor for ambulances, fire brigades, etc. While doing this project I took the responsibility of designing the traffic light control system using various analog circuits, timer ICs, voltage converters, etc. This really helped me improve my circuit design skills. My team was recognized as "Promising Innovator" by [COMPANY_NAME] and I was motivated to keep on trying.

I reapplied for the ROBOCON team in my third year with better understanding and preparation and finally got selected. The will to never give up has paid off for me. My experience with the team is one of the best journeys in my engineering. We made two robots - one manual and one autonomous. I was the technical lead in the design team for the robots. I worked on the Arduino Mega controller with its development design interfacing to motor drivers, sensors, pneumatic systems which we used as actuators, and Xbox controller to control a manual robot. Design of a 24A power supply gave me more insight into how to use voltage converters, current limiting capacitors, etc. This competition gave me a better understanding of how actually a robot works both mechanically and electronically. Especially when it comes to autonomous robots, we were the only team in India to use image processing techniques for the movement of robots. Working in a team environment helped me build on my team and delegation skills.

As a part of my mini-project in my third year, I designed a small spy robot with live streaming of its camera on a laptop. To learn more about autonomous systems especially in automobiles, I took my engineering main project as MODEL-BASED VCU SIMULATOR which was basically a Vehicle Control Unit Hardware setup with [COMPANY_NAME] Automotive controller ([CONTROLLER_MODEL]) interfaced with various sensors used in high-end autonomous cars. A model in MATLAB SIMULINK was designed which generates the embedded code to run this setup with real-time environment effects. So without actually writing a single line of code, I operated an embedded system.

Through various competitions and projects, I developed circuit and embedded system design techniques. I also learned embedded programming skills mainly in C and Arduino. Along with that, I developed leadership qualities as I was Class Representative for three consecutive years, technical lead in an electronic forum known as [ORGANIZATION_NAME] (Association of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers), and in the Robocon Team. I played Cricket for my Department for two consecutive years. Currently, I am working with [COMPANY_NAME] for the past two years as Hardware Design Engineer and have worked on various domains like Component Engineering, Circuit design techniques, Testing, and analysis of PCB boards. I believe my understanding of electronics through College Projects and job experience will help me going forward to learn more about Robotics Systems.

I understand that Robotics is an interdisciplinary field and along with my sound knowledge of electronics which is like the heart of a Robot, my next goal is to learn about the brain of a Robot that takes decisions like humans with the help of Artificial Intelligence. Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CoRIS) Institute at [UNIVERSITY_NAME] encourages interdisciplinary research and innovation and I would be grateful to work with one of the best universities in the USA. My interest is in learning the decision-making system of a robot or an autonomous system with the help of machine learning techniques. I would be obliged to work with [PROFESSOR_NAME] in his decision-making and machine learning of autonomous vehicles as I have already worked with autonomous robots and vehicles as part of my academic projects. I am sure my experience will have a significant contribution to his research. Also, this helps me to achieve my goal to contribute to Robotics which is the future of our human race.