As Pune DRDO facility reaches key milestones in humanoid development, former chairman puts focus on robotic soldier

Indian Express

08-05-2025

Former DRDO chairman G Satheesh Reddy on Thursday highlighted the country's ambitious vision of developing a robotic soldier and positioning India as a frontrunner in the field. His remarks came as DRDO's premier laboratory in Pune, Research and Development Establishment (Engineers), has reached significant milestones in humanoid robot development.
Reddy, who was DRDO chairman and scientific advisor to the defence minister and is currently advisor to the Andhra Pradesh government, was speaking at the national workshop on Advanced Legged Robotics in Pune. The three-day workshop, which began on Thursday, has been organised by the R&DE(E) in association with College of Engineering Pune Technological University under the aegis of Pune chapter of the Indian Society of Systems for Science and Engineering.
The legged robotic systems — such as bipedal and quadrupedal robots — have a wide range of practical applications across sectors, including defence and security, healthcare, domestic assistance, space exploration and in industries. However, the design and development of autonomous legged robots present numerous technological challenges. The workshop aims to shed light on key technological domains and critical areas associated with the advancement of legged robotic systems.
In his inaugural address, Reddy said, 'The industries and academic institutes are contributing in a big way to the advancements in the field of robotics. I don't think there's any good institute in the country where at least one person isn't working on robotics. In almost all institutions, individuals and teams are working on some kind of robot. But these efforts need to be synergised in the light of the major advancements in the related fields of Artificial Intelligence, material sciences, computational technologies, power sources. How will this synergy come, who will take this lead, can be deliberated upon in this conference.'
'Government of India is creating structures in a focused manner towards work in certain areas. There are so many missions that the government has launched. It includes Artificial Intelligence Mission, Deep Tech mission, Quantum mission among others. So can we impress upon the government to come up with advanced robotic or humanoid related mission, which can spearhead the development in the country? The national mission will also be helpful to other domains. The R&DE Engineers should be able to come up with a robotic soldier and related applications. I am happy that this conference is happening on a very serious technology driven subject. I am sure that all the people sitting here and all the teams working in the field will be able to take the work forward. And we hope to see the dream of having a robotic soldier is realised with our country being the frontrunner in this direction,' Reddy said.
His remarks on development of robotic soldiers comes at a time when the Centre for Systems and Technologies for Advanced Robotics (C-STAR) at the R&DE(E) has reached key milestones in the development of a humanoid. The C-STAR targets the development of robotic mule and humanoid as their primary goals; however, in the long term the centre will be developing technologies in the areas of biomimetic robots, collaborative operations of multiple robotic elements, Swarm robots, flexible bio-inspired robots, advanced control, efficient actuators, low energy motion and Cognition, officials have said.
Officials said the two key system of the humanoid project, the humanoid upper body and humanoid stage-1 Biped which were at display at the workshop venue, have achieved important milestones. The humanoid upper body is designed to push, pull or slide doors, push obstacles and perform operations in high-risk zones. It can also safely handle hazardous objects like mines, explosives, liquids collaboratively with both arms and perform operations day, night, indoor and outdoor. The Stage-1 Biped has been designed to have the stability, control and balance during locomotion in unstructured terrain, fall and push recovery, real time map generation and navigation and can perform complex autonomous operations in high-risk zones.
Among the key dignitaries present at the conference were Dr BHVS Narayana Murthy, Vice Chancellor of the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Sunil Bhirud, Vice Chancellor of College of Engineering Pune Technological University, Ankathi Raju, Director of the Armament Research and Development Establishment, and Makarand Joshi, Director R&DE(E). SE Talole of R&DE(E) is the convener of the workshop.
Sushant Kulkarni is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express in Pune with 12+ years of experience covering issues related to Crime, Defence, Internal Security and Courts. He has been associated with the Indian Express since July 2010.
Sushant has extensively reported on law and order issues of Pune and surrounding area, Cyber crime, narcotics trade and terrorism. His coverage in the Defence beat includes operational aspects of the three services, the defence research and development and issues related to key defence establishments. He has covered several sensitive cases in the courts at Pune.
Sushant is an avid photographer, plays harmonica and loves cooking. ... Read More