AI • IoT • Robotics • ROS

2 Days Hands-on Workshop with Globally recognized Certification

Venue: Bits Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Note: Stay is also available for students only from 16 years onwards on sharing basis inside the campus from Atmos Bits Hyderabad.

Duration: 2 Days (14–16 Hours)

Eligibility: Open to all, including B.Tech, B.E., undergraduate and postgraduate students, college students, school students, and anyone interested in AI, IoT, Robotics, and ROS.

The workshop covers concepts from basic to advanced levels through hands-on learning, electronics, robotics, IoT communication, computer vision, and ROS.

Workshop Objective & Final Project

The workshop culminates in building an AI-powered object-following robot that:

• Uses ESP8266 for communication

• Receives commands from a laptop

• Uses IoT protocols for communication

• Uses OpenCV, MediaPipe, and YOLO for computer vision

• Uses ROS for software architecture

• Detects and follows objects

• Avoids obstacles

• Stops near the target object

Day 1: Electronics, Robot Building & IoT

Session 1: Introduction to Electronics & Embedded Systems

Theory:

• Microcontrollers and Arduino architecture

• Input vs. output

• Digital signals

• Sensors and actuators

• Voltage, current, and GPIO

Activity: Digital Input & Output

• LED blink

• Multiple LED patterns

• Push-button input

• LED control using a button

Learning Outcome:

• Understand digitalRead()

• Understand digitalWrite()

Session 2: Serial Communication

Theory:

• UART

• Serial Monitor

• Data transmission basics

Activity:

• Read user input from Serial Monitor

• Control LEDs using serial commands

• Create a simple command interface

Learning Outcome: Understand human-to-microcontroller communication.

Session 3: Robot Building Workshop

Hardware Assembly:

• Chassis assembly

• Motor driver integration

• Wheel mounting

• Power connections

• ESP8266/Arduino integration

Activity: Robot Movement Programming

• Forward

• Backward

• Left

• Right

• Stop

Learning Outcome: Build and program a functional mobile robot.

Session 4: IoT Fundamentals

• Introduction to IoT

• Client-server architecture

• Local vs. internet communication

• TCP vs. UDP

Session 5: Wi-Fi & Access Point Mode

Theory:

• Station mode

• Access Point mode

• Network basics

Activity:

• Configure ESP8266 as an Access Point

• Connect a laptop or mobile device

Session 6: HTTP Communication

Theory:

• Requests and responses

• GET and POST

• REST concepts

Activity:

• Send commands to ESP8266 using a browser

• Control the robot through HTTP

Session 7: MQTT Communication

Theory:

• Publish/Subscribe model

• Broker architecture

• Real-time communication

Activity:

• Publish messages

• Subscribe to robot commands

• Enable remote robot control

Session 8: UDP Communication

Theory:

• Low-latency communication

• Use cases in robotics

Activity:

• Send movement commands using UDP

Day 1 Deliverables

✓ Functional robot

✓ Serial communication

✓ Wi-Fi connectivity

✓ HTTP control

✓ MQTT control

✓ UDP communication

Day 2: AI Vision & ROS

Session 1: Introduction to Computer Vision

• Introduction to OpenCV

• Image processing basics

• Camera fundamentals

Session 2: OpenCV Activities

• Webcam access

• Image capture

• Drawing shapes

• Colour detection

Session 3: MediaPipe

Theory:

• Landmark detection

• Human pose estimation

Activity:

• Hand tracking

• Body tracking

• Gesture recognition

Session 4: YOLO Object Detection

Theory:

• AI-based object detection

• Bounding boxes

• Confidence scores

Activity:

• Detect everyday objects

• Real-time object tracking

Session 5: ROS Overview

• What is ROS?

• Why ROS?

• ROS architecture

• Nodes and communication

Session 6: ROS Environment Setup

Activity:

• WSL installation

• ROS installation

• Workspace creation

Learning Outcome: Create a first ROS workspace.

Session 7: ROS Topics

Theory:

• Publisher

• Subscriber

Activity:

• Create a Publisher node

• Create a Subscriber node

• Exchange messages

Session 8: ROS Messages

• Standard messages

• Custom messages

Session 9: ROS Services

Theory:

• Request/response communication

Activity:

• Service server

• Service client

Session 10: ROS Launch Files

• Create launch files

• Start multiple nodes together

Session 11: Docker for ROS

• ROS containers

• Running ROS inside Docker

Final Project: AI-Powered Object-Following Robot

Components Used:

• ESP8266

• Robot chassis

• OpenCV

• MediaPipe

• YOLO

• ROS

• MQTT/HTTP communication

Project Flow

Camera captures video

YOLO detects the target object

A ROS node processes the detection

ROS publishes movement commands

IoT communication sends commands to ESP8266

The robot moves toward the object

Obstacle avoidance logic helps prevent collisions

The robot stops near the target

Final Project Deliverables

✓ Object detection

✓ Object tracking

✓ ROS communication

✓ ESP8266 integration

✓ Robot movement

✓ Obstacle avoidance

✓ End-to-end AI robotic system

Workshop Outcome

By the end of the workshop, participants will have hands-on exposure to:

• Electronics fundamentals

• Arduino programming

• Serial communication

• Robot building

• HTTP

• MQTT

• UDP

• OpenCV

• MediaPipe

• YOLO

• ROS Topics

• ROS Services

• ROS Messages

• ROS Launch Files

• Docker basics

• AI-powered robotics integration

Final Achievement

Build a complete AI-enabled autonomous robot from scratch.