In today's world, the answer to the above question decides whether you get that job for which you have applied or that admission in the university where you want to continue your higher studies. Doing an internship is always something that every engineering student craves for. Working as an intern does help you to gain knowledge outside the classroom and helps you to understand the applications and the relation between the literature learned in class and the world outside the class. Having the same hope like my fellow classmates, I started searching for such opportunities. Fortunately, due to the guidance and help from Tamura sensei, I got a chance to work as an intern in Yaskawa India Pvt. Ltd. (Robotic Division). This company imports the robot manipulators from Yaskawa Japan, and designs fixtures and assembles the unit according to customer needs in India.

    It was decided that I would be doing my internship at the head office in Gurgaon for a span of 2 weeks. As I had never been to Gurgaon before, I was very nervous and at the same time very excited to start this journey. The moment I landed on Delhi airport, I started to experience the kind hospitality of the company towards me. They had arranged each and every minute thing which would be essential for my comfort, including a trip to the Kingdom of Dreams for the next two weeks.

    As I entered the office on the first day, I thought people will not even bother to see or to know who I am, as they will be busy with their work. But, when I walked out on the last day, I knew all of the people working there, right from the security guard, the workers to the people working at higher posts and even the COO of the company. Everyone in this company were so friendly, and were very eager to interact with me and help me with any problem I face, may it be related to the office work or may it be related to my stay in Gurgaon. My internship started with the first day seeing the introduction of the Human Resource Department and the Sales Department. On this day various people were introduced to me and they arranged some time from their busy schedule for explaining the various aspects of the company along with their tasks in the company.

    The rest of the first week was scheduled to be with the Design team. Their task was to work on the orders received from the clients, think of the various possibilities and design the fixtures around the robot arm according to the best solution possible. Each and every member was introduced and their roles were clarified. The thing that I felt was really appreciable was that various people came to me and ask if I was doing well, and if I had any doubt regarding any task or any query regarding any functioning of their company. Using the software knowledge that I had gained in that week, I was instructed to carry out a sample simulation by design the various fixtures around.

The next week, I was introduced to the Service team. Their task was the maintenance of the robot arm. It was with this team that I learned that the arm is called as a manipulator. Within this week I learned about the electrical and mechanical components that are inside the manipulator. I got a chance to actually program the robot to perform the same task that I had done the simulation of in the previous week, and then see it in action. I was assigned the task of disassembling and assembling a manipulator and creating a manual for the assembly process of the same.


This task helped me to actually understand how a robot was built and the role of each component that is placed inside. If a robot faces failure during actual operation, it the duty of this team to go, find the fault and take the necessary action.

During the weekend, as mentioned above, I got a great chance to visit the Kingdom of Dreams. The Japanese people working there were really kind, and invited me to their house for a small party during the weekend. It was a great experience to know the COO of the company. He started to discuss various challenges and tasks the company was undertaking. Talking to him, I learned a lot about the company and its functioning. Apart from this, he motivated me to think in various different ways to come up for a solution for a given problem.


 
The most memorable moment was when we were discussing about a project, where the company is designing an alternative for an expensive unit. I came up with another idea for the same project. First, it was a simple concept, but as the COO started highlighting various shortcomings in that idea, I modified it accordingly. Finally, the outcome was such that he was very pleased by the idea that he said had I been there for more than two weeks, he would have been interested to invest in my idea and see it work.

    From this internship not only did I meet various new people, but got to know more about how organizations work, the role of engineers in real life and most importantly the method of application of our gained knowledge. Further, I would also like to add that no matter whatever you learn, and you feel that it is not related to your field of interest, please do not ignore it. It does play a important role. As for me, I am interested in Robotics, but after doing this internship, I understood the value of vibrations, as this was the basic principle that is used to set off an alarm in the manipulator when it collided with an obstruction. There were various other examples of other subjects too playing a major role in my field of interest. I would like to conclude by saying that if ever you find an opportunity to have an internship, may it be to the topic you are interested in or not, never leave that chance, as each of these opportunities have a lot of new things to teach us, and develop us in various ways.
 

Durgesh Darekar D.
3rd Year Mechanical Engineering Student
India