Dr. Mohammadreza Haghjou in a conversation with Public Relations Office:
If students realize that in addition to the difficulty of courses, they will face the difficulty of production, they will not be willing to choose practical projects!
Dr. Haghjou is an assistant professor at the Department of Applied Design in the Faculty of Mechanical and Energy Engineering at Shahid Beheshti University. This young faculty member, who has a study background in South Korea, is an expert in robotics and artificial intelligence. Here is part of our interview with him:
- Regarding your expertise in robotics, what is your assessment of the current state of this knowledge in Iran?
Today, a lot of investment has been made in robotic products in the world, and the market of these products is growing rapidly. However, in Iran, we are lagging behind other countries in this regard. Of course, we are currently consumers of robotic products from other countries, but we have not gone towards production and investment as we should. For example, robotic vacuum cleaners are very popular in the world and can be seen in Iranian markets as well. In the future we might come to the conclusion that it was wrong to turn on the vacuum cleaner and drag it from one room to another with great effort and energy consumption when a robotic vacuum cleaner could be set to clean the whole house even when we are not present or taking a night's rest, and goes back on the charging station itself. Such a vacuum cleaner can easily recognize tables and chairs and even sweep under the sofa. Or, for example, consider self-driving cars, which may become commonplace in developed countries within the next twenty years. The world is strongly moving in this direction. When you look at the statistics, you can see that the robotic products market is expanding day by day, but in Iran, we still have a lot of work to do and more investments should be made, especially considering the potential we have in terms of educated and academic human resources.
- Do the prerequisites needed to improve the robotics situation in Iran already exist or is this potential only limited to human resources? Aren't there other factors involved, the lack of which has caused the current situation?
In my opinion, we are in a period of transition and we have to move from an oil-dependent economy to a non-oil-dependent economy. This economy can be based on industrial products and export of technology products. The more we grow in this field, the more our robotic and technological requirements will increase. For example, if we want to offer products that can compete with the world in the same automobile factories, we should move towards robotic and automation products that both increase accuracy and increase production speed, and thus increase the quality of products and reduce the finished price. In this way, we can export products competitively. These requirements will increase as our industry grows, and for that reason, I believe the potential is there, but it needs investment to be realized.
- You have studied in South Korea for almost two years. Why did you choose this country? Is it because this country is a leader in robotics?
There were many reasons, but one of the most important reasons was that South Korea is one of the top eight industrialized countries in the world that is heavily investing in various industrial fields. Big budgets and funds are spent in this direction. Of course, South Korea also earns the desired income and with this right investment, it has grown its economy. My PhD thesis was on humanoid robots that are used in rehabilitation of patients with walking problems, and South Korea has also made a good investment in this field. I was attracted to their projects. Especially, nowadays in industrialized countries, the rehabilitation robotics sector has grown due to the aging of the population. You know that industrial societies are aging. Our country will also lose its young population in the coming years, and in the meantime, traditional rehabilitation methods will not work, and that’s why countries like South Korea and Japan have turned to invest in robotic rehabilitation.
- Your other specialty is artificial intelligence. Predictions are usually made about the future of mankind, which will change a lot due to the emergence of such technologies. Sometimes even exaggerations are added, and people consider not only the analyses, but also their hopes and dreams. what is your idea about this? How serious are these technologies? How is the current situation of Iran in the world?
Usually, when talking about artificial intelligence (AI), it is referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. In the first industrial revolution, human manual work was replaced by machines, and supposedly heavy industrial machines did the work that humans were unable to do. But in the fourth industrial revolution, the mental tasks of humans are also performed by machines, and the machine itself makes decisions, plans and moves the work forward. In my opinion, until we have a tangible economic and political output in this area, its importance will not be clear for us. The fact is that advanced countries have seen and tasted the output of this technology and making money from this field. They understand what's going on and that's why they're investing heavily in this area. That is why journals, conferences, new disciplines and many academic works in this field are being pursued in these countries. Consider the example of the robotic vacuum cleaner. This product works with artificial intelligence. The robot itself decides how to move to sweep the whole house, avoid hitting tables and chairs, update the map, sweep the house in less time the next time, and finally moves back to its initial charging position, when it’s free of charge. When you look at the sales growth of this product on the Amazon site, you will realize that from around 2006 when the first robotic vacuum cleaner was produced until today, it has grown rapidly all over the world. Once when I was reading customer reviews for this product, I noticed someone’s comment: “This is the best thing I have ever bought in my life because I always had a problem with pet hair on the floor when I walked in the house... but now every time I walk in the house, the house is clean.” There are many such issues that can be tackled by artificial intelligence. Even in our country, the issue of currency price management can be adjusted with these technologies. Currency price management depends on many factors and there is a lot of data about it. If this data is entrusted to the mind of the machine, it may be able to control it much better and more effectively than the human mind. For this reason, I think there is not much exaggeration. Today, we see that Samsung has announced that it has made AI one of its three research priorities for the next ten years. When I was in Korea, I saw that there were weekly and monthly conferences and newsletters about artificial intelligence. In the world, the discussion is really serious and there have been very visible growth and changes, but in Iran, there are perhaps more talks about this field than actions. We talk a lot about it in the university, but its systematic use in our curriculum and work system is not observed yet.
- If you have any projects in progress, please let us know.
Here at the Faculty of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, during the recent two or three years of my presence, I have tried to move in this direction as much as possible. Here, we have established a laboratory of robotics and intelligent systems, in which we are moving forward with the aim of production and export. We are working in several fields. One field is rehabilitation robots, in which we hope to be able to offer a commercial product. Another field is social and service-providing robots, such as humanoid robots that can act as receptionists in banks, hotels, commercial towers and similar environments. In this field, we are also connected with the Faculty of Computer Engineering of the university. We have also entered the fields of industrial welding robots, and four-legged robots that can be useful in border control and relief. In my opinion, the main problem is that there is not enough budget and investment. Each of these products requires initial capital, and our problem in Iranian universities is that this capital does not exist so that we can easily implement ideas. Practical work is much more difficult. If students realize that in addition to the difficulty of courses, they will face the difficulty of production, they will not be willing to choose practical projects and prefer to present a theoretical article or project and graduate as soon as possible. So, there is a need for financial support. Definitely, these contributions will later benefit the university and the industry of the country.