Dr. Manukid Parnichkun of the Mechatronics field of study, School of Engineering and Technology, was recognized by Krungthep Thurakij, a Thai business newspaper, as one of the national four inventors who developed the works that grasps the hearts of Thai people. The article was published in the 1 January 2007 issue’s Scitech section.
Dr. Manukid was lauded as a man of ideas who never misses participation in robotics contests and who is regarded as a model person in initiating concepts with his students. The combined efforts of his and his students’ work in Mechatronics have produced inventions such as leg-exoskeleton, underwater robot (Chalawan), making the robot world closer to Thai people, according to the story.
The article also mentioned that Dr. Manukid also produced the work to solve national problem such as the development of an automatic tide-sensing unit for a tsunami early-warning system. This is technology developed by Thai researchers that can be used immediately without relying on the assistance from abroad.
According to the article, Dr. Manukid is most prominent for being the leader in operating the first-ever prototype unmanned intelligent vehicle in Thailand that can move in an assigned direction without driver. The intelligent vehicle is the basis for a vehicle that can move by itself in limited spaces, such as parks and hospitals. For the tourism business, a future intelligent vehicle might be programmed to move on request without installation of magnetic stripes on roads and can transport tourists, the elderly and the handicapped. This kind of knowledge might someday be developed for building a robot to survey Mars.
The other three inventors recognized by the newspaper are Air Marshal Morakot Charnsamruaj, president, Clean Fuel Energy Enterprise Co., Ltd. for solar bus and ship invention; Mr. Somchai Yokubol, MD of Thai Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. for a rice harvesting and threshing machine invention; and Dr. Pitak Laorattanakul, MTEC researcher, for a ceramic transformer invention.
Please link to the following Web site for further details: http://203.154.97.32/2007/01/01/news_22457619.php?news_id=22457619