IIT-H to test India’s first-ever passenger drone soon

Sangareddy: In a remarkable development in making Autonomous passenger vehicles a reality in India, the Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad (IIT-H) is going to test the first-ever passenger drone in a week’s time. Speaking to Telangana Today at the IIT-H campus in Kandi on Friday, Director of IIT-H Prof BS Murty said that a team of […]

Sangareddy: In a remarkable development in making Autonomous passenger vehicles a reality in India, the Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad (IIT-H) is going to test the first-ever passenger drone in a week’s time.

Speaking to Telangana Today at the IIT-H campus in Kandi on Friday, Director of IIT-H Prof BS Murty said that a team of faculty and students were working on the project for a long time. Since their work was nearing completion, Prof Murty said that the IIT-H was planning to test the Drone at the IIT-H campus in a week’s time. The IIT-H was given the project on autonomous vehicles by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under National Mission for Cyber-Physical Systems. Initially, the Director said that the passenger drone vehicles will be used in small areas like companies, and educational campuses.

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Particularly, he said that the passenger drone vehicles will be of great use when areas like the North Eastern States witness landslides because they would be handy in the rescue operation. He further observed that the aerial ambulances will also save crucial in saving the lives of the people in the days when traffic jams on Indian roads became a day of order. As the Indian Government was resolved to make India self-reliant on autonomous vehicle technology, the Director said that the DST was encouraging the institutes like IIT-H to develop autonomous aerial, water and road-based avehicles, by granting necessary funds.

Apart from the Passenger drone vehicles, he said that the IIT-H was working on aerial, road and water-based autonomous vehicles at TiHAN (Technology Innovation Hub for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) located on the campus. The IIT-H was the first in the country to have a test bed for unmanned aerial vehicles.

Union Minister to travel on driverless Car on IIT-H Campus:

Meanwhile, union Minister of Science and Technology (Independent Charge) Jitendra Singh was coming to IIT-H to participate in a programme on July 4. To display the progress they had achieved so far in developing autonomous vehicles, the Director said that they were planning to drive the union Minister in a driverless car on the campus. Since the new academic year is set to commence in August this year. Prof Murty said that they were planning to operate only driverless road-based electric vehicles on the campus from August onwards. Apart from this, the faculty and students were also working on developing some driverless underwater vehicles and electric cycles.

Prof Murty said that the autonomous electric cycles would be very useful since they move on their own when a passenger books them online. During the coming decade, he said that India and the world were going to witness a revolutionary change in autonomous vehicle development. However, he said that India is not going to depend on the western countries for autonomous vehicle technology as they did in the best because they have already achieved tremendous progress on this part so far. The IIT-H Director has inaugurated an exhibition on the World of PAVs (personal aerial vehicles) developed by the Ph.D. scholar Priyabrata Rautray. Head of the Design Department Prof Deepak John Mathew and others were present.