Navigation test bed at IIT-Hyderabad for adopting UAVs

Union Minister of Education lays foundation stone for TiHAN Foundation, for which Rs 135 cr sanctioned, for UAVs and ROVs

Sangareddy: The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has sanctioned Rs 135 crore to the Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad (IIT-H) under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) to set up a Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation and Data Acquisition Systems for unmanned aerial vehicles and remotely operated vehicles (UAVs, and RoVs). The Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation Systems for UAVs and ROVs at IIT-H will be known as ‘TiHAN Foundation’.

The foundation stone for this facility was laid by Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in the presence of Union Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre, Dr BVR Mohan Reddy, Chairperson, Board of Governors, IIT Hyderabad, Prof BS Murty, Director IIT-H, and other officials.

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Speaking on the occasion, Nishank said: “TiHAN Foundation, established at IIT-H, will be a multi-departmental initiative, including researchers from Electrical, Computer Science, Mechanical and Aerospace, Civil, Mathematics, and Design with collaboration and support from reputed institutions and industry. It is a great step towards ‘Aatma Nibhar Bharat’, ‘Skill India’ and ‘Digital India’. With an essential focus on the research and development of interdisciplinary technologies in the specific domain area of “Autonomous Navigation and Data Acquisition Systems,” this hub focuses on addressing various challenges hindering the real-time adoption of unmanned autonomous vehicles for both terrestrial and aerial applications.”

Congratulating the TiHAN Team, Director IIT-H, Prof BS Murty said: “One major requirement to make unmanned and connected vehicles more acceptable to the consumer society is to demonstrate its performance in real-life scenarios. In general, both UAV and UGV testing may include crashes and collisions with obstacles, resulting in damage to costly sensors and other components. Hence, it is important to test new technologies developed in a safe, controlled environment before deployment”.

Highlighting the importance of this facility, Project Director – TiHAN and Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Dr P Rajalakshmi said: “Several organisations worldwide have developed testbeds or proving grounds to investigate the functioning of unmanned and connected vehicles in a controlled environment by replicating different scenarios, ranging from frequently occurring to extreme cases that may ensue in real-life traffic operations. At present, there is no such testbed facility in India to evaluate the autonomous navigation of vehicles. Therefore, it is envisioned to address this gap by developing a fully functional and exemplary testbed facility dedicated to Connected Autonomous Vehicles – CAVs in a portion of the beautiful IIT-H campus. The hub’s focus sectors include Intelligent, Autonomous Transportation and Systems, Agriculture, Surveillance, and Environmental and Infrastructure Monitoring.”

The facility will come up in a two acre land within IIT-H campus near Kandi in Sangareddy district. All smart poles are enabled with communication providing technology with some poles designed with sprinklers to test the vehicles’ performance during rain. All the industries, R&D labs, academia conducting research and development in the broad areas of autonomous navigation can avail the facility.

 

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