TiHAN signs MoU with ICAT, NM-ICPS for joint research in autonomous navigation
Sangareddy: A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) of the Department of Science Technology, Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation (TiHAN) at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT-H) and the International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) for collaboration in research and development in the emerging field of autonomous navigation.
By combining the organisation’s strengths and capabilities, this partnership will support the innovation ecosystem, skill development, and entrepreneurship activities in the field of autonomous navigation systems. TiHAN-IIT-H and ICAT will collaborate to pool their technical expertise, infrastructure, and experience in the field of technological advancements.
The Director of IIT-H Prof BS Murty said that the MoU signing between TiHAN-IIT-H and ICAT was a wonderful moment which has initiated a long-standing partnership between the organisations. Saying that the motto of IIT-H is Inventing and Innovating in Technology for Humanity, the Director said that TiHAN, which has been established with the vision of supporting activities related to Autonomous Navigation, is a feather in the cap of IIT-H. Prof Murty further said TiHAN Testbed is a state-of-the-art facility and the first of its kind in the nation for testing and validating different use cases of autonomous vehicles. “Our association with ICAT will be a game-changer and will help both TiHAN and ICAT grow significantly together and for the nation”, he said.
The Director of ICAT Pamela Tikku said that the area of focus of TiHAN is a very important subject for the automotive industry currently. Stating that autonomous vehicles were being talked about globally, she said the levels of autonomy were being implemented in Indian vehicles as well. Talking about the ICAT, the Director of ICAT said that it is a flagship initiative under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and was focused on developing world-class infrastructure for full vehicle development, automotive testing, and certification. However, Tikku said that there was a void in creating an ecosystem for research and development to deliver services for generating IPs, and innovation with Industry -academia collaboration. The ICAT is already developing an Incubation centre where the space and services will be provided to entrepreneurs for automotive development and testing. Academic courses in collaboration with IITH and ICAT can also be looked into under this agreement. Terming it as a small step toward a collective research, she said that can yield much bigger results in the future.
Explaining TiHAN- IITH efforts in Autonomous Navigation, Project Director TiHAN-IITH Prof P Rajalakshmi, said, the collaboration would not have been possible without the support and guidance of Prof Murty and Prof Mohan, Advisor-Innovation and Translational Research, IITH. She said that TiHAN is working towards the vision of being the destination of next-generation mobility solutions providing a collaborative research platform for academia, industry, and R and D labs at both national and international levels.
Speaking about ICAT and future collaborations with TiHAN Manager -Powertrain and Lead ICAT Incubation and Acceleration centre Ankit said ICAT has taken a great initiative of implementing the interventions under the Capital goods scheme by the Ministry of Heavy industry to reduce the import into the country. under ASPIRE programme.