Hyderabad: Indian Institute of Technology - Hyderabad (IIT-H) is going to test the first-ever drone in a week that can carry passengers to make autonomous passenger vehicles a reality in the country. According to the Director of IIT-H Acharya BS Murty, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the National Mission for Cyber-Physical systems has given a project on autonomous vehicles to IIT-H.
As a part of this, the IIT-H was provided Rs 135 crore. The DST is encouraging institutes like IIT-H to develop autonomous aerial, water, and road vehicles as part of the Indian Government’s commitment to making India self-sufficient in Science and Technology. Experts who have been doing research on this topic for some years will present it experimentally on the IIT-H campus. The drone will take humans to a GPS-based destination without the need for a driver. If the experiment is successful, the focus will be on using them in selected areas.
A driverless bicycle will also be inaugurated by the Institute shortly. One can book this cycle that can come to a person on its own. The customer can leave it after reaching the destination as it will return to the booking office in auto pilot mode. "IIT-H has developed a driverless vehicle. Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh will arrive here on 4th July. In this vehicle, he is going to travel a distance of one kilometer. Driverless EVs will also be used for travel on campus," said the campus management.
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"We are doing amazing research in the fields of science and technology. Many successes are possible in the next ten years. The presence of young professors and over a thousand research students is something that unites us. Mechanical, design, electronics - with the help of all the departments, we have developed passenger drones and driverless vehicles. Arrangements have been made to test these. These drones work well to transport people to designated areas, in mountainous areas and in emergencies where there are no road facilities," said Acharya BS Murthy, Director of IIT-H.
