Chennai: In a breathtaking innovation, the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) students have designed an unmanned car called- 'Abhiyaan'. This car is designed to avoid colliding with objects in front with the help of sensors. Further, the first test run was inaugurated by V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT-M. The driverless car arrived unmanned about 500 meters from the administration office.
According to the IIT-M management, the annual invention exhibition of the students of IIT-M was held on March 12, 2023, and about 70 inventions of the students were displayed in this exhibition. Director Kamakoti also visited the exhibition, and he appreciated the students' inventions.
Talking to ETV Bharat, Kamakoti said, "In IIT-M, various departments of the engineering department are working together on the inventions. The students have developed an electric car, a solar-powered vehicle, etc. Moreover, we are going to test whether the automatic driverless vehicle developed by IIT-M can be attached to the campus as an alternative to the bus first."
After its testing, they can proceed to the next step. Driving a self-driving vehicle on the road requires a lot of discipline. It takes a while to drive an autonomous car on the road, he said and added that the automated car was piloted by students last year and it ran automatically throughout the year and steps will be taken to bring it inside the campus in the coming year.
Prabhu Rajagopal, Advisor, Innovation Center, IIT-M, said that the innovation center was created by IIT-M's own students. Moreover, the newly created Sudha and Shankar Innovation Center was inaugurated by the Vice-President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar. "So, the Innovation Center's Open Air Event 2023 is full of energy, and - a wonderful, newly designed, administrative office to the Innovation Center. Further, we are planning to run it on campus in the coming year. We have also developed a solar-powered vehicle, which will participate in a tournament in Australia", he said.
Rajagopal also said, "Robotic cleaning of human waste has been commercialized. About 18 robots are in use. The Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation Limited (TAHDCO), which operates under the Adi Dravida Welfare Department of the Tamil Nadu government, is talking to us regarding this," he said.
"IIT-M's Abhiyaan automated car design team has 35 people, who are working together to design an automatic car that runs without a driver and our goal is to be cloud-first and unmanned within a year. Following this, we plan to operate in airports, college campuses, etc", says Kaushik, one of the team members. The vehicle is completely battery-powered. The battery can go up to 80 kilometers on a single charge and a sensor is equipped with a camera, he added.
