IIT-B’s Matsya emerges second in underwater robotics contest

Loses narrowly to California Institute of Technology’s Dory

August 10, 2016 12:00 am | Updated 08:29 am IST - MUMBAI:

Underwater marvel:The triumphant IIT-B team with Matsya.

Underwater marvel:The triumphant IIT-B team with Matsya.

An IIT Bombay team led by mechanical engineering students emerged runners-up in the Robosub competition held from July 27 to 31 in San Diego, California. The team’s exhibit, Matsya, an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), was adjudged the best by an Asian team in the competition.

The AUV designed by IIT Bombay’s 26-member team beat six-time winner Cornell University, but lost narrowly to California Institute of Technology’s Dory to stand second. The AUV designed by the institute, popularly known as Caltech University, was programmed to shoot tiny torpedoes and pick up weights using a robotic arm.

The competition saw teams from 45 universities from around the world compete to design the most effective autonomous submarine. They were judged on design, technological innovation and performance in a series of obstacle courses. The vehicles were pre-programmed to carry out tasks and overcome obstacles.

Multitasker

Varun Mittal, the 21-year-old team leader of the AUV’s mechanical subdivision, told The Hindu , “Matsya was the only AUV which had a DVL sensor. This helped us to know the velocity of the vehicle under water. Also, it was the only vehicle to attempt the manipulation task. Caltech University did not attempt the torpedo task, but they got bonus time and came ahead of us.”

Matsya was the only AUV which had the ability to decide whether it had successfully completed a task or not. It was also able to retry an attempt if required. Some other tasks that Matsya was able to perform efficiently included identifying coloured objects, locating sound sources, dropping markers and shooting torpedoes.

Five-year journey

IIT-B’s journey leading up to the competition started just five years ago when a small group of students who shared a passion for underwater robotics got together. The first vehicle grabbed many eyeballs, but it had a lot of scope for improvement. The stability, robustness and capability of the AUV were improved upon in the following years. The main challenges that the team faced while developing the vehicle were controlling the vehicle’s position underwater and waterproofing it. Another task that seemed difficult was making the vehicle intelligent enough to take its own decisions. The team worked on these aspects and was able to increase the vehicle endurance level by six times.

Mr. Mittal, a fourth year integrated mechanical engineering student, said, “Over the years we have progressed. In 2013, we created a vehicle that could attempt all the tasks and reached we the semi-finals. This is the first time we qualified for the finals. An unstable system was our main obstacle till last year. We improved on this, but didn’t get enough time for testing. This year, we invested around 20 hours a week for testing and that helped us a lot. Our vehicle is not very hydrodynamic. So, it is not very fast in water. Our next mechanical design would be more hydrodynamic.”

Matsya 4.0 weighs 42 kg, has an endurance period of four hours, and can reach a depth of 150 feet. Its dimensions are 3.5 x 2.5 x 1.8 ft. The AUV was built by a team lead by final year students Tushar Sharma and Anshuman Kumar from the aerospace sub-division. Rs. 25 lakh was raised through sponsors to build Matsya.

The writer is an intern with The Hindu

The contest saw

45 universities compete to design the best autonomous submarine

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