Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal virtually laid the foundation stone for ‘TiHAN-IIT Hyderabad’, the country’s first test bed for Autonomous Navigation Systems (Terrestrial and Aerial) here at the IIT-Hyderabad campus on Tuesday, and said it was a step towards Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, has sanctioned ₹135 crore to IIT-H under National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems to set up a Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation and Data Acquisition Systems (UAVs and RoVs). The Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation Systems for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Remotely Operated Vehicles at IIT-H, known as ‘TiHAN Foundation’ was incorporated as a Section-8 company in June 2020.
Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre, IIT-H Board of Governors chairperson B.V.R. Mohan Reddy and IIT-H director B.S. Murty were present.
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“TiHAN Foundation, established at IIT-H, is a multi-departmental initiative including researchers from electrical, computer science, mechanical and aerospace, civil, mathematics, and design at IIT-H with collaboration and support from reputed institutions and industry. It is a great step towards ‘Atmanibhar 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,” said Mr Pokhriyal.
Congratulating the team, Prof. 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. However, it may become dangerous. Especially in terms of safety, to directly use the operational roadway facilities as experimental test tracks for unmanned and connected vehicles. 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.”