IIT seeks robotic solution in conflict zones

Updated on: Monday, July 19, 2010

A group of students from IIT-Kharagpur is working on a prototype of an Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV) which, if it proves successful, may be developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for use by security agencies for Low-Intensity Conflict (LIC).

The six-member IIT team has bagged the first rank in Phase-I in the Student Robot Competition, 2010, organised by DRDO. As many as 240 colleges and institutes from across the country participated in the first phase of the contest, where third- and fourth-year students were asked to design an ‘Autonomous Ground Vehicle for Low Intensity Conflict’. Only 14 teams were shortlisted for Phase-II. Among the entries from the east, the Indian School of Mines team from Dhanbad was ranked fourth. The National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, ranked 14th.

“Participants were told that the AGV will be a combat vehicle of the future and assigned tasks that a conventional manned vehicle cannot perform. These are basically autonomous robots to be used by security agencies engaged in LIC in urban and unstructured environments. These robots would be used in LIC and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) programmes in undesirable, hazardous and potentially life-threatening environments,” said a senior DRDO official.

The AGV would have to be armed with sensors, software and other equipment to help it negotiate harsh terrain, identify and designate targets, engage and neutralise them. The vehicle would also have to detect minefields and neutralise them. In short, the AGV would be an autonomous off-road robotic platform that would navigate rough terrain and avoid natural and man-made obstacles in the shortest possible time.

According to the team of experts who judged the entries, the IIT-Kharagpur team, comprising Nalin Gupta, Sarbartha Banerjee, Subhagato Dutta, Rahul Das, Anindita Bhattacharya and A Srinivas Reddy submitted an excellent design. Officials are waiting to find out how the prototype performs.

“The idea of the competition is to harness the innovative ideas of our student community to the National Robotics Program of India. The demands made from the participants are enormous. The robot will have to complete a closed loop obstacle course of 500 metres within an anticipated time of 20 minutes, using autonomous navigation. For the first 350 metres, the robot would have to navigate with the help of ‘lane-following’ by colour detection. While doing this, it would have to avoid static positive obstacles, cross over slopes, staircases and corrugations. It would have to navigate the remaining 150 metres with the help of GPS waypoints. Maximum width of the robot would have to be 1 metre, maximum speed of 10 km per hour and minimum turning radius of 5 metres. It would have to carry an additional payload of 10 kg. The robot would have to be self-powered in all respects,” the official said.

In Phase-I, teams submitted designs with system configuration details. In the next phase, the selected teams would have to build a prototype and make it perform before the judges. Initially, 10 teams were supposed to be shortlisted for Phase-II. Given the nature of the papers submitted, it was finally decided to shortlist 14. Each team received a cash award of Rs 1,00,000.

The teams are now busy building their prototypes. The final competition will be held at the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), Chennai, between September 27-29, where the prototypes would be tried out.

IIT seeks robotic solution in conflict zones

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