New Delhi:
Women are no longer confined to the passenger seat. From heading design and engineering teams, holding key posts to running major automotive companies, their role in the world of motoring has evolved significantly.
Professor P Rajalakshmi, head of the Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation (TiHAN) and a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, is one such pioneer who has made a significant contribution by heading a team of over 100 engineers to design and manufacture a 14 seater and six seater driverless shuttle vehicles or an autonomous car very similar to the driverless much talked about Tesla car company owned by Billionaire Elon Musk.
The vehicles, launched in August 2023, seek to ferry people on a designated route, through the internal roads of the institute in Kandi village in Sangareddy district of Telangana.
“IIT Hyderabad is working on autonomous navigation technologies. These are completely autonomous vehicles and are mostly meant for off-road means such as agriculture or mining. The vehicles ferry not only students, but anyone who enters the institute’s campus,” Ms Rajalakshmi told NDTV.
The four-wheeler electric vehicles were developed by the engineers at TiHAN, a technology innovation hub founded by IIT-Hyderabad and sanctioned by the Department of Science and Technology under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems.
Each vehicle consists of a screen that shows the route as it gets signals from the vehicle sensors for various indications such as a 3D map for navigation or an obstacle on the way. It stops at every bus stop for 10 seconds. Announcements related to onboarding and alighting from the vehicle are also made through the screens and voice for the passengers. The vehicles are also equipped with an emergency button to stop it in case a situation arises.
All the software and hardware components have been built by the institute. The one-of-a-kind project for India, the TiHAN project, is worth Rs 132 crore.
The shuttle services on the driverless vehicle are offered six times a day – three each in the morning and afternoon. While one of the shuttle has a seating capacity of 14 people, the other is smaller and can accommodate only six people. Ms Rajalakshmi says the test vehicle has run for over 15,000 kilometres ferrying over 10,000 people inside the IIT campus.
Asked about the possibility of these vehicles being driven on the road, Ms Rajalakshmi said: “The (Union) government is coming up with regulations on autonomous vehicle technology. Six of the level 0 to level 1 – involving driver assisted system – features will be mandated by this year. As of now, these vehicles are meant for off-road purposes.”
India preparing for a futuristic technology.
