From BITS Pilani, a robot with a mind : Shaurya

Shaurya, BITS Pilani, is an effort to develop a self-sufficient unmanned small All-Terrain Fully Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV) with multiple advanced functionalities and to establish a platform for extending the reach of technology to be applied in diverse fields. Shaurya is being developed at the Centre for Robotics & Intelligent Systems (CRIS) at BITS Pilani.

Robot Shaurya

Autonomous robots, like Shaurya, perform desired tasks in unstructured environments without continuous human guidance. A high degree of autonomy is particularly desirable in fields such as space exploration, where communication delays and interruptions are unavoidable.
A fully autonomous robot has the ability to

• Gain information about the environment.
• Work for an extended period without human intervention.
• Move either all or part of itself throughout its operating environment without human assistance.
• Avoid situations that are harmful to people, property, or itself.

 Shaurya will be the first of its kind autonomous ground vehicle in India. The team envisions the application of the technology used in Shaurya in diverse fields of human endeavor. Through the development of Shaurya, the team aspires to establish a platform for far reaching, multi-dimensional applications in the following arenas:

• Military – It will provide crucial information in life threatening situations, Minimizing Human intervention and Extending Reach to inaccessible areas.
• Social – Its inherent technology will be used make Smarter and Safer Vehicles to Reduce Traffic Accidents, Save Lives and Money, and Make People more productive.
• Industry – It will contribute to Increasing productivity, Improve work environment conditions and Minimize loss of life in industries like mining.
• Scientific – It will have Widespread Applications for Space Exploration.

The above is a small perspective of the vast horizon that awaits the technology being developed for autonomous ground vehicles like Shaurya.

  BITSian Team Shaurya comprises of three final year students pursuing Electrical & Electronics,and Mechanical Engineering.  Akash Mohan Singhal (Software Programmer, Electronics Design), Aditya S. Raghuwanshi (Mechanical design), Lokesh Jindal (Software Programmer) and Prof. B.K.Rout (Team Advisor).
Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) is the Main Team Sponsor and NMDC Ltd. and MOIL Ltd. are Associate Team Sponsors for this project.

Robot Shaurya has won several accolades. In the RoboCup 2011, the world's largest competition in robotics held in Istanbul on July 5-11 this year, Shaurya was the only Indian team to qualify for the finals in the Rescue Robot League category.

Conceptual Design

In the Intel India Embedded Challenges 2011 held in Bangalore, Shaurya was shortlisted for the finals over 2,000 teams across India.In the DRDO Student Robot Competition-2010 held from October 25 to 31 last year in Chennai, Shaurya was shortlisted among 14 finalists out of 240 teams from different parts of the country, winning a prize money of Rs. 1 lakh.