• Team Anant

Working predominantly on a special class of satellites called 3U CubeSat, which weigh under six kilograms, Team Anant is close to launching their satellite into the Earth’s orbit. The English Press Club sat down with their student coordinator, Ishika Kadam, to talk about the team’s transition to working on campus over the last year.

Ishika explained that ‘The satellite has its payload as a multispectral camera with the scientific objective of vegetation mapping.’ The core objective is further broken down into smaller objectives handed over to the seven subsystems that form the team. Out of the seven, six subsystems, namely Payload, Electric Power, Onboard Computer, Altitude Determination and Control, Structural and Thermal, and Telecommunication, fall under the technical subdivision.

The non-technicalities are handled solely by the Publicity, Sponsorship, and Design Subsystems.

Talking about the team’s recent achievements, she said that they completed the first stage of the CanSat (Soda Can-Satellite) competition by producing a preliminary design report. The competition is organised by IN-SPACe and ISRO together. Teams are invited to build a satellite that has dimensions equivalent to a can of soda. Upon qualification, the team will proceed to the second stage, which will be held in January next year. Another notable achievement was the Structural and Thermal subsystem presenting their project at the Dubai Expo. 

Moving forward, Ishika hoped to win the CanSat competition, which will be held in June 2023, while also pursuing their main goal of launching their own satellite. She lauded each subsystem for its accumulated knowledge and concluded by saying that these learnings will soon be integrated.

• Team BITS

Team BITS is a group of people who are working on getting their own cars, the Arcadian and the Vidyut, to hit the campus streets. The Arcadian has an internal combustion engine, while the Vidyut is an electric vehicle. The EPC got an opportunity to speak to their team leader, Anshh Seksaria, to take a closer look at their recent work.

The team participates in the Shell Eco Marathon, which tests cars built for maximum fuel efficiency. While elaborating, Anshh said that ‘Unlike a regular competition where it is about being the first one to cross the finish line, here it is about lasting as long as possible.’ To make it feasible, the first step is to use efficient fuel. Ethanol is a good choice due to its high octane rating and cost-effectiveness. Alongside these objectives, there is also a long-term “autonomous programming project” underway where the team works on self-driving cars. Post its completion, they intend to fixate on the idea of hybrid cars.

Owing to the challenges thrown by the pandemic and an unprecedented break of three years, the team is still working on bridging the communication gap between the working batch and the batch that last represented them at Chennai. 

• Team Robocon

Formed in 2011, Team Robocon primarily focuses on participating in a competition called ABU Robocon. The EPC sat down to interview team captain, Kartik Agrawal, to find out more about the team’s recent endeavours.

ABU Robocon is a competition where robots compete to finish a task under stipulated time constraints. Here, they have fared well in the past with maze-solving robots, a badminton-playing robot, and a frisbee-throwing robot to their name.

The team is currently working on two projects, a quadcopter and a quadruped, both autonomous in nature. Their intensive work on these projects is inspired by projects like Spot, a robot from Boston Dynamics, and autonomous drones. Kartik also mentioned the need to establish a robotics culture in BITS comparable to ones outside India. They are attempting to develop low-cost solutions that can be used for specific robotics applications such as defence or medical science.

When asked about working in an online setting, Kartik revealed that it was quite difficult because of the hardware aspects of robotics. They faced the challenge of accurately simulating intricate hardware during work hours constrained to computer screens. Eventually, they received funding while working remotely, which went into computational sensors, cameras, and a 3D printer.

• Team Inspired Karters-Electric

Once back on campus, they started working tirelessly on the quadruped prototype, which they hope to be able to show off in a few months, and are confident about an exciting future.

Inspired Karters-Electric (then known as Inspired Karters-Formula Student) was founded in 2011 by a group of enthusiastic students who wanted to establish a culture of building electric cars. The EPC had the opportunity to speak to the Team Captain of IKE, Adhithyan Sridharan, to find out about the team’s recent activities on campus. 

IKE has taken a primary interest in participating in the Formula Student Competition, a competition to build a single-seater combustion-powered electric car. These cars are engineered keeping in mind the dynamics of a regular race, with parameters like acceleration and braking being of prime importance. Adhithyan pointed out that this was in contrast with parameters like fuel efficiency, air drag, or weight of the car. Thus there is a clear demarcation between Team BITS and Team IKE who both work on electric cars.

When talking about their experience with remote work, Adhithyan mentioned that the Team has struggled notably while accumulating funds. In addition, the Team ended up getting their entire workplace “ransacked”, with a number of tools being misplaced. However, this did not undermine the Team’s performance in online competitions, where they have consistently comprised the top few teams.

Regarding upcoming plans, Adhithyan first acknowledged the rich motorsport and Formula One fan base on campus and established that a lot of people will find their upcoming developments interesting. The FSEV Concept Challenge is a competition that the team is proud of when it comes to showcasing their skills. Their car under development aims at “outright performance and cornering speed in particular”. In coming years, the Team hoped to transition into an in-house manufacturer of parts as opposed to being a mere consumer so that they can emerge as frontrunners. 

• Team Sally Robotics

Sally Robotics is an autonomous driving tech team at the Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CRIS). The EPC sat down with Abhirath Anand, the Team Lead, to learn about their work over the past year.

Speaking of the functioning of the Team, Abhirath explained that they have four subsystems which work on the different aspects of an autonomous vehicle project. The Computer Vision subsystem works on solving problems in autonomous vision, the SLAM subsystem works on mapping and localisation of the vehicle, the Navigation subsystem works on algorithms that can make the vehicle navigate optimally, and the Mechanical subsystem takes care of the moving components of the vehicle and their interaction with the other subsystems. He further emphasised that Sally Robotics is a research-oriented tech team.

When asked about their recent work, Abhirath mentioned that they had been very active in the research space. All the members had been actively contributing to various frameworks, writing open code, working on problems in the research space, and also maintaining a blog. They had tried to participate in robotics competitions but could not do so due to scheduling issues with the institution.

Speaking on the team’s plans for the future, Abhirath said that they will continue working on their research projects. They are currently working on a few research articles that they intend to get published. In addition to their efforts in research, the team is also looking to participate in competitions this year.

• Consortium for Research in Space Systems (CRISS) Robotics

CRISS (Consortium for Research in Space Systems) Robotics, started in 2021, is the youngest tech team on campus. It was started with the objective of building a Mars rover prototype specifically to take part in the University Rover Challenge. The team is divided into five subsystems: Mechanical, Electrical, Software, Science and Management. The EPC sat down with Vedang Bhupesh, the Vice–Lead of CRISS Robotics, to talk about the team.

Detailing the work done by each of the subsystems, Vedang explained that the Mechanical subsystem deals with building the rover and maintaining it, and there is also a robotic arm team within the subsystem. The Electrical subsystem focuses on power delivery, embedded systems, and communication. The Software subsystem deals with programming the brain of the rover. It designs algorithms and protocols to give autonomy to the rover and enable navigation. The Science subsystem focuses on astrobiology and chemical test instrumentation. The management team handles the non-technical aspects of the team’s functioning. He further mentioned that while the rover is the core project that unites all the subsystems, each one also has personal projects they pursue. 

When asked about their work over the past year, Vedang mentioned that they had participated in the International Rover Design Challenge. Based on their performance, they further qualified for the International Rover Challenge but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. After the college reopened in February, they focused on recruitments as well as working on their existing projects. 

Speaking about the team’s plans for the future, Vedang said that they are preparing to compete in the International Rover Challenge and the University Rover Challenge, for which all the subsystems are working separately to finish the rover and move towards integration.

• The Radio Astronomy Club (TRAC)

The Radio Astronomy Club (TRAC) is concerned with astronomy, radio astronomy, signal processing, and antenna theory and undertakes various projects involving these domains. The EPC sat down with Ishan Khare, the Sky Watch Array Network (SWAN) Project Head at TRAC, to discuss the club’s activities and projects.

When asked about the work the club does, Ishan explained that the SWAN Project and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Project are the two projects they focus on along with other minor projects that members take up as per their interest. The SWAN Project uses phased array antennae for interferometry. which is a technique used for mapping and imaging the radio sky. The LIGO Project deals with gravitational wave data analysis. 

Speaking about the club’s progress over the past year, Ishan mentioned that a few members had visited the Gauribidanur Radio Observatory to study the SWAN setup. He also gladly added that the same antenna will be set up on campus by January, and by the end of the current academic year, a ground station provided by the Raman Research Institute will be installed on campus. He explained that the installation of the ground station is a major achievement as it was one of the primary goals set by the founding members of the club in 2014. Once the ground station is set up, it can be used by students and professors for various radio astronomy projects.

• Radio Control (RC) Club

The Radio Control (RC) Club started off as a hobby club in 2012 and has since evolved into a tech team focused on autonomous robotics. The EPC sat down with Navneeth Sagar and Vibgyor Singhvi, the coordinators of the club, to learn about the club’s activities.

Vibgyor explained that the RC club focuses on drone piloting in the autonomous field. And in the hardware field, they work on designing and fabricating vehicles like drones, boats, and hovercrafts. Their current projects include a vertical take-off and landing vehicle and another for building microdrones. 

When asked about their work over the past year, Navneeth said their main priority was rejuvenating the club and ensuring knowledge transfer after a year of functioning remotely. In APOGEE 22, RC Club conducted the event ‘Sky High’ in which they provided the enrolled teams with the necessary materials and taught them to build a basic plane. They also won the ‘Battle of Waterloo’ event conducted by the Mechanical Engineering Association in which they had to build a boat to navigate the collision course.

As for the club’s plans for the future, Navneeth said that they will be focusing their efforts towards autonomous drone flight as they intend to compete in IIT Bombay’s e-Yantra. He added that participating in the AUVSI SUAS, an international competition for designing, building, and flying an autonomous unmanned air system, is one of the larger goals of the club that they are continually working towards. Apart from this, they intend to conduct more events in the upcoming fests.