e-Yantra Symposium 2017: India’s biggest robotics festival to be hosted by IIT Bombay on 7 and 8 April

IIT Bombay is all set to host the fourth edition of the biggest robotics festival in India, the e-Yantra Symposium 2017. 16 teams of students from colleges around the country will showcase their robots in arenas. Initially there were 330 proposals from around the country, out of which jury members shortlisted 121 promising projects who were asked to submit prototypes. 48 teams were then selected to showcase their creations in Mumbai, Delhi, Coimbatore, Pune and Bengaluru.

The finals of the 2017 e-Yantra robotics competition will be held in IIT Bombay. On display will be a robotic porter for railway stations that follows people carrying their luggage, a smart trolley for use in shopping centers, a drone for transporting organs for transplant, a drone for monitoring the health of crops, and a rescue robot for navigating tricky terrains. The students and teachers are sponsored by e-Yantra during the events, and the winners stand to gain a six month internship at IIT Bombay.

“The goal is to share projects and brainstorm new ideas for improving pedagogy and the quality of BE projects,” said Dr Kavi Arya, Principal Investigator, e-Yantra project. “This event ensures a sustainable use of Robotics labs set up through the e-Yantra Lab Setup Initiative (eLSI) and is sponsored by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) through its National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT). No registration fee is charged from teachers and students from the eLSI family of colleges who attend the symposium.”

The competition is part of the e-Yantra project, an initiative by IIT Bombay funded by the MHRD. The aim of the project is to create a platform to foster the indigenous development of robotics technologies, in tune with the “Make in India” initiative by the Government of India. Students are empowered through project based learning, with 233 labs set up as robotic testbeds for students, all across the nation. An additional 33 labs are in the pipeline.

Dr Kadole, Principal, DKTE Society’s Textile and Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji, Maharashtra, says, “e-Yantra facilitates infrastructure creation by sharing its experience and expertise. The benefits of e-Yantra projects include increased enthusiasm amongst students with creative thinking, better laboratory sessions in electronics and computer science and engineering courses. Students are developing robotic applications using Open Source software available on e-Yantra portal. Faculty members are doing their M Tech. projects using Firebird.”

In addition to the competition, there is a panel discussion on proposed initiatives in e-Yantra labs, a number of keynote speeches and panel discussions are a part of the symposium. There will be a keynote speech on the Mangalyaan mission with a focus on the technical prowess of Isro, and ideal smart city solutions. There are panel discussions on proposed initiatives at e-Yantra labs, and Indian engineering excellence. There is even a music program that explores classical traditions in Indian film music.

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