via Hindustan Times
Matsya 6 is the latest in the series of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) developed by students of IIT Bombay.
A robotic submarine – Matsya 6 – designed by students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, won the third position in presentation at the global RoboSub competition held in California in August.
Matsya 6 is the latest in the series of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) developed by students of IIT Bombay. Although experimental, these AUVs mimic the real-world systems, currently deployed around the world for underwater exploration, seafloor mapping, and sonar localisation, among other uses, the team said.
After a four-year hiatus, IIT-B’s AUV team made it to the top three in the presentation category on August 30, in RoboSub 2020, an international student competition for designing and building robotic submarines. The team won a $600 prize for the project. Since, the competition was held virtually this year, 33 student teams from across the world were judged on five categories—overall category, video presentations, technical design report, website and special awards.
“While we didn’t have the opportunity to meet in person this year, we stayed engaged and shifted efforts online to highlight and reward teams’ incredible work. We ended the summer with a Virtual Awards Party to announce prizes and gear up for 2021,” said RoboSub 2020 in a statement on its official website.
The IIT-B team ranked seventh in the overall category. “Matsya 6 is an autonomous underwater vehicle that operates on its own without any human intervention. It is capable of detecting underwater objects through cameras installed on it or the sound excited by the objects,” said Sanjoli Narang, team leader, AUV-IIT-B.
AUV IIT-B is a multi-disciplinary team of 52 members focused on developing AUV from the perspective to handle real-time tasks. The vehicle is capable of way-point navigation, object detection, robotic actuation and acoustic communication underwater, the team said.
“We had newer electronics, better debugging functionality and cylindrical design of the vehicle, which we presented in the competition,” said Narang.
