Existing ‘drive- by- wire’ vehicles can be transformed into ‘Autonomous’

Officials of the Suzuki Motor Corporation and IITH during Technology Demonstration IIT Hyderabad of the India-specific Autonomous Car – ADAS Technology Development at IITH in Sangareddy.
| Photo Credit: MOHD ARIF

In the near future, may be a few years from now in the language of research and development, the existing ‘drive–by–wire’ vehicles can be transformed into ‘Autonomous’ vehicles by integrating different sensors for perception, localization and navigation.

As a first step in that direction India Specific Autonomous Car — ADAS (advanced driver assistance system) would be developed at the IITH.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IITH) is collaborating with Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) in the field of Autonomous Navigation for terrestrial vehicles. The technology developed at the IITH will enable the conversion of a drive-by-wire vehicle into an autonomous vehicle by integrating different sensors for perception, localization and navigation.

The state-of-the-art Autonomous Vehicle Testbed at DST NM-ICPS Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation & Data Acquisition Systems (TiHAN), IITH, will be used for testing and validating the technology. IITH and SMC share a vision to study elemental technologies and have signed an agreement in 2021 to develop the technology that can contribute to road safety and road accident reduction in India by developing Autonomous Driving and ADAS technologies based on Indian traffic scenarios. The collaboration will further strengthen the Indian-Japanese bond and allow the exploration of new joint development avenues. Recently senior officials of the SMC visited IITH to assess the readiness of the technology.

“IIT Hyderabad has been at the forefront of research and development in collaboration with industry. SMC is a valuable partner in our endeavour to develop an autonomous navigation system for ground vehicles in association with TiHAN. IITH shares a unique collaboration with Japan, and this collaboration with SMC will further strengthen our commitment to bilateral growth,” Director of the IITH B. S. Murty said.

“TiHAN at IITH has been established to focus on the research and development of autonomous and intelligent navigation systems. Our association with SMC will enable us to use our state-of-the-art Testbed facility at TiHAN to test and validate an automation navigation system suitable for Indian scenarios,” explained P. Rajalakshmi, principal Investigator for the study and Project Director of the TiHAN-IITH.

“SMC is collaborating with IITH in the development of autonomous driving technology to resolve problems such as vehicle collision and traffic congestion in India. We look forward to working with IITH on advanced mobility technology and strengthening human resources for international collaborative research and development,” said Kurachi Nobunari, general manager of the SMC.