BIT Patna Boys at John F Kennedy Space Center
PATNA: Budding techies from Birla Institute of Technology
(BIT), Patna, have shown their mettle at Lunabotics Mining Competition organized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), USA at Kennedy Space Center in Florida recently.
The 80-kg robot, indigenously developed by a nine-member team of BIT-Patna, was the only entry from India. Its robot tracking system, Caterpillar Track, was adjudged the best among 36 participants from 13 countries across the globe.
“Our robot had to excavate an artificial lunar surface which was created by Nasa scientists. It was a very tough job to excavate, as the moon’s atmosphere was simulated by the scientists,” said M A Hassan, in charge of the Nasa project of BIT-Patna.
The Robot made by BIT students
But even in that condition, our robot, which was sturdily built, worked well and our robot tracking system was adjudged the best among all the participants,” Hassan, who has received an appreciation letter from director (external relations), Kennedy Space Center.
A total of 36 engineering institutes had participated in the event held between May 23 and 28. Through remote commands, all participating teams had to make their robots excavate (artificial) lunar surface and collect maximum ‘soil’ within 15 minutes.
“It was so challenging that a total of 18 robots just could not work under that condition,” Hassan said. The BIT-Patna robot could not only work well but also excavated and collected a total of 30kg lunar surface.
For its splendid performance, BIT-Patna team has been directly reinvited to the next year’s competition at Florida. “We do not need to go through all the procedure to participate in the prestigious Nasa competition next year. We have got a direct invitation,” said Hassan, who along with nine techies played a significant role in fabrication of the robot.
The techies who come from diverse engineering disciplines are third year students-Anmol Sharma, Rajat Tyagi, Vishwa Teja, Anuraj Reddy, Arup Sen, Saurav Morarka-and second year students Pitak Mitra and Shuvmay Ghosh.
The entire project cost the team around Rs 10 lakh, which was provided by companies and public sector undertakings.
Three engineering institutes from India were invited to take part in the prestigious annual competition. But along with BIT-Patna only one institute from South India had participated. The robot of the other participant failed to perform at the demonstration.
Reacting to the feat, BIT-Patna director B N Giri told TOI: “I am more than happy. My students have made us all proud. In the wake of this appreciation, we will set up a full-fledged robotic lab on our campus to provide the students an opportunity to excel in the field.”
Here is the Facebook page of  the Team Gurutva which participated in the event