Adding another feather to its cap, the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIIT-Delhi) will now be leading the project IRAS-HUB, funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union (EU). The project is mostly aimed at addressing the lack of skilled talent in robotics technology in India.
To overcome the scarcity of skilled talent in robotics technology in India, the project IRAS-HUB will establish three hubs in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) in India. The hubs will be equipped with prototyping equipment and robotics software and will train researchers from Indian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in RAS with reputable researchers and experts from EU HEIs.
“Robotics can offer numerous opportunities to a wide range of market domains in a developing country like India, such as manufacturing, agriculture, transport and logistics, and space exploration. However, the use of robotics in India has been mainly challenged by the high cost of adoption, lack of accessibility, and the lack of skilled talent in robotics technology,” noted Prof Jainendra Shukla, Assistant Professor (CSE, HCD) IIIT-Delhi, adding, “Leading the Indo-EU collaboration for capacity building in Robotics, IIT-Delhi commits towards bringing in transformational changes in the domain, which will aide towards the overall technological advancement in the country.”
The EU has sanctioned funding of ~800,000 EUROS for three years, which involves ten partners from 5 different countries, including four HEIs from India. As the lead institute, IIIT-Delhi will collaborate with other partners to achieve the goals; the partner’s organizations are:
1. International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, India
2. Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, India
3. Universita Degli Studi Di Genova, Italy
4. Politechnika Warszawska, Poland
5. Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Spain
6. Creative Thinking Development, Greece
7. Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, India
8. Addverb Technologies, India
9. Polytechneio Kritis, Greece
“The aim of this project is the development of robotics technology for problem-solving in diverse sectors of India, such as agriculture and transportation. Through this, we will also be promoting competencies and capacity building, and provide training to nurture innovation, start-ups, and aspiring entrepreneurs in robotics,” mentioned Prof Shukla.
The Indo-EU partnership will help the internationalization and modernization of Indian HEIs by connecting them with global initiatives in robotics education. The institutes in India will also develop courses in robotics at the level of UG, and PG and continued learning about working professionals. This will enable knowledge generation in robotics technology through basic and applied research.
