NEW DELHI: A team of undergraduates of the Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) has bagged the "Most Improved Design Award" for 2008 in a US-based tech competition organised to design a new-generation robotic submarine which can have a wider application in the defence field.
"The award is the first for any educational institute in the country," claimed head of DCE's Centre for Fibre Optics Research R K Sinha, adding that the overall position of the college stood at ninth place in the competition International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition.
Notably, DCE was the only team from the country participating in the competition organised by the Association for Vehicle System International and the Office of the Naval Research, USA, at San Diego from July 29 to August 3.
In all, about 40 teams representing well-known institutes from across the world took part in the event. They included MIT, Georgia Tech, Cornell and Kyusho University of Japan among others.
University of Maryland clinched the pole position.
Sinha said the robotic submarine codenamed "vehicle for autonomous research and underwater navigation" is capable of diving to a predetermined depth, identify patterns and follow underwater pipelines using unique machine vision.
Besides, it can determine sound sources by acoustic navigation, deploy payloads and can surface at any given position without human assistance.
It was developed by about 10 students from diverse engineering and technology disciplines of DCE. The team to the competition was led by Vishu Gupta and Abhishek Kumar.
"US Navy and several defence organisation have asked for the CV of the students to recruit them," Sinha said.
The project was earlier tested by the National Institute of Ocean Technology in Chennai, which along with Ministry of Earth Sciences extended financial and technical support. "Some private organisations were also involved in developing it," he noted.
In 2006, students of DCE had also been awarded with the "Most Innovative Design" in the competition for designing an unmanned aerial vehicle, DCE P B Sharma said.
