Students develop self-driving wheelchair

Three final-year BTech students of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham have developed a self-driving wheelchair that can safely take a user from one point to another by navigating its own path and avoiding obstacles on the way. Called Self-E, the revolutionary wheelchair uses a Robotic Operating System (ROS) for autonomous navigation. It creates a map of the surrounding space, along with static and dynamic obstacles, using a laser sensor and displays it through a smartphone app. The user can then touch any point on the generated map, and the wheelchair will drive to that place automatically without user intervention.

In contrast to the imported self-driving wheelchairs which are quite expensive, the young inventors have managed to produce the prototype below Rs 1 lakh. Dr. Rajesh Kannan Megalingam, Assistant Professor of Electronics & Communications and Director of Humanitarian Technology Lab at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, who mentored the undergraduate engineering students said, “ The Self-E self-driving wheelchair is unique in the sense that it is the first self-driving wheelchair in India built by research lab of a university without any collaboration with foreign universities or companies. It now needs to be tested in different environments like hospitals and airports with patients and wheelchair users. The current version is a successful prototype and, with the help of Technology Business Incubator of the university, we hope to commercialise the product.”

The three students who designed the Self-E wheelchair– Chinta Ravi Teja, Sarath Sreekanth and Akhil Raj – have been working for the last two years as junior researchers at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s Humanitarian Technology Lab.

Vocal intensive bootcamp

Berklee India Exchange (BIX), a campus initiative establishing a platform for cultural conversation about Indian music, is set to host the 5th Berklee Tandon Global Clinics in New Delhi, India from August 22 to 26. The immersive five-day vocal intensive bootcamp will allow participants the opportunity to experience Berklee-style classes closer to home. Applications for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity are open on Berklee’s website until  July 15.

The BIX Bootcamp: Vocal Intensive will cover aspects, including vocal health, breath management, vocal technique, improvisation, the art of storytelling, body percussion, choral concepts, stage performance, and much more. It will be conducted by award-winning vocal ensemble Women of the World, featuring a guest percussionist. The group includes Annette Philip (India) voice, piano; Ayumi Ueda (Japan) voice, percussion; Giorgia Renosto (Italy) voice, ukulele; Debo Ray (USA/Haiti) voice, percussion; and Patrick Simard (Canada) drums, percussion, voice. Women of the World have toured extensively in North America, Europe and Asia, and perform music in 32 languages.  Their latest live album was deemed eligible for a Grammy nomination.