DRDO ROBOTICS & UNMANNED SYSTEMS EXPOSITION (DRUSE) AT DIAT ON 24-25 MAY 2018

Share this News:

Pune – As desired by Hon’ble Prime Minister, a robotics competition has been organised to promote robotic and unmanned systems activity within the country amongst the student community. The competition focuses on generating innovative & disruptive ideas & novel concepts for development of robotics and unmanned systems for some of the challenging operational requirements and needs of Indian Armed Forces.

To organize a DRDO Robotics Unmanned Systems & Exposition, DRUSE was sanctioned on 08 Sept 2017 with six zones identified for zonal level competition and one final national level competition among the zonal winners. To publicize the event nation-wide, a DRUSE website was created elaborating the following 13 themes related to the defence applications:

(a) Mountain Climbing Robot

(b) Mobility in Snow bound Area

(c) Soldier Assistance vehicle

(d) Casualty Evacuation

(e) Exoskeleton

(f) Surveillance of a Ship

(g) Self-Concealing UGV

(h) Mobility on water, land and air

(j) Underwater Survey system

(k) Surveillance in Multi Storey building

(l) Battlefield debris clearance

(m) Mine detection and clearance

(n) Robotic Assistive Device for divyang (specially abled) persons

(o) Any other defence applications not covered above

The DRUSE website was launched by Raksha Mantri Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman on 14 Oct 2017. Total 1088 proposals were received. Each submitted proposal was checked for validity and plagiarism and technically evaluated by 3 independent evaluators before being screened by 1st level evaluation screening committee.

Based on the above, the zone-wise proposals qualified for the 2nd level screening, were 30 nos. from each zone. The results of the first level of screening were declared as per the schedule on website on 31 Jan 2018. 162 teams qualified for the 2nd level of screening.

The zonal competition i.e. 2nd level of screening was conducted at six zonal centers between 26 March to 09 April 2018 (i.e. Bengaluru, Pune, Guwahati, Jodhpur, New Delhi & Kolkata). The evaluation of all the six zones has been completed and 30 teams have qualified for the national level competition with 5 teams from each zone. The results of the 2nd level of screening have been announced on 16 April 2018.

A number of proposals with potential military applications, have been received which cover almost all the themes specified above and participating teams are also eager to work with DRDO.

It is proposed to conduct National Level DRUSE exposition on 24 May 2018 at DIAT, Pune. At this event 30 teams (5 from each zone) who have qualified for the final shall be participating. The teams shall be showcasing their work by either Charts explaining concepts or solid models on computer or working prototypes of the systems designed as per their choice.

On 24th May 2018, at 1000hrs an inauguration of the exposition is planned at the hands of the Chief Guest. In the inaugural function, invited dignitaries shall be requested to give a brief talk after which the zonal level winners (5 teams from each zone X 6 zones) shall be awarded. This shall be followed by announcement of the evaluation panel of judges for the finals. After the inauguration function, the exposition shall be declared open and the judges shall visit each team for evaluation. Evaluation criteria shall be provided to the judges at the venue. The judges shall award marks for each team which will be later compiled as per the scores. The top three teams or winners shall be announced on the next day i.e. 25th May 2018 and awarded at the hands of the Raksha Mantri.