TiHAN: First Autonomous Navigation Facility | 06 Jul 2022
Why in News?
Ministry of Science & Technology has inaugurated “Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation” or TiHAN, in IIT- Hyderabad, which is a first “Autonomous Navigation” facility.
- It is seen as one of the steps toward India’s vision of ‘Atmanibhar Bharat’, ‘Skill India’ and ‘Digital India’.
What is TiHAN?
- It is a multidisciplinary initiative, which aims at making India a global player in the futuristic and next-generation “Smart Mobility” technology.
- The multi-departmental initiative includes researchers from electrical, computer science, mechanical and aerospace, civil, mathematics.
- At present, there is no such testbed facility in India to evaluate the autonomous navigation of vehicles. Therefore, it is envisioned to address this gap by developing a fully functional and exemplary testbed facility dedicated to Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs).
- Connected vehicles use technology to either communicate with each other, connect with traffic signals, signs, and other road items, or obtain data from a cloud. This information exchange helps with safety and improves traffic flow.
What is the Significance of this Step?
- It will provide a unique platform for high quality research between academia, industry and R&D labs both at the national and international level, thus making India a global leader in autonomous navigation technologies.
- India’s mobility sector is one of the world’s largest markets and the TiHAN - IITH will be the source of futuristic technology generation for autonomous vehicles.
- The TiHAN-IITH testbed on Autonomous Navigations (Aerial & Terrestrial) will allow us to test the next generation autonomous navigation technologies accurately and allow faster technology development and global market penetration.