Hyderabad, Mar 13 (Representative) Hyderabad based Svaya Robotics in collaboration with DRDO Labs – Research and Development Establishment, Pune (R&DE) and Defense Bio-engineering & Electro Medical Laboratory, Bangalore (DEBEL), has developed India’s first quadruped robot and wearable exoskeleton respectively as technology demonstrators with their design inputs. Currently these robots are being imported from USA and Switzerland to help our defence requirements and to strengthen our country’s defence capabilities, the company said in a release here on Monday. Defence and security are undergoing rapid transformation driven by technology and robotics is poised to play a very important role with DRDO taking the lead to develop them indigenously under “make-in-India” along with industry partners such as Svaya Robotics as development partners. Current robots are made for structured environments with limited capabilities and are not suited for deployment in difficult to maneuver terrains and field operational conditions, that Indian defense and security forces are uniquely faced with.
Dr. Sateesh Reddy, Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri (Minister of Defence) and former chairman, DRDO, who visited Svaya Robotics development facility in Hyderabad, along with other senior scientists of DRDO labs – R&DE and DEBEL, on Monday reviewed the development of the robots that Svaya has undertaken to develop with DRDO inputs. Dr Reddy said “We are extremely happy with the rapid progress that Svaya Robotics was able to achieve in a very short period and such development partnerships like these are essential to accelerate development of advanced robotics in India and take them into field trials fast and also keep developing them for dual-use in both defence and industry. He was emphatic that Robotics would play a very important role in enabling Indian defence in both augmenting soldiers and also in providing unmatched remote reconnaissance capabilities.”
Welcoming the defence officials, Vijay R. Seelam, Founder and Managing Director of Svaya Robotics said “We are happy to associate with DRDO as part of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat mission. The quadruped robot was indigenously developed by Svaya in collaboration with DRDO and is made for navigating in unstructured terrains to provide remote reconnaissance and inspection for the defence and security forces which otherwise are not safe for humans to operate in”. While the exo-skeleton, is being developed by Svaya to suit Indian soldier’s anthropometry and augment soldier strength for both walking long distances without fatigue and to lift heavy loads without expending much effort. Both are dual-use robots and have multiple use cases in both Industry and healthcare, Seelam added.