Mysuru: The annual e-Yantra robotics competition held in the academic year 2018-19 concluded with the finals at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay.

Two teams from Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE) comprising 3rd year B.E students from Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering reached the finals of the competition, faring amongst the top 0.5% of all participants from institutions across the country.

HB Theme: In this theme, contestants are given a drone which seeks to emulate the 3-D navigation ability of the avian species. The drone performs a task routinely performed by                                       most birds, namely going through the process of feeding itself and its young, and henceforth this theme is called Hungry Bird (HB) and the drone is referred to as “Bird.”

Likith Kumar, S. Keerthan, R. Sujeendra and Sampath Sai Sriram bagged 4th place in this theme. Here the students should possess novel skills such as building a drone controller and simulator, ROS, Control Systems and Path Planning. The challenge was to complete the task of navigating the Hungry Bird through hoops in the shortest time possible.

PB Theme: In this theme, contestants are given a drone which imitates a bee. The drone performs a task routinely performed by bees namely going through the process of pollinating flowers and it is henceforth referred to as “Pollinator Bee” (PB).

Amith Prakash, M.G. Pruthvi, E. Dushyantha Kumar and V.K. Tharun bagged 3rd place in the theme Pollinator Bee. Here the students involved in learning modules like Aerial Robotics, ROS, V-REP simulation, Control Systems and Image Processing.

e-Yantra Robotics Competition is about sensitising students to look into problems around them and devise ways to find a solution as engineers. This year the theme domain was “Jungle Safari” where the students were made to explore the habitats and behaviour of birds, insects and animals alike, using technology to mimic their behaviour. The competition started in Sept. 2018 and consisted of four stages of evaluation.

The students are an integral part of e-Yantra robotics and embedded system laboratory at SJCE that is supported both by e-Yantra and TEQIP (Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme), working on ongoing research projects in this field.

This lab is coordinated by Prof. Sudarshan Patil Kulkarni with support from Head of the Department of Electronics and Communication Dr. N. Shankaraiah and Principal Dr. T.N Nagabhushan of JSS Science and Technology University.