Driverless Bus designed by LPU students for Indian Science Congress

JALANDHAR: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Indian Science Congress - 2019 on January 3 at Lovely Professional University , a unique solar-powered driverless bus, designed and made by the students of the University, its first prototype will be used to ferry him to the venue. The bus is slated to enter into commercial service later this year. The 106 th edition of ISC 2019 will be held from January 3 to 7.

“The design and creation of the bus has been made keeping in mind the Indian conditions, and the cost of the bus is approximately Rs six lakh. As the bus-engine is powered by both battery and solar-cells, so the running cost is almost negligible. With a maximum speed of 30 km per hour, it has a seating capacity of 10-30 persons, as per needs,” said a LPU spokesperson.

Over 300 students from mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering departments of the university collaborated under the guidance of LPU professors and experts to design and fabricate the vehicle. The fabrication is being done at the LPU Project Studio where other such R&D and product commercialization also takes place.

“The bus is completely pollution free and uses only renewable energy in the form of electric motor and solar power for propulsion. Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication technology has been used to make the bus driverless. The bus also uses GPS and Bluetooth for navigation and could be controlled within a radius of 10 metres. The technology works by using wireless signals detected through ultra-sonic & Infra-red sensors,” LPU spokesperson said.

LPU Chancellor Ashok Mittal said, “The bus is one of the interesting projects done by the students and their other such interesting projects include flying farmer, formula1 car, go-karts and more.”

Project head Mandeep Singh informed, “once the bus is launched commercially, it will be used at Airports, housing societies, industrial complexes, and even educational institutions.”

