Nagpur: The Project e-Yantra is an initiative to spread education in Embedded systems and Robotics by IIT Bombay sponsored by Ministry of Human Resource Development through the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT). The objective is to provide hands-on learning to engineering students who have limited access to labs and mentors. The goal is to create the next generation of (Embedded systems) engineers in India with a practical outlook to take on challenging problems and provide solutions.
e-Yantra Lab Setup Initiative (eLSI) supports the infrastructure creation at colleges by providing a platform for training teachers both in theory and applications of Robotics, in addition to provide guidance in setting up a Robotics lab at the college.
In order to achieve the desired impact, e-Yantra has provided necessary support in the following manner:
1. Conducted workshops for a team of 4 Teachers.
2. Trained the team of teachers through hands-on experiments in a step-by step manner through Task Based Training (TBT).
3. Provided support and advice to setup a robotics lab.
With regards to this initiative, RGCER (Rajiv Gandhi College of Engg & Research, Nagpur) has expressed intent to participate; by identifying the team of faculties from department of Electronics & Telecommunication, leaded by Prof. Abhay Deshpande with team members Prof. Suresh Gohane, Prof. Ashish Charbe and Prof. Aditya Dhanvijay.
In response to which, e-Yantra team has organized a two day workshop/training at IIT Powai, Mumbai on 19th and 20th February 2016. The training sessions includes the basic detailing about the robotic bots(robots), hardware configurations and software introductions followed by hands-on training on the bots with simple assignments.
For the next step towards lab setup and learning, Task based Training has been carried out for approx.12-16 weeks with the bot provided by e-Yantra team. There were total 6 Tasks with specific deadline. Team RGCER successfully completed all the tasks and awarded with Grade ‘A’ as a reward college received a signage and two robots worth Rs 54000/- from IIT bombay. After Completion of all the tasks the RGCER become eligible to set up e-Yantra Lab.
IIT Bombay organized Lab inaugurations completely online through video conferencing for colleges across the country. The online inauguration of e-yantra Lab carried out at Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering on 08th September 2016 in the presence of Dr. A. V. Bapat, Principal, RGCER, Dr. V. R. Kapur, Head of the Department, ETC, RGCER, Dr. A.S. Khobragade, Head of the Department, ETRX, RGCER, Along with the Faculty members of ETC department.
During the inauguration ceremony Dr. Kavi Arya, Principal Investigator ELSI project and Dr. Krishna Lala, Co Principal Investigator ELSI project validated the Task Based Training program and Appreciated the efforts taken for successful completion of all tasks with GRADE A.
The ceremony started with an opening address by the e-Yantra Team. Followed by lighting a diya and a symbolic ribbon cutting ceremony by Principal, Heads and Faculties. After this a Formal address given by Principal and handed over signage (which symbolically declares lab as an e-Yantra lab), two robots and certificates to team members.
After this, e-Yantra team lightened a virtual lamp using a “Diya Application” (which can be seen by all the participatingcolleges in that timeslot) to signify official inauguration of lab.
The newly established e-Yantra lab provides all the necessary infrastructure and resources required for better learning of Embedded system and robotics. Major equipment includes
• FireBird V 2560 Robot
• Spark V Robot
• Zigbee Modules 100m range
• Metal-gear Servo Motors
• Servo Motor Based Gripper kit for the Fire Bird V robot
• Sharp GP2Y0A21YK0F infrared range sensor (10cm to 80cm)
• L3G4200 3 axis digital gyroscope
• LSM303 3 axis digital accelerometer and 3 axis magnetometer
• Gyroscope, accelerometer and GPS interfacing module for the robot
• Two Axis Camera pod with Wireless Camera
• Raspberry-Pi
• Maxbotix ultrasonic range sensor
• And other useful robotics equipments
