From driverless cars to Mars-ready batteries, young Indians push tech frontiers

From driverless vehicles navigating roads to experimental batteries that could use carbon dioxide from Mars’ atmosphere, young Indian innovators are working on technologies that could bring new possibilities to mobility and space exploration.

In Bhopal, startup Swaayatt Robots is developing autonomous driving technology that can be fitted into different types of vehicles. Meanwhile, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad are exploring a metal-free battery concept that could use carbon dioxide found in the Martian atmosphere as part of its electrochemical process.

At Swaayatt Robots, cameras and sensors installed in test vehicles collect information about roads, obstacles and nearby objects. The system then processes this data, allowing vehicles to understand their surroundings, negotiate turns and react to changing road conditions.


Instead of developing a self-driving system for a particular car model, the startup is working on technology that could be used across different kinds of vehicles.

“Our technology is designed to be installed in any type of vehicle. It is not developed for one particular car. We are building a universal driverless technology that could enable vehicles around the world to operate autonomously,” said Sanjeev Sharma, founder of Swaayatt Robots.

The company is testing its technology in vehicles to understand how it responds to different driving conditions. A major part of the work involves perception, mapping and localisation, which help autonomous vehicles recognise their surroundings and work out their position on the road.

Vinnohit, a perception and mapping engineer at Swaayatt Robots, explained that information collected through sensors is used to build a digital picture of the vehicle's surroundings. This helps the system recognise objects, understand road layouts and make decisions while navigating.

“I primarily work on perception, mapping and localisation. We use information from the vehicle's sensors to build a picture of its surroundings — what is present around the vehicle and what the road looks like. This information is processed in a format that the subsequent system can understand, helping the vehicle make better and more accurate decisions,” Vinnohit said.

While Swaayatt Robots is trying to make autonomous driving more adaptable, researchers at IIT Hyderabad are looking at a different challenge: developing batteries that could meet the demands of future space missions.

The team is working on a metal-free battery concept that could use carbon dioxide, which is abundant in Mars’ atmosphere, in its electrochemical process. The research looks at alternatives to conventional batteries, particularly as the weight of equipment remains a major concern for space missions.

Carrying batteries all the way from Earth adds to a spacecraft's payload. This can push up mission costs and reduce the amount of other equipment that can be carried. Researchers are therefore studying whether resources already available on Mars could help overcome some of these limitations, although the technology would need further development and testing before it could be put to use.

“Batteries sent to Mars add to the payload because of their weight, and their performance can also involve compromises. However, Mars has an advantage: its atmosphere contains a large amount of carbon dioxide. We can use this CO₂ to run our batteries for space missions,” said Dr Ayesha Siddiqua Khan, a senior researcher at IIT Hyderabad.

The researchers are also looking beyond space missions to see whether the battery could offer advantages in safety, recycling and reducing the need for expensive metals.

Keerthana, a research scholar at IIT Hyderabad, said the battery uses a liquid as its main source of lithium ions. According to her, this could make recycling easier and help lower environmental risks.

“This is a completely metal-free battery and is considered environmentally safer. The liquid used in it serves as the main source of lithium ions, making recycling easier and reducing environmental risks. It also offers advantages in terms of safety. If production begins on a large scale, it could benefit India's battery industry by reducing dependence on other countries for expensive metals,” Keerthana said.

The two projects deal with very different challenges, but both show how Indian engineers and researchers are experimenting with new ways to address technological problems. While one is working towards vehicles that can read their surroundings and drive without human intervention, the other is examining whether materials available on Mars could help meet the energy needs of future missions.

Both technologies are still being developed and will need further testing before their wider applications become clear. Even so, the work being carried out in Bhopal and Hyderabad points to the different approaches Indian innovators are taking to tackle challenges in mobility, energy and space exploration.

(With ANI inputs)