Automated guided vehicle may cost just Rs 1 lakh

Dehradun, Jan 21 (IANS) Here is good news for the micro small medium enterprise (MSME) sector in India. Under technology innovation, a move is on to bring down the price of automated guided vehicles (AGVs), which are used for moving materials in the industry, from Rs 15-20 lakh to just Rs 1 lakh.

IIT Roorkee and Tetrahedron Manufacturing Services (TMS) Pvt Ltd, a start-up company, have signed an MoU for designing and developing the low cost AGVs with appropriate profit margin.

Manufacturing industries nowadays are using future technologies like AGVs, 3D printing and robotics like never before in the past, market sources said.

A standard AGV used in the industry to transport the material within the industrial premises without any human intervention usually costs around Rs 15 to 20 lakh. Using such an autonomous system benefits the vehicles to make routing decisions based on real-time feedback of environment conditions along with the ease of navigational adjustments.

But to make this transition holistic and effective, scientists at IIT Roorkee say there is a need to bring small and medium scale manufacturing industries into this journey toward a better future.

IIT Roorkee and TMS, a tech-based start-up by the alumini of IIT Roorkee, NIT Rourkela and IIM Kolkata has come forward to tackle this hurdle and to design and develop the low-cost AGV.

The scientists claim that the future production of such AVGs would bring the price well under the Rs 1 lakh per vehicle so that even small and medium scale industries can take a step forward toward automation.

TMS Pvt Ltd is a technology start-up founded in 2015 and has achieved 300 percent year-on-year growth for the past three years.

After signing the MoU, Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, said: "IIT Roorkee is being given the task to bring down the cost with effective technology. We are happy to associate with TMS which opens a new chapter for the institute and we look forward towards increased collaborative work."

Nitin Kumar, Founder of TMS, said: "This pact with IIT Roorkee will bring about exchange of experts, research development, training and industrial relation for mutual benefits. This collaboration is expected to bring a major change involving research and development as well as sharing of facilities, data, knowledge and skills in related areas."