S. Vishnu Sharma
IIT Madras Students’ Hyperloop Team Avishkar has emerged among the top three teams globally in certain technical categories at the recently-held European Hyperloop Week 2023 (EHW).
Team Avishkar stands as the only non-European team to be nominated in several award categories in this competition. The EHW 2023 is an annual international event that enables university students, guest speakers, and companies to discuss Hyperloop technology, feasibility and scalability of the Hyperloop.
University Hyperloop teams present their prototype components and full pods to a technical jury and compete in several categories. Around 23 participants from various institutions across the world qualified for the final rounds of this competition hosted this year by the University of Edinburgh, say sources from IIT Madras.
Congratulations
Congratulating the Team on their performance, Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Faculty Advisor, Avishkar Hyperloop, IIT Madras, said, “Avishkar continues the tradition of keeping our flag flying high as in previous years.
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Over the years, we have got to develop the full stack of Hyperloop technologies and I look forward to our improving them in the future, said Prof Satya Chakravarthy of IIT Madras.
Category
Team Avishkar Hyperloop team finished in the global top three for the category of ‘Full Scale Socio-Economic Aspects of Hyperloop,’ showcasing their extensive research on the estimated energy consumption and ticket pricing model of a typical Hyperloop corridor.
The students achieved a prominent position in the Global Top five in the ‘Guidance’ category, providing compelling evidence for the viability of their on-pod Levitation systems.
The team’s exceptional in-house designs of the sensor and embedded systems led to their attainment of a Global Top six position in the ‘Sense and Control Systems’ category, say sources from IIT Madras.
New developments
Elaborating on the new developments this year, Ms. Medha Kommajosyula, Student Team Lead, Team Avishkar Hyperloop, IIT Madras, said, “Avishkar’s new pod – ‘Garuda’ – is completely designed in-house and comes with multiple upgrades, thereby making it Asia’s most advanced pod.
It is powered by a Linear Induction Motor designed completely by our students’ team, which is also the pod’s primary mode of braking. The pod incorporates bidirectional run capabilities and EMS levitation with a high lift-to-weight ratio while still being extremely power efficient, says Medha of IIT Madras.
The pod is controlled with autonomous embedded systems capable of speed and direction control and real-time data acquisition. All this is powered by a 3kWh LFP primary battery pack with high volumetric power density, making Garuda a technological powerhouse, she said.
Technology
Mr. Siddhant Patole, Student Team Lead, Team Avishkar Hyperloop, IIT Madras, said, “Having been granted several patents on Hyperloop technology, the team is pushing itself forward to build a 350 km-long Hyperloop corridor between Chennai and Bangalore that could bring down the travel time to just 30 minutes.
We are looking at a timeline of developing India’s first Hyperloop corridor in the next two decades – with the first step being on-going construction of the upcoming 400m long Hyperloop test facility at IITM, he said.
The team is also planning to publish several of their papers over the course of time. We have made the full-scale research papers available online at our website so that our knowledge on the Hyperloop technology is spread across India, and the world, said Mr. Siddhant.
The team
Avishkar Hyperloop is an internationally acclaimed, highly passionate IITM student team comprising more than 50 team members. They are focused on revolutionising transportation with sustainable Hyperloop technologies with funding support from various stakeholders, including the Government of India.
The team is also backed by industry partners like Tube Investments of India and L&T Construction. Founded as a competition team at the Center for Innovation (CFI), IIT Madras, in 2017, Team Avishkar Hyperloop participated in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2019 and finished in the Top 10 among more than 1,600 teams, being the only Asian finalist.
The team won the ‘Most Scalable Design’ award at the EHW 2021 and emerged among the Global top five in the Traction Systems, Electrical Systems and Complete Pod categories in the European Hyperloop Week 2022 held in the Netherlands.
