University students build driverless, solar-powered bus to welcome PM Narendra Modi

Students of various departments of Punjab's Lovely Professional University (LPU) have designed and built a driverless solar-powered bus. The first prototype of the bus will be utilized to welcome and ferry Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Indian Science Congress venue, which will be held at LPU on January 3.

Over 300 students from multiple academic fields like mechanical, electrical and computer engineering 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 R&D and product commercialisation also takes place.

While there have been several experiments on driverless cars technology done by private individuals and engineering institutes this is perhaps the first time the next-gen technology is used on buses.

Students have used a technology called Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication to make the bus driverless. The technology works by using wireless signals detected through ultra-sonic and infrared sensors.

The bus uses GPS and Bluetooth for navigation and can be controlled within a radius of 10 meters. The motor controller adjusts the amount of energy that flows to the motor to correspond to the throttle.

The bus has a maximum speed of 30 kmph and can seat 10-30 people, depending on the seat arrangement.

"Once launched commercially, the bus will be used at airports, housing societies, industrial complexes, and educational institutions. The design of the bus has been done keeping in mind Indian conditions and it will cost a fraction of existing buses at just Rs 6 lakh," said a statement from the university.