IIT-Bombay Techfest | Jet-powered suit, Hyperloop go on display at annual tech event

3. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay | Mumbai, Maharashtra | 2018 Rank: 2 (Image: IIT Bombay/Website)

Techfest, the annual science and technology festival of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) which draws thousands of students and inventors from across the globe, was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its 24th year, Techfest displayed a number of projects like the Virgin Hyperloop, The Daedalus Mark 1 among others.

Virgin Hyperloop is the only company in the world to have undertaken successful and safe passenger trials of the Hyperloop technology. Hyperloop -- a radical new transportation technology will ​move passengers and/or cargo at airline speeds ​at a fraction of the cost of air travel​.

The system is proposed to be entirely autonomous, quiet, direct-to-destination, on-demand (several pods can depart per minute, and the system does not require stops at every station) and will have ​lower environmental impact than other modes of transportation. Each pod can carry up to​ 28 passengers and their luggage and has a 4.5x tighter turning radius.

The Daedalus Mark 1 is a jet suit that enables the pilot to fly and hover. It is designed by British inventor Richard Browning, founder and chief test pilot for Gravity Industries.

The jet suit uses cutting-edge technology that reimagines human flight, forging an elegant partnership between mind, body and machine, said the Techfest committee, in a statement.

Nina​, a ​1.02-metre-tall humanoid robot designed for human interaction was also featured. The social robot talks through its mouth and has articulated lips, as well as a jaw and ears and will soon be capable of carrying out standard neuropsychological tests to provide an early-stage diagnosis of ​Alzheimer's disease​.

Nina has been training for the last four years. Using speech, expressions and gestures, the robot is learning “how to behave in a socially acceptable manner”, the committee explained in the statement.

Another humanoid robot, Alter 3, consisting of a bare body exposing the machine inside made it to the Techfest. Created by roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University and Mixi Corporation, Alter 3 is embedded with an ​artificial neural network developed by artificial life researchers of the University of Tokyo and uses this ANN for​singing, expressive ability, human sensing systems and ​vocalisation​.