Indian Institute of Technology Madras will develop a training module for the Indian spaceflight programme using advanced technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR). Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will utilise these technologies created at the newly-established eXperiential Technology Innovation Centre (XTIC) at the institute to promote research and development in the domain of Extended Reality (XR) that is a combination of these technologies.
An MoU was signed recently between ISRO and IIT Madras to collaborate on the application of XR and other technologies in the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme.
M Manivannan, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras, and Principle Investigator, XTIC-IIT Madras, said that XR has the potential to shorten the design cycle and simulating the space environment. “We will start with developing models of physiological systems as well as design optimisation studies. IIT Madras ecosystem is conducive not-only for research, but also for development with our industrial consortium,” he was quoted in a release.
R Umamaheswaran, Director, Human Space Flight Center (HFSC), ISRO, said that the space programme always had linkages with academia and IIT Madras has a long history of contributing for ISRO’s programme.
XTIC will not only develop XR technologies for human spaceflight program but will also impart training to concerned HSFC engineers on this technology and help in establishing a XR/VR laboratory at HSFC.
This XTIC is India’s first Research and Product Innovation centre for XR and haptics Technology, a transdisciplinary centre encompassing several fields of engineering, medicine, psychology and arts. As XR is highly interdisciplinary, innovations in this field need confluence of minds from different fields.
The key outcomes envisaged from this collaboration include modelling and simulation of human physiology and space systems; visualisation and optimisation of design architecture and training ISRO scientists in developing their own XR systems, the release said.