IIT has proved once again why it’s one of the best Engineering Institutes in India. “SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition 2019” held in Los Angeles on July 21. The Hyperloop Pod of IIT Madras had reached the finale in “SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition 2019“. Everyone appreciated the Hyperloop Pod of IIT Madras, “Avishkar” at “SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition 2019”. IIT Madras students might not have won the competition, but they have own everyone’s heart and especially SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s. The design of the Hyperloop pod can be used to build an autonomous Hyperloop Pod in India.
The Hyperloop Pod of IIT Madras, “Avishkar”
The team of IIT Madras is only the Asian team, that has been qualified for the finale of “SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition 2019”. IIT Madras team was led by Suyash Singh. He is a second-year M.Tech student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. They named their Hyperloop pod “Avishkar Hyperloop”. It has got an indigenous design. It features a self-propelled and completely autonomous Hyperloop pod. The Hyperloop Pod of IIT Madras, “Avishkar” is one of the top 21 selected teams out of 1,600 teams all over the world, who has competed in this competition.
In the competition, SpaceX decided the winner by the top speed of the Hyperloop pods. The pods were driven through a vacuum tunnel, installed at the SpaceX headquarters.
Faculty Advisor of “Avishkar”
S.R. Chakravarthy is a Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Madras and he was the Faculty Advisor of “Avishkar”. According to him, “The team has taken strenuous technical efforts at every stage and has been quite professional about executing the project. This is an important milestone for the future transportation technology in our country.”
The team also has some plans for the future and they want to develop technologies for futuristic high-speed transportation for various fields, including defense, logistics, and aerospace industry etcetera.
The Future plan of Virgin Hyperloop One
Earlier, when the Indian team went to, Virgin Hyperloop One’s facility in Los Angeles, they took a tour. Virgin Hyperloop One Co-founder and CTO Geigel met the IIT Madras team. They had discussed the company’s plans to create a Hyperloop network in India, Geigel also shared the progress on the Pune-Mumbai Hyperloop project.
Virgin Hyperloop One has some plans for building Hyperloop in India. They have also proposed a plan which will help people to travel from Mumbai to Pune within 30 minutes. And Avishkar might be the design to be used in this project. According to the plan of Virgin Hyperloop One, work on the project will begin within December 2019 and will be completed by 2023.
Elon Musk had proposed the Hyperloop’s idea back in 2013 and to keep the designs more advance. That’s why they organize the competition every year to get the new generation’s innovative approach towards the Hyperloop projects.
Challenges faced by The Hyperloop Pod of IIT Madras
The Hyperloop Pod of IIT Madras, “Avishkar” weights 120 kg, 3 meters in length. The team had worked pretty hard to get the best result out of the available resources. They had to test with different motors and other components for the pod and choose the best fir of it. The Hyperloop of IIT Madras had gone through several simulations and finally, they made the final pod.
Technical University of Munich or TUM has won the competition and he Hyperloop designed and built by TUM managed to set a new speed record of 463 km per hour.
