Happy with Daksh robots, army wants 100 more
The army is interested in procuring 100 more units of the Daksh robot, India's first indigenously manufactured remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which is capable of handling and disposing of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
This was disclosed to media persons by Major General Rakesh Bassi, director general, combat engineers, at the Research and Development Establishment (Engineers) R&DE (E), Dighi, on Monday at a function held to mark the handing over of the first five Daksh to the army.
The army had given a bulk production clearance to the R&DE (E) for 20 Daksh units in September 2010.
DNA reported on December 18 how Daksh, manufactured by Pune-based M/s Dynalog, Theta Controls and Bharat Electronics, is a compact robot on wheels which has a manipulator arm with six joints. Daksh, which costs Rs1.7 crore apiece, is half the cost of imported robots.
The ROV was part of a package that included a carrier vehicle which could carry the robot, six personnel, a master control station, accessories and spares. Daksh is able to prise open a hidden IED or a bomb and defuse it.
Expressing happiness over Daksh Bassi said, "We are happy that the robot is completely indigenous and can be repaired and serviced easily. We are happy that R&DE (E) and the three manufacturers have incorporated our suggestions and made Daksh a better product.''
According to Bassi, IEDs had become the bane of the armed forces in terror-affected areas and Daksh would be deployed in northern and eastern India to handle such contingencies. "We will exploit the full potential of Daksh in the field and give feedback to
the manufacturers, so that changes and improvements can be made in future robots of the same type,'' he added.
Earlier in the day, chief controller of research and development at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), S Sundaresh, hailed the efforts of the robotics team of the R&DE (E) in developing Daksh. "This is a feather in our cap.I am happy that R&DE (E) has the robotics capability and has also developed a manufacturing base of three companies and a vendor base of 15 companies. This is a very important outcome of the project,'' he said.
The function to flag off the first of the five ROVs was attended by director of R&DE(E), S Guruprasad; advance systems group director, AK Patel; head of robotics Alok Mukherjee; CEO of Theta Controls, Raja Mahbubani; managing director of Dynalog, Akshay Patil; and deputy general manager of Bharat Electronics, Dilip Rokade.
Happy with Daksh robots, army wants 100 more | idrw.org
