Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions hosted the first edition of the Bosch Hackathon 2016 on ‘connected machines’. The hackathon had the networked generation of today design and build prototypes that will connect machines to machines, and to everything else – infrastructure, people, products and processes. The event was held at The Centre of Excellence for Internet of Things (COE-IOT), NASSCOM, from September 30th to October 2nd 2016.
The Bosch Hackathon 2016 received over 3000 registrations, of which 100 were shortlisted by Bosch’s expert jury panel. The event brought together an ecosystem of Bosch technology experts and Industry 4.0 domain experts with the developer community. To enable rapid and accurate prototypes participants were provided with Bosch XDK kit – a prototyping platform from Bosch for sensor based IOT projects, Bosch BNO055 – a 9-axis motion sensor, and Arduino boards – an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software, to build their prototypes.
The accident prevention and detection system for two wheelers built by a team from Model Engineering College was adjudged winners of the Bosch Hackathon 2016. The prototype was built using the Bosch ultrasonic sensor to alert a rider on the speed of vehicles nearby. They won a cash prize – Rs 3 lakh and will be presenting their prototype at the Bosch Smart Manufacturing Conclave 2016 on November 11, 2016. The second prize of Rs. 2 lakh was bagged by a team from SSN College of Engineering for their prototype Ultra cane. Ultra cane is a smart stick with wheels to help the blind navigate. A student from Easwari College of Engineering came at third place winning Rs. 1 lakh as the prize amount.
1st place winners:
The accident prevention and detection system for two wheelers built by a team from Model Engineering College won the Bosch Hackathon 2016. Team ARA – Paulson Paul, G Rahul, Abhinav K Subramanian and Aban Varghese are 3rd year Electronics and Bio medical engineering students. Their prototype is built using the Bosch Ultrasonic sensor mounted on both sides of a two wheeler to calculate the speed of vehicles around the two wheeler. The ultra-sonic sensor is connected to two LED lights in front of the helmet which blinks to notify the rider about the direction of the speeding vehicle. They won a cash prize – Rs 3 lakh and will be presenting their prototype at the Bosch Smart Manufacturing Conclave 2016 on November 11, 2016.
2nd place winners:
The second prize of Rs. 2 lakh was bagged by a team from SSN College of Engineering for their prototype Ultra cane which is a smart stick with wheels to help the blind navigate. Team Invente – Naveen Raj, Raghu Nandhan B, Sathyanarayanan and Sujaveena are 4th year Electrical and Electronic engineering students. They built their prototype Ultra cane using infra-red sensors, radio frequency sensors and also a wet detection sensor. The ultra-sonic sensors are attached to the front, right and left side of the cane. A DC motor drive is connected to the wheels to enable movement. The default direction comes preset. The cane is equipped with a vibrator and a buzzer to notify the user to navigate front, left or right.
Connected industry, also called Industry 4.0 needs experts who understand manufacturing machinery as well as products and sensor data from production. In addition they have to be able to apply that knowledge in algorithms and software. The hackathons organized by Bosch enable this collaboration between machines and peole designing solutions to help progress the cause of Industry 4.0 in India.
Bosch Smart Manufacturing Conclave 2016 aims to highlight how Industry 4.0 transcends the boundaries between manufacturing and technology. It is a platform for manufacturers, technologists, thought leaders and industry practitioners from the manufacturing sector to meet and discuss on key areas as Industry 4.0 in India, Industrial IoT and Manufacturing 2020.
We were very impressed with the high level of problem awareness and solution presentation that we witnessed a the event. The young hackers were up to the challenge and some of the solutions other than the winners were also equally interesting. It looks like the connected industrial IoT era is already here and with help from biggies like Bosch, the young ones will take us to the brave new world of the connected tomorrow that we are on the verge of witnessing in our daily lives!
