A Visit to “Open House 2015”, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi was organized on 18th April 2015. About 24 students along with faculty members Mr. Brijesh Verma, Mr. Gaurav Siwal, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mr. Manoj Yadav and Ms. Bhanu Bhardwaj from Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Mr. Pradeep Singla, Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering and Mr. Sumit Saroha, Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida had gone to IIT Delhi to visit Open House 2015.

'Open House 2015' was a showcase of innovative research projects undertaken by IIT students and faculty. Around 140 live demonstrations and many student projects as well as commercial designs were displayed in this event to spread awareness of the use of state-of-the-art technology for social benefits.

Students visited several stalls including that of All India Council for robotics and Automation (AICRA), which in association with e-cell IIT Delhi organized “TechnoXian”, a robotics championship. AICRA provides courses and trainings in field of robotics, they also help students in making projects.

The following projects displayed at Open House attracted student’s attention:

“3D Printed Prototype for Safe Nail Driving” - It presented a model for efficient nail driving using the 3 jaw self-centering chuck to prevent shear of surface and buckling of nail. The prototype is modeled using 3D printing technique, using the printers at rapid prototyping lab, IIT-D. The material used is poly lactic acid and the operation is fused deposition modeling. The project was guided by Prof. Dr. P M Pandey.

“Auto Line”- The project was about an efficient mechanically driven clothes retrieval and hanging system. It uses the sensor to sense the rain and pneumatically driven mechanism to fold and unfold the cloth hanging system.

“Automatic Retractable Roof”- The project was based on such an automatic roof which could automatically retract whenever it rains. It uses sensors to sense the rain and a D.C motor to drive the gear mechanism which could retract the foldable roof.

“Water Tank Cleaner”- An idea of such a mechanism which could clean the water tanks with less human effort. It uses a foldable structure which could easily be inserted through manhole of the tank. The structure then expands in tank and is rotated. The surface of the structure which is in contact with tank is mounted with foam or brushes.

“Stair Climbing Trolley”- The purpose of the project was to model such a carriage system which could carry the load up and down the stairs. It uses three wheel system clustered together such that the cluster rotates as it climbs the step.

“Refrigerator on Bicycle”- The mechanism used a suction pump driven by bicycle. The suction pump creates the vacuum in the box which contained water. The water starts to evaporate making the surrounding cooler. The zeolite was used to trap the condensed water droplets. The temperature between 12 to 15 degrees was obtained after paddling for 6 miles.

“Tuilsi Mala Bead Manufacturing”- A mini version of lathe which could be used to manufacture small objects like Tulsi mala beads. The project has already been adopted by craftsmen in Rajasthan and is now a business having a good turnover.

Students later visited Robotics Lab where they were introduced to Mr. Vinay Gupta (Phd Scholar) and Mr. Rizwan Khan (Phd Scholar) who showed them different projects. There was a simple linear actuator which worked on program codes. It controls its linear displacement and speed according to the program. Next they showed a terrain simulator, which could simulate actual terrain condition using a system of six linear actuators. Such a system is now a day used in flight, train or any vehicle simulator for training purpose.

Students were shown projects from the field of Heptics. Heptics is a sub branch of robotics which deals with simulation of senses of objects from one could sense the objects through actuators, sensors and controllers. They were shown a simulation of a ball whose weight could be felt on the controllers. They also saw a lever simulating a load which gets heavier as load is increased.

The visit ended at 3:30 PM.