Institute's innovation on display at GPO's District Philatelic Exhibition; postal department says scalability yet to be explored
A team from IIT-B presents their exhibit at Mumbaiimpex-2019 on Wednesday
The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) put up one of the most attractive and innovative displays at Mumbai GPO's District Philatelic Exhibition — Mumbaiimpex-2019 — inaugurated on Wednesday. The display showcased an innovation in which a robot picks up parcels and delivers them at the right locations. The institute's Design Innovation Centre (DIC) and E-Yanta Lab developed the state-of-the-art exhibit.
The Indian Post conducts the regional exhibition to revive interest in philately and contemporise the concept of collecting stamps for the new generation. According to IIT-B's public relations officer, "The institute rose to a challenge posed by the postal department to bring a zing to the event through a robotic display symbolising the role of automation in the logistics of the postal service."
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According to the postal department, the institute's exhibit was more of a display of an attractive process of sorting, but whether it could be introduced in the department's working style had not been decided.
Prof. B K Chakravarty from DIC and Prof. Kavi Arya from the Computer Science Engineering Department led the IIT-B team.
The team developed the process and demonstrated it at the exhibition to show how technology could be used effectively for sorting applications.
"The arena on display had different destinations. The bot would pick up parcels from one place and deliver it to the right location. It was done based on a colour-coded system wherein each place was given a colour code. It will be great to explore the concept further," said Prof Arya.
Talking about the concept, Prof Chakravarty, who has earlier developed a few items for the postal department, said, "I have been working with the department to develop new designs that can ease various tasks. Today's display was more about introducing a technology that would create an impact on the young generation."
When contacted, Kaiya Arora, director of Mumbai Postal Region, said, "The exhibit displayed by IIT-B was an attractive one. The scalability of it has not been explored yet. We already have a centre in Parel, which is automated, and it eases the process of sorting to a great extent. There are plans to convert the other centres too."
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