IIIT Dharwad students win third prize at ISRO Robotic Challenge competition

In an achievement of sorts, students from the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Dharwad have won the third prize in the ISRO Robotic Challenge- URSC 2025, a competition which saw the participation of 510 registered universities and institutes, including top IITs and NITs from across the country.

Team Njord comprising Saurav Suresh Karki (lead), Amith Mathew, Ranjith Babu, Krishna Sai Gollamudi, Arnav Amit Angarkar, Purohit Gourav Ghanshyam and Lohith B., which took part in the challenge under the mentorship of Mallikarjun Kande, successfully developed an aerial vehicle (drone) capable of autonomous operation in GPS denied and magnetometer-unreliable environments replicating Martian conditions.

Addressing presspersons on IIIT Dharwad campus on Tuesday, Director of IIIT Dharwad Mahadeva Prasanna said that the contest was organised by ISRO’s U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) in an initiative aimed at broadening participation in space robotics development and harnessing innovative thinking for future interplanetary missions.

“Students of Electronics and Computer Science started working on the project in January this year after submitting their initial proposal. Despite a few hiccups midway and crashlanding a few hours before the deadline, the students managed to develop the aerial vehicle through coordinated efforts. And, their model emerged as the third best in the all-India contest earning a reward of ₹5 lakh,” Prof. Mahadeva Prasanna said.

Mr. Kande, who earlier worked with ISRO, said that the challenge was to design an aerial vehicle that can operate in zero gravitation and without assistance of GPS and precisely land in a safe zone in an uneven terrain which is found on Mars.

Briefing about the eight-month-long preparation, team lead Saurav Karki said that several rounds of discussions were held before finalising the design for the aerial vehicle.

“However, with only a few days left for the deadline, our drone crashlanded. Taking turns, we worked for almost 36 hours at a stretch to successfully get it ready again. When we successfully tested it on that day, it was 4 a.m. in the morning,” he recalled.

To test their drone, the students had actually created an uneven terrain similar to the surface on Mars n the institute itself. “For the final round, for which 16 teams were chosen, ISRO had created an uneven terrain on which the aerial vehicle had to land. It was totally different and several failed and all participants had to make modifications, recalibrate and then test their vehicles,” Mr. Kande said.

The students attributed their success to the encouragement and guidance by the Prof. Mahadeva Prasanna and Mr. Kande and other faculty members.

IIIT Dharwad plans to explore the option of further development of the aerial vehicle with the help of private companies and has initiated discussions with a few.

Dean (Administration) Gopinath and PRO Vasudev Parvati were present.