In the far reaches of the lofty Himalayas straddling India’s border in the north or along the hot desert of western India, power generators—spread out all across the difficult and inhospitable terrain—are of critical importance for the daily functioning of the Indian Army.
Now what military scientists of the Army Design Bureau (ADB) intend to do is to deploy the ‘Vidyut Rakshak’ that will remote-control all the multiple generators from a single system, saving time, effort and logistical challenges besides sparing manpower, who are trained combatants to do what they do best—to fight.
The innovation is the brainchild of Major Rajprasad of the ADB.
On Monday, Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi, Vice Chief of Army Staff, launched the indigenous innovation during an event in New Delhi that was integrated with generators at the headquarters of the Srinagar-headquartered 15 Corps—all the time controlling the power system remotely.
The launch event also saw the roll-out of the first production units of the ‘Vidyut Rakshak’.
The interface between electronics, communication, and computer science engineering, IoT is explained as devices with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communications networks.
An official release said: “The innovation is applicable on all existing generators held with the Army irrespective of their type, make, rating and vintage. Apart from monitoring generator parameters, it enables fault prediction, prevention and automates manual operation through user-friendly interface saving huge manpower.”
During Aero India 2023, a MoU was signed between the Indian Army and the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), IIT Delhi, for ‘productionisation of innovations’. ‘Vidyut Rakshak’ was steered as the first such innovation.
Army chief General Manoj Pande said, “While Indian Army is observing the ‘Year of Tech Absorption’, this milestone success of ‘Vidyut Rakshak’ from ‘innovation to induction’ sets precedence and signifies Indian Army’s commitment and efforts to leverage technology as a catalyst for transformative change”.
According to an official release, the Indian Army has secured a patent for another innovation of Maj Rajprasad called the ‘Portable Multi-Target Detonation Device’, which has already been inducted in the Indian Army.