Nokia is collaborating with Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to establish the Nokia Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Networked Robotics. This state-of-the-art lab will focus on inter-disciplinary research involving robotics, advanced communication technologies and Artificial Intelligence to explore solutions in areas like emergency management, agriculture and industrial automation.
The lab will be able to leverage Nokia Bell Labs’ technical expertise in robot orchestration, robot network controller and human-robot interaction with IISc’s cross-disciplinary faculty and researchers. Some of the use cases which the collaboration will explore include:
- Using drones for remote management of agricultural orchards to promote water conservation and avoid human contact with pesticide.
- Drones using a 5G-enabled wide-area network to gather situational information, helping first responders to save lives by quickly accessing the affected areas during disaster relief.
- Drones for applications such as anticipating crop fires.
The lab will also host symposia for academia and industry, and organize hackathons for startups.
Commenting on the collaboration, Sanjay Malik, Senior Vice President and Head of India Market, Nokia, said:
Emerging technologies such as the 5G have potential to enable an entirely new array of use cases with a profound societal impact. With Nokia’s rich innovation heritage, we aim to engage with the bright and young minds at IISc to nurture and advance the latest technologies that can benefit communities. We are confident that it will lead to the development of groundbreaking use cases.
Professor G Rangarajan, Director, IISc, said:
The ultimate relevance of technology is to find solutions to improve the quality of our lives. Collaboration with a global technology leader, Nokia, will go a long way in helping our students to gain knowledge and insights and make significant contributions to the development of innovative and societally relevant 5G use cases. This is a critical initiative and it will help us move closer to finding technology-powered solutions to enrich our lives.