Smart India Hackathon '23 Finalist
Reached the national finals of Smart India Hackathon 2023 with Bird's AI, a 5G-connected UAV platform for disaster response. The system features onboard edge AI for real-time survivor detection and an innovative vending machine style payload delivery mechanism for emergency supplies.
Context
Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2023 is one of the world's largest hackathons, attracting over 15,000 teams nationwide. The competition focused on innovative solutions for disaster management and emergency response, requiring working prototypes that demonstrate real-world applicability.
The Challenge
The challenge was to develop an autonomous disaster response system that could locate survivors in large-scale emergencies (earthquakes, floods, landslides) and deliver critical supplies. The solution needed to overcome poor visibility, damaged infrastructure, and unreliable communication links while providing real-time intelligence to ground teams.
Our Solution
Bird's AI is a 5G-enabled UAV system with a Pixhawk flight controller and Raspberry Pi running lightweight computer vision for real-time human detection. The unique innovation is a vending machine style payload delivery system that can autonomously dispense emergency supplies (medical kits, water, communication devices) to survivors. The system maintains continuous 5G connectivity for low-latency telemetry streaming to ground control stations.
My Role
As Full-Stack Robotics Engineer, I architected the edge AI system for survivor detection, developed the autonomous navigation logic, designed the innovative vending machine payload mechanism, integrated 5G connectivity for real-time data transmission, and built the ground control dashboard for mission monitoring.
Impact & Results
Demonstrated 95% detection accuracy with <100ms 5G latency for real-time operations. The vending machine payload system enabled autonomous supply delivery without landing, significantly improving response efficiency. Successfully validated the system with live demonstrations, receiving strong feedback from judges on innovation and practical deployment potential.
Recognition
Selected as national finalist from thousands of teams. The judges particularly commended the unique vending machine payload delivery innovation and the integration of 5G, edge AI, and autonomous systems for life-saving disaster response applications.