The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has collaborated with the OP Jindal Global University to develop a robot for guiding visitors to the latter’s ‘Constitution Museum’.
The varsity had set up the Constitution Academy and the Rights and Freedoms Museum, recognising 75 years of the adoption of the Constitution, its Vice-Chancellor, C. Raj Kumar, said. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla would open the museum, set up at Sonipet in Haryana, on November 26.
“The project began in June, and the aim is to invest in ideas of civic education in citizens and democratise the Constitution. We [the museum] are paying tributes to all 300 members who were involved in drafting the Constitution,” he added.
While students from the liberal arts university researched and compiled the information available at the museum, a team of 22 students from the Centre for Innovation in IIT-Madras designed the robot Samvid (the Constitution is called Samvidhan in Hindi). Large language model was used to develop Samvid. It is trained to respond to questions from visitors in Hindi and English, Venkatesh Balasubrmanian, professor in the Department of Engineering at IIT-Madras, said.
We are looking to train the robot further in responding to questions in other Indian languages, Mr. Kumar added.
Padmanabha Ramanujam, dean of academic governance at the university, said Samvid was the first-of-its-kind experiment in India. A user interface technology was developed specifically for it. The university has also proposed to launch an application through which visitors can register and visit the museum.
Published – November 13, 2024 07:44 pm IST
