User trials of an indigenously developed firefighting robot were held onboard the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant on Tuesday, the Indian Navy informed. The autonomous machine has been developed for the Indian Navy by a private entity named Swadeshi Empresa, officials said. This comes as part of the 'SPRINT' initiative, which is aimed at boosting the Indian Navy's usage of indigenous technology

"Trials of fire fighting bot developed by Swadeshi Empresa for the Indian Navy under the SPRINT initiative were undertaken onboard INS Vikrant. It detects the fire & extinguishes it using water/foam jet/spray, keeping humans away from danger," the Indian Navy stated.

SPRINT, which stands for "Supporting Pole-Vaulting in R&D through Innovations for Defence Excellence", is a collaborative initiative being undertaken by the Naval Innovation and Indigenisation (NIIO) in collaboration with the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO), and Technology Development Acceleration Cell (TDAC), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. "This initiative has received an overwhelming response with 1106 proposals," the ministry added.

The second edition of the Indian Navy’s Naval Innovation and Indigenisation (NIIO) Seminar, 'Swavlamban 2023', is to be held from October 4-5, the government informed. In the maiden edition of the seminar, held in July 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 75 challenges for the start-ups/ MSMEs as a part of the 'SPRINT' initiative, it further said.

"The 'SPRINT Challenges', are aimed at giving a boost to the usage of indigenous technology in the Indian Navy, and the Navy is committed to developing at least 75 technologies/products as part of the 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav'," the MoD said in a press release.

"Niche technologies are being progressed across the spectrum, including blue-green lasers for underwater applications; Autonomous weaponised swarms and Underwater swarm drones; multiple firefighting aids; introduction of Artificial Intelligence (Al) for various uses and the development of an ultra-endurance small drone for maritime missions," the communique added.