Chennai, Sept. 18 -- The Ocean Engineering students of IIT-Madras have won the 2026 Njord Challenge, an international competition in Norway that tests autonomous surface vessels in real-world maritime conditions.
The victory by Team Aritra marks a significant achievement for IIT-Madras' programme in marine autonomous systems. It also buildson the Departments' earlier success at the competition, where a different cohort of Team Aritra students finished third globally and won the Sustainability Award in 2023.
Autonomous surface vessels have potential applications in coastal and harbour surveillance, port and strategic infrastructure monitoring, environmental and oceanographic data collection, hydrographic surveys and other persistent mariti...