Micelio Mobility, a clean mobility startup based in Bengaluru, made the announcement on Monday (November 28) that it will be working with the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) to establish digital twin centres for emerging automotive systems.
The primary goals of the centres are to assist startups, MSMEs, researchers, and academic institutions in the development of indigenous automotive solutions for the burgeoning EV ecosystem that are characterised by decreased prices, increased efficiencies, and increased levels of safety.
In order to facilitate and enhance simulations, testing, monitoring, and integration of clean mobility solutions, the centres will function as a virtual depiction of real-life circumstances.
“The collaboration…how it works is that ARAI knows the end-product and application, as well as all that has to happen, and Micelio has got a very good group of young startups, MSMEs coming together, looking for new areas, and new solutions. According to Dr. Reji Mathai, the director of ARAI, “we believe that this synergy has the potential to be very fruitful and can bring about a great deal of innovation.”
According to Mathai, the producers and innovators would no longer be need to wait until the product has been completely developed before they could begin reviewing it. These centres would make it possible to test and diagnose various electric vehicle components in a variety of simulated testing settings.
It was stated by Micelio that it would help to catalyse the clean mobility ecosystem for startups by facilitating the use of high-end, expensive, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system, and an integrated computational materials engineering simulation platform.
“For a good number of years now, validation has been an essential component of the automotive industry. Among other things, the primary objective is to ensure the safety of both the passengers and the cargo. Over the course of the past few decades, simulation has developed into a significant component of that. “This digital twin technology is really just an extension of that,” said Shreyas Shibulal, the founder and director of Micelio Mobility. “My perspective is that it is really just a natural progression.”
According to what Mathai mentioned, this is also a component of the plan that the Indian government has to develop capabilities and other capacity increases in order to facilitate the growth of the EV ecosystem.
ARAI and Micelio have discussed the possibility of establishing their joint facility in IIT Guwahati, in addition to Pune and Bengaluru. They plan to have some of the infrastructure for these facilities in place by March 2023, which is the target date they have set.
Within the following three and a half years, it is anticipated that the centres will be totally ready for operation.
The decision to begin construction on the engineering facilities was made at a time when India is experiencing a surge in the number of new and upcoming electric vehicle (EV) players. Concerns about the safety of electric vehicles (EVs) have been raised as a result of a lack of research and development conducted under the environmental conditions of India, as well as other factors. There were also fatalities associated with some of these occurrences.
Following these incidents, the government decided to take a number of steps to improve the overall safety of electric vehicles (EVs), one of which was developing revised versions of the AIS 156 and AIS 038 Rev.2 standards for EV batteries.
In the meantime, the NITI Aayog has set a goal for the country to achieve an electric vehicle sales penetration of 70% by the year 2030 for commercial cars, 30% for private cars, 40% for buses, and 80% for two-wheelers and three-wheelers. In light of this, it is essential for the participants to maintain compliance with the shifting standards and prioritise safety.
