Checking without damaging: IIT-Madras works on advanced tech for disruptive material testing

Economic Times

27-04-2025

From sensors detecting leaks in pipelines, tanks, bridges and dams without tearing those down to robots for ending manual scavenging -- IIT-Madras has established itself as a global centre of excellence for developing disruptive material testing technology. "Non Destructive Evaluation" (NDE) is the broad name given to the field of testing and analysis used by industry to characterise components or structures for indicators of performance degradation, without causing damage to the original part. The "NDE 5.0 - Industrial Assets and Process Management CoE (CNDE)" at IIT-Madras is developing advanced inspection solutions using X-rays, infrared thermography, lasers, ultrasonics, microwave, terahertz and eddy currents, leveraging industry tools in robotics, drones, AI, Machine Learning, virtual reality, distributed ledgers, hyperspectral imaging and quantum computing.
Krishnan Balasubramanian, Chair Professor, IIT-Madras, told PTI that the centre of excellence has a team of internationally acclaimed professors and researchers who have executed projects with a cumulative value over Rs 200 crore, attracted industry funding in excess of Rs 50 crore and CSR funding of Rs 10 crore for socially-relevant projects.
"The research undertaken by this team has already led to 15 IIT Madras-incubated startups with a combined valuation in excess of Rs 2,000 crore. The vision is to carry out cutting-edge research on asset integrity platforms for society and industry validated and accepted as benchmarks that can be commercialised worldwide," he said. Balasubramanian also underlined that technologies from this CoE impact the efficiency of industry operations and increase the availability and safety of industrial and infrastructural assets.
"The key objectives of this CoE include impacting industries by helping them reduce operating costs by 40 per cent, decrease failure risk, improve availability and uptime by 20 per cent and extend as well as maximise asset life safety," he added.
The professor explained that India has a lot of national assets and physical infrastructure that need to be constantly monitored. "The country has the second-longest road network in the world (6 million km) and the Indian Railways is one of the largest rail networks in the world under one management. The ports handle 95 per cent of its international trade in and out of India. "The country is currently the fourth largest consumer of energy globally after the US, China and Russia and, hence, has over 40,000 km of cross-country pipelines and underground oil reserve storage facilities," he said. The CoE's target is to be among the top five research centres globally in this field by 2026, incubate at least 20 startups that could create 2,000 tech jobs and establish at least two industry consortia to ensure the research translates to industry impact in India and abroad.
Tata Steel, Boeing, DRDO, ONGC, Gail, Shell and Indian Oil Corporation are among the major industry stakeholders that IIT-Madras has partnered with in multiple critical sectors.
Prabhu Rajgopal, the deputy head of the Centre of Excellence (CoE) said the facility is working to develop deep research-based non-destructive technologies for improved performance, enhanced safety and increased life for industrial applications and relevant technologies for societal well-being. "We are leveraging industry tools to create disruptive solutions that enhance the quality of inspection data for end-users with effective decision plan strategies. Today, CNDE startups are globally recognized pioneers in the areas of marine and submerged asset integrity monitoring and pipeline inspections," he told PTI. "The extraordinary dual-use potential of our research is demonstrated by solutions such as the HomoSEP robot for eliminating manual scavenging or a start-up with AI automation for the underserved healthcare sector. These are technologies that we first developed and demonstrated in the industrial context," he added. For the ongoing projects, the centre is collaborating with researchers from top global institutions such as NTU Singapore; University of Nairobi, Dedan Kimathi University and Riara University Kenya; Kenia National Innovation Agency (KeNIA); University of Dar-es-Salam Tanzania; UNDP, Tanzania; Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany; Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, France.
It has also joined forces with Airbus; University of Warwick, UK; University College London, UK; Ecole de technologie superieure, Canada; and Michigan State University, USA.