Information Pasteboard
Weekly reports of meetings at NAL, snippets of R&D activity, conference announcements and other features of popular interest
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News and Events #IP 869, 17 - 24 May 2009 2 Ton Force Generating Shape Memory Alloy Actuator Bank As part of the project titled “Deployment of Mousche Using Shape Memory Alloy” awarded by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under the DISMAS program a 2000 kgs (2Ton) force generating smart Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuator bank has been developed at Advanced Composites Division, NAL. The SMA actuator bank moves a distance of 15mm while generating a net actuator force of over 2000 kgs. This force is used to deploy the additional aerodynamic surface (referred to as ‘Mousche’) measuring 790 x 215 x 32mm against a simulated lift and drag load acting simultaneously. i.e. resultant lift load of 331.6 kgs and drag load of 33.16 kgs acting at the C.G of the Mousche. The SMA bank consists of 130 wires of about 1mm in diameter and 650mm in length. The actuation of these 130 wires is electronically and mechanically synchronized. The Mousche has been analyzed using standard FEM codes for the combined lift and drag load. Experimental and analysis values have matched well. The electronics circuit assembly of Smart Actuator Driver Electronics (SADE) that powers the SMA actuator bank has been designed and developed in the form of Mother and Daughter boards. Each Daughter board is having six miniaturized DC-DC converters and the required power and control signals are routed to the Motherboard. The SADE has been integrated to carry out the full load test. NI 6009 DAQ card along with GUI software LabVIEW is used to conduct the experiments. The assembly of the SMA bank along with Mousche is shown in figure 1. The schematic diagram of the drag load and lift load mechanism is shown in figure 2. NAL Team: G.N. Dayananda, P.Senthilkumar, S.Jayasankar, Byji Varughese, B. Ramanaiah, Satisha & H.V. Ramachandra. The inputs provided for the above development by the ADA team consisting of Dr Vijayaraju , T.C.Subba Reddy & V. Sudhakar is gratefully acknowledged.
Ms Sandhya Rao, Ph.D Ms Sandhya Rao of FRP Division, NAL has been awarded Ph.D by the Bangalore University for the thesis titled "Studies on Radiation Cured Thermosetting Polymer Matrices and Composites" #IP 868, 10 - 16 May 2009 National Hindi Seminar on Science & Technology P S R Murthy
India made an important tryst with destiny in the desert sands of Rajasthan on May 11 1998 by successfully carrying out nuclear tests at the Pokhran range. This significant day is now celebrated in India as National Technology Day. At NAL, this year we celebrated National Technology Day on 11 May 2009. The programme started with a welcome address by NAL Director Dr A R Upadhya. Dr Upadhya stated that Technology Day symbolizes India’s technology prowess - conducting a nuclear test at Pokhran, the successful test firing of the Trishul Missile and the maiden flight of the indigenous two-seater Hansa-3. These achievements in Science and Technology has given our country enviable strength and self-confidence to stand on our own. He introduced the chief guest Mr H N L N Simha, Vice President (Strategic Electronics Center), Larsen & Toubro Limited, Bangalore as a young, dynamic, next generation leader. Mr H N L N Simha, from L&T shared his thoughts on Technology Innovation: Keystone to Self-Reliance. At L&T Mr Simha is involved in Defense Electronics- Warfare, Avionics, UAVs and Military Communications and design & manufacture of AVIONICS Subsystems. He spoke about why self reliance is important, what is innovation, why is innovation important, why is it important in India, journey in innovation, innovation to cash tool, hurdles to innovation in India and barriers to successful innovation. He gave a detailed account of innovation at L&T adding Technology innovation is all about Imagineering. He said L&T harbours and fosters innovation environment. He also mentioned that L&T has filed over 100 patents for electrical & electronic products in successive years. He said we need to build a powerful India not necessarily rich India. There are huge opportunities for innovation at NAL, DRDO and other such organisations. He concluded his lecture saying he is proud of being part of L&T - a self reliant company founded on innovation. The programme coordinated by Knowledge and Technology Management Division, ended with a vote of thanks proposed by Dr M R Nayak, Adviser, (M&A). Ranjan M and N Shailaja Menon
Mr H N Sudheendra and Mr G N Dayananda nominated as Head and Deputy Head of ACD Consequent to the retirement on superannuation of Dr M R Madhava, Mr H N Sudheendra, Scientist ‘G’/Gr IV(6) is nominated as Head and Mr G N Dayananda, Scientist ‘F’/Gr IV(5) as Deputy Head of the Advanced Composites Division. Mr S T Anandhan placed incharge of administrative wing of Belur Campus Consequent to the retirement on superannuation of K Purushothaman, Mr S T Anandhan, Administrative Officer who is at present looking after the administrative functions of C-CADD and C-MMACS at Belur Campus is placed incharge of administrative wing of the laboratory at Belur. Mr N G Vijaya Vittala appointed as Management Representative Mr N G Vijaya Vittala, Structures Division is appointed as the Management Representative (MR) of the Laboratory with regard to our ISO 9001 - 2000 activities, in addition to his present duties in STTD Division. #IP 867, 4 - 9 May 2009 One day seminar on “Safeguarding of Intellectual Property Rights” “Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day, teach him fishing and you have fed him for a lifetime”. This was exactly the message of the one day seminar on “Safeguarding of Intellectual Property Rights” organized for the first time in the history of NAL on May 1, 2009 by Knowledge and Technology Management Division (KTMD) of National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore. Ironically, it was the concluding seminar of the series of conferences held as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of NAL, where it is anybody’s guess how much IPR must have been lost! The most important objective of the seminar was to spread awareness, motivate and educate the scientists about the importance of intellectual property through an array of expert lectures on various topics of IPR. Mrs. Gomathy Sankaran, Group Head, PRRM, KTMD welcomed the audience to the seminar and struck the right chord of the seminar mentioning that the seminar aimed at protecting all that is created by the human mind and invited Mrs. Jyoti and Ms.Jayanti to soothe our souls and mind with a melodious invocation. The Dias was occupied by the dignitaries, Mr. R.K.Gupta Head, IPMD, CSIR as Chief Guest and Prof S Gopalakrishanan, Guest of Honour. Dr. A R Upadhya, Director NAL, presided over the inaugural programme. Mr. Vasant Pilare, IP Coordinator, NAL, cordially welcomed the dignitaries, speakers, participants and audience of the seminar. He mentioned that seminar venue had to be changed due to the overwhelming response from seminar participants. Mr. Pilare in his welcome address took the opportunity and urged the audience to remember world IP day (April 26th) to recognize the creations of great inventors that have shaped our lives and brought us to present stage of civilization. Dr. Ranjan Moodithaya, Head, KTMD in his indomitable style as always, mentioned that the seminar on May 1st – Labour Day was appropriate as scientists are intellectual workers. Citing the verse in Sanskrit from bhagvad Gita, “Karmanya vadhikaraste ma phleshu kadaachan" Dr. Ranjan mentioned that Scientists follow the verse literally, and are so busy in R&D and forget to protect their R&D output. This seminar was the right platform to get an insight on protecting our IP. Dr.Ranjan introduced the Chief Guest and Guest of Honor. Mr. R.K.Gupta, Head, IPMD, CSIR with his 25 years of experience in CSIR and his various trainings at Europe, Japan, Sweden and WIPO was the appropriate person to give the keynote address on “IP management in CSIR- issues and challenges”. Mr. Gupta appreciated the title of the seminar and appreciated its aptness. He urged the Scientists to start IP right from the proposal stage. Mr. Gupta said it was very unfortunate that a project is picked up, safeguarded and then never worked on. This is unfortunate as it closes the doors for the other workers in the same area to pursue the research. Mr. Gupta shared information about the IP status of CSIR, several issues and challenges in IP management with focus on valuation, freedom to operate, enforcement and IP abuse. He also brought out the lead role of CSIR in fighting the patenting battles on turmeric and Basmati rice and emphasized the need for proper documentation. Mr. Gupta mentioned that the focus of CSIR is now on commercially and strategically important inventions. The plenary lecture by Prof S.Gopalakrishnan, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IISc Bangalore, the founder of the IP cell in IISc was a very honest and informative talk on the IPR scenario at IISc. He also shared on how the awareness about IP was minimal at the Universities and in the faculty mindset. It was interesting to note that IISc never sells a patent and how the IIScians had used their IP in the betterment of the rural areas. IISc has adopted 2 villages in AP and Orissa and electrified the villages with 1 megawatt of power. Many technologies have been transferred to NGO’s free of cost. Dr. Gopalakrishnan talked about the incubation centers have been set up at IISc where the alumni are encouraged to incubate and germinate their ideas. He clearly stated the difficulties in the costing of a technology and elaborated on the FSDT theory – File, sell, drop theory for any innovation. It should be a win- win situation for the licensee and licensor. Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL in his presidential address congratulated KTMD on their pioneer function. He mentioned that he was happy to preside over this seminar as KTMD had been giving their flesh and blood and providing brick and mortar to all the seminars during the golden jubilee celebrations. He remarked in lighter vein, that it was very pathetic that standards were set and we are forced to use it. Dr. Upadhya advised beautifully that we should create a fence to protect but be aware about what we have in the fence. He encouraged us not to be satisfied with Shrubs but have flower and fruit bearing shrubs. He urged the scientists to bring innovation and create a knowledge base which can be commercialized. Dr. Upadhya mentioned “Be there before your competitor, even if it is not the best”, because this is what keeps you in the race and pushes you to make innovations. Dr. M. N Sathyanarayana, Jt. Head, KTMD delivered the vote of thanks and pointed out the how IPR could help us to convert knowledge to wealth. While thanking, he advised the youngsters to aim high and aim for the impossible and stated that we never get a thing by just desiring for it, but only by working for it. The technical session was effectively coordinated by Dr. I.R.N. Goudar, Head, ICAST. Of the 6 IP lectures spread over 2 technical sessions the first speaker was Dr. T Jana, Scientist, NISCAIR, New Delhi who spoke on “Need for information driven innovation system in CSIR”. He emphasized the need for vertical integration in CSIR than horizontal. Dr. Jana introduced us to the concept of patent pooling for value added patents and returns. To explain how it works he cited the example of “Cows to Kilowatts”. Constraint of time did not permit him to share his vast experience and knowledge of patenting strategies with us, but assured that the services of NISCAIR were open to all CSIR labs and specially NAL for any patent search prior to project proposal submission on which Dr. Jana has a big team working. Mr. Nishant Kewalramani, Portfolio Manager, Brain League IP services, Bangalore opened a new vista of patenting and let us have a peep on how corporate patenting works and the tricks of the competitors in the game. It was a real eye opener. Mr. Kewalramani explained the picket fence, toll gate and submarine strategies followed by companies to gain business advantage in competitive market through his impressive lecture. He explained the offensive as well as defensive strategies that are followed by various firms. Summing up Mr. Nishant mentioned that no two businesses have the same strategies; there is no straight jacket strategy. Lecture on judging the patentability of an invention and how to arrive at Patent document was delivered by Dr.S.Ramamurthy, Patent expert, Intellvate Private Ltd. Bangalore. His lecture was well articulated step by step guide to a prospective inventor especially in the CSIR system. All the criteria those are essential for patenting an invention was clearly spelt out through his attractive style of presentation. Dr. Raghnadh Vajjula, Research IP Analyst, John F Welch Technology Centre, Bangalore spoke on “Valuation of patent”. When, why and how the patent is valued was the focus of his presentation. According to him, for proper management of IP, one has to measure and value his IP. He has thrown the light on various models that are adopted for valuation of IP. Dr.Vajulla urged the audience and inventors to combine their strengths and use the available tools. Dr. YVS Lakshmi, Manager – IPR – Legal & Reliability, Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), Bangalore spoke on various tools of IP that are adopted for protection of computer software and hardware. She has covered the theme of seminar in detail through her resourceful and informative lecture. Mr. Vasant Pilare, IP Coodinator NAL in a short time effectively conveyed the mechanism of patent mapping, importance of patent analysis and patent mapping in deciding research and development programmes, key business decisions. Mr. Pilare remarked that visually presented matter is easily understandable hence Patent analysis is preferred over other methods of presentation. Patent mapping provides actionable, thoughtful and timely intelligence for organizations in taking decisions while studying many patents at a time reducing time for insight. He also presented the patenting trends in aerospace and aeronautics in India and Abroad through data mapping carried out by him on Indian patents and major foreign country patent databases. Concluding session of seminar was chaired by the Panelist Mr. R K Gupta, Dr. M R Nayak Advisor (M&A) and Dr. Ranjan Moodithaya. Mr. R K Gupta explained the necessity of organizing such IP seminar is need of time and appropriate one. He summarized the lectures presented during the seminar and urged the participants to give more importance while carrying out their work while referring and reading the IP literature available in respective field. Dr. M.R. Nayak expressed his unhappiness over not finding a single unsatisfactory remark in the feedback sheets However, he invited the participants to be proactive actively participate in the discussions. Dr. Ranjan Moodithaya once again reminded the participants about the importance of IP in their day to day work and life. He found that one day was appropriate duration for organizing such seminar as the idea was to create an awareness and interest in IP rather than make experts in a day. The conference ended with the inventors Dr.V.Arunkumar, Joint Head, Propulsion Division and Mr. William Grips, Scientist SED and father of NAL’s NALSUN technology sharing their practical patenting experience. The number of industries to which NALSUN technology is sold was a sure shot motivator for prospective inventors. The seminar concluded with vote of thanks proposed by Mrs. Gomathy Sankaran. While delivering vote of thanks, she acknowledged everyone involved in organizing the seminar directly and indirectly and specifically the lead role played by KTMD colleagues for their unstinted support. Amitha Rani B E and Vasant Pilare
Nishant takes off with indigenously developed Wankel Rotary engine The first ever indigenous Wankel Rotary engine, powering Nishant, the Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV), took off from a World War II abandoned runway near a village eight kilometres from Kolar in Karnataka.
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