Visitors to Manali will be able to experience an adrenaline rush in January while riding a massive swing powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The giant swing was created by a start-up that was housed at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi, and is regarded as the first of its kind in the entire world.
The start-up called “ManaliSwing,” founded by four childhood friends who love adventure and are engineers as well as certified rock climbers and mountaineers, has completed its human jump trials and is in the process of filing five patents for the idea and design.
The team claims that the Dubai government has already contacted them about starting the swing there, and they are also in contact with Swiss organisations that are interested.
One of the founders, Utsav Soni, said, “We will present one of the world’s most innovative and safe giant swing similar to bungee jumping, but here one freefall followed by giant swing on dual dynamic ropes with over 100 possible jump styles allowing one to experience the adrenaline of 70m free fall with AI promising impeccable safety like never before.”
“The launch is scheduled for the new year in Manali. Each jump will cost the tourists Rs. 3,000. Transportation from a specific location as well as expert photography and videography services will be included in the price,” he added.
At IIT Hyderabad, the start-up conducted a large-scale trial with 1,000 dummy jumps before successfully completing human jumps in the presence of IRATA experts.
Additionally, the AI will provide optimised approvals for jumping while tracking participant and jump master performance over millions of data points. A Jump Master and his team will have an advantage in ensuring that no injury, incident, or causality can occur on the site by having a highly intelligent AI.
“This will be one of the best technological, innovative, and adventure sport nexuses of this decade, and it has the potential to upend the entire adventure tourism sector. The good news is that we don’t need any expensive equipment or specialised high-tech cameras to do this. With a standard hi-res CCTV security camera feed already in place, this can be franchised anywhere in the world, he continued.
The team intends to introduce a second swing of a similar design in Goa before exporting the technology to other nations.
The project, which was first conceived of five years ago, was officially registered as a start-up last year. We pitched the idea to IIT Mandi, and three months later we had our first functional prototype and a company that had been incorporated.
