IIT Mandi start up to launch world's first giant swing backed by AI in Manali

Four engineer friends have claimed to have innovated a giant swing backed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) which will provide an "impeccable" security to the jumpers with more than 100 jump styles.

The swing was built under a startup incubated at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi, and is claimed to be a first-of-its-kind in the world.

Founded by four childhood friends who are also certified rock climbers and mountaineers, ManaliSwing' has completed its human jump trials and is in the process of filing patents -- five in number -- for concept and design.

The team plans to launch the swing in Manali on coming New Year.

One of the team's members claimed that it has already been approached by the Dubai government to launch the swing in the country and is in conversation with interested agencies in Switzerland too.

"We will offer one of the world's most creative and safe giant swing like bungee jumping but instead of going down on rubber bungee cord  one freefall is followed by a giant swing on dual dynamic ropes, Utsav Soni, one of the founders, told PTI.

Soni said that the swing allows one to perform 100 possible jump styles with a 70-metre-free fall secured by AI.

"The plan is to launch it in Manali on New Year. The tourists will have to pay Rs 3,000 for each jump. The cost will include transportation from a certain point and professional photography and videography service," he added.

The startup conducted a full-scale trial of 1,000 dummy jumps followed by human jumps, all successful, under the presence of Industrial Rope Access Trade Association experts at IIT Hyderabad, the team member said.

"The AI will also help track participants and Jump Master's performance across millions of data points and deliver optimised approvals for jumping.

Having a really intelligent AI will be an edge for a Jump Master and his team in ensuring no injury, incident, or causality happens on the site. For example, AI will not approve the jump if there is anything wrong with the jump protocol or international standards, he said.

Soni claimed their swing has the potential to disrupt the whole adventure tourism industry.

"The good part is that we don't need to have some special hi-tech cameras and expensive setups to do this. This can be franchised anywhere in the world with an existing standard hi-res CCTV security camera feed, he said.

The team, which has plans to launch a second swing in Goa and then take the technology to other countries, rued Indians' dwindling interest in adventure sports, despite an increase of 178 per cent in adventure activity globally in the last three years.

"India, despite being the world's youngest country with 50 per cent population below 25, stands at 96th position in global Adventure Tourism Competitive Index (ATDI) 2020. That too is consistently decreasing since the last four years. India ranks much lower than its neighbours, Bhutan (14th), and Nepal (67th), Soni said.

"Somewhere, India has failed to cultivate the culture of innovation in extreme adventure tourism. It's Incredible India but not innovative India' in terms of adventure tourism compared to its global potential, he added.

The project which was conceptualised five years back was commercially registered last year as a startup.

"We approached IIT Mandi with the idea and three months later we were an incorporated company with the first working prototype," said Soni.