Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
From January, tourists in Manali will be able to enjoy an adrenaline rush on a giant artificial intelligence (AI) powered swing that has been built by and is claimed by a start-up incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mandi. the first of its kind in the world.
A startup called ‘ManaliSwing’, founded by four childhood adventure-enthusiast friends who are engineers and certified rock climbers and mountain climbers, has completed its trials of human jumps and is in the process of filing five patents for the concept and design.
The team claims to have already been approached by the Dubai government to launch a swing in the country and is also in talks with interested agencies in Switzerland.
“We will offer one of the most creative and safe giant swings in the world, like bungy jumping, but instead of falling on a rubber bungy rope, here one free fall followed by a giant swing on double dynamic ropes with more than 100 possible jump styles to experience adrenaline. 70m freefall with artificial intelligence promising ultimate safety like never before,” Utsav Soni, one of the founders, told PTI.
“The plan is to launch in Manali in the new year. Tourists will have to pay Rs 3,000 for each jump. The price will include transportation from a certain location and professional photography and filming,” he added.
The start-up conducted a full-scale trial of 1,000 dummy jumps followed by successful human jumps in the special presence of IRATA experts from IIT Hyderabad.
“Artificial intelligence will also help track participant and jump master performance across millions of data points and provide optimized approvals for jumps. A truly intelligent AI will be an asset to the Jump Master and his team, ensuring that no injury, incident or causation can occur on site. For example, the AI will not approve a jump if there is something wrong with the followed jump protocol or international standards.
“It will be one of the best intersections of technology, innovation and adventure sports of this decade, with the potential to disrupt the entire adventure tourism industry. The good thing is that we don’t need any special hi-tech cameras and expensive setups for this. This can be franchised anywhere in the world with an existing standard high definition CCTV security camera system,” he added.
The team plans to launch a second similar swing in Goa and then take the technology to other countries.
“India, despite being the youngest country in the world with 50 percent population below 25 years of age, is ranked 96th in the Adventure Tourism Global Competitiveness Index (ATDI) 2020. This too has been steadily declining since the last 4 years. India ranks much lower than its neighbors Bhutan (14th) and Nepal (67th). Especially when the demand for adventure activities has increased by 178 percent in the last 3 years.
“Somewhere India has failed to cultivate a culture of innovation in extreme adventure tourism. It is an incredible India, but it is not innovative when it comes to adventure tourism compared to its global potential. We have already been approached by the Dubai government and talks are also going on in Switzerland, but we plan to launch in India first,” said Soni.
The project, which was conceptualized five years ago, was commercially registered as a start-up last year. “We approached IIT Mandi with the idea and three months later we were a public company with the first working prototype,” he added.
