SIH26026/Blockchain & Cybersecurity

Railway explosives and narcotics detection robot

A mobile quadruped robot and a lightweight handheld device that let Railway Protection Force personnel detect narcotics and explosives in real time.

Ministry of Railways · Hardware

Teams already in: 1/500almost everyone who enters · read 1 hour ago
Buildable in 36 hours: Very lowOur estimate, from their wording
Hard blockers: 2Restricted data, Needs hardware
Submissions close: 15 Sept9 days left

Make this one of our two Compare with others

Signing in saves it for your whole team — everyone on your invite link sees the same two entries. Anything you shortlisted while signed out comes with you.

Submit on sih.gov.in

Whether this suits your team

Why this fits you

This organisation declared winners on 3 problem statement(s) in SIH 2025.

What argues against it

Potential concern: needs data you may not get.
Potential concern: needs physical hardware.

What you would have to build

Decomposed from what the description asks for. Nothing added.

01
Quadruped Navigation
Supports autonomous or semi-autonomous movement using LiDAR and sensor fusion in complex railway environments.
02
Detection Engine
Detects specific narcotics and explosives through onboard sensors and real-time processing.
03
Surveillance and Imaging
Provides thermal and optical imaging, facial recognition, and underframe coach inspection.
04
Handheld Device
A ruggedized, lightweight tool for personnel featuring offline storage, multilingual support, and real-time alerts.
05
Control Center Integration
Transmits alerts, video feeds, and GPS-tagged event logs securely to a centralized monitoring dashboard.

What they ask for, and what they leave open

Both columns are read off the brief's own wording. Nothing here is inferred from the ministry's name.

They state

The jury will check whether the system can actually detect the listed narcotics and explosives, operate in GPS-denied or harsh railway conditions, support offline-online synchronization for the handheld device, and transmit data securely to a central dashboard.

They never say

what specific chemical sensors or hardware components must be used for narcotics and explosive detection
the exact battery life and weight limits for the quadruped and handheld devices
the communication protocols required for integration with existing railway security infrastructure

A jury can still ask about these. Decide them deliberately rather than by accident.

What they'll ask you

Generated from the brief's own wording and the competition's published rules — never from a guess about what this ministry prefers.

What specific chemical sensors or hardware components must be used for narcotics and explosive detection?
The brief never answers this, so a panel will. Whatever you decide, say it the same way twice.
The exact battery life and weight limits for the quadruped and handheld devices?
The brief never answers this, so a panel will. Whatever you decide, say it the same way twice.
The communication protocols required for integration with existing railway security infrastructure?
The brief never answers this, so a panel will. Whatever you decide, say it the same way twice.

10 more— the ones a panel gets to if there is time

Has any part of this been shown at a previous event, hackathon or college project?
The guidelines are explicit: your solution must not have appeared in any previous event or programme, of any sort. A recycled project is what a team under time pressure reaches for.

Before you commit

Each one is quoted from a gap in the brief, not a guess about your team.

Needs physical hardware
Listed as a hardware problem statement, so a working demo needs physical components you have to source yourself.
Needs data you may not get
The problem requires detecting specific chemical signatures of explosives and narcotics, which involves hardware and chemical sensor calibration data students cannot easily source.

The data

What the organisers attached, and what the brief assumes you can get.

Dataset from the organisers: None attached
Does the brief need data?: Nothing in the text says it depends on a dataset we would have to find.

Also from Ministry of Railways

Same organisation, same year. Reading two of theirs tells you more about what they care about than reading one.

Take this to an AI

Pick what you are about to do and copy the prompt. It carries the organisers' own wording, the constraints they never spell out, and an instruction not to invent requirements they never set.

Who has this problem, what already exists, and what you would have to find out.

# Context: India's Smart India Hackathon 2026

I am on a student team entering SIH 2026. Problem statement SIH26026, set by Ministry of Railways.
Its official title, word for word: "Development of Mobile (Quadruped)/Handheld Device/System for Real-Time Detection of Narcotics and Explosives across Indian Railways."
Theme: Blockchain & Cybersecurity. Category: hardware.

In plain terms: A mobile quadruped robot and a lightweight handheld device that let Railway Protection Force personnel detect narcotics and explosives in real time.

## The organisers' full description, verbatim

Background: Indian Railways is one of the largest rail networks in the world, serving millions of passengers daily across thousands of stations, platforms, and train coaches. Ensuring the safety and security of passengers and railway assets is a critical responsibility of the Railway Protection Force (RPF).Drug trafficking through railway networks and threats arising from explosives and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have emerged as major security concerns. During the year 2025, RPF recovered narcotic substances worth approximately Rs. 300 Crores in more than 2100 instances.However, as per data of Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB), nearly 15-20% of drug trafficking is routed through the railway network. Similarly, recent incidents involving use of high explosives such as RDX on railway tracks highlight the vulnerability of railway infrastructure to hostile activities.At present, Indian Railways does not possess any dedicated mobile quadruped or handheld system for real-time field detection of narcotics and explosives. This severely limits the capability of RPF personnel to conduct rapid, non-intrusive screening at station entry points, platforms, inside train coaches, and during luggage or parcel screening operations. Therefore, there is an urgent requirement for a modern, technology-driven, ruggedised, and easy-to-operate detection system suitable for Indian Railways operational conditions. Description: The proposed problem statement envisages development of an AI-enabled Mobile (Quadruped) Device/System and Handheld Device/System for real-time detection of narcotics and explosives across Indian Railways.The Mobile (Quadruped) Device/System should function as an intelligent robotic surveillance platform capable of operating in hazardous, complex, and GPS-denied environments. The system should support autonomous or semi-autonomous navigation using LiDAR-based mapping, sensor fusion, thermal and optical imaging systems, and real-time video surveillance. It should be capable of operating in dusty, humid, high-temperature, low-light, and uneven railway environments including ballast areas, yards, tunnels, platforms, and coaches.The quadruped system should support underframe inspection of coaches/wagons, yard surveillance, night patrolling, bomb detection assistance, narcotics detection, facial recognition and matching, and inspection of luggage and concealed areas inside train coaches. The system should also support secure wireless communication, onboard data logging, real-time transmission to control centres, obstacle detection and avoidance, fail-safe mechanisms, and long-duration deployment capability.The Handheld Device/System should be lightweight, ruggedised, easy to operate, and deployable by RPF personnel with minimal training. It should support offline and online operation, encrypted data storage, real-time alerts, GPS tagging, automatic event logging, multilingual interface, and integration with centralized monitoring systems. The device should enable non-intrusive screening crowded railway environments and support wireless transmission of alerts and threat information to control rooms or designated supervisors. Both systems should be capable of detecting a broad spectrum of narcotics including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, cannabis derivatives, opium derivatives, semi-synthetic and synthetic narcotics, as well as explosives including RDX, TNT, PETN, TATP, C4, dynamite, ammonium nitrate compounds, gunpowder, and pyrotechnics. Expected Solution: A cost-effective, ruggedised, Al-enabled Mobile (Quadruped) Device/System and Handheld Device/System should be developed for real-time detection of narcotics and explosives across Indian Railways.The proposed solution should support rapid, non-intrusive, and real-time detection capability at railway stations, platforms, train coaches, luggage screening points, yards, and other vulnerable railway locations. The system should provide automated alerts through sound, visual indicators, vibration, and centralized monitoring dashboards along with timestamp and GPS-based event logging.The quadruped system should support autonomous patrolling, under-carriage inspection, thermal imaging, facial recognition, bomb detection support, and surveillance operations in hazardous or inaccessible areas. The handheld system should support quick deployment, easy usability, offline data storage, synchronization after network restoration, multilingual operation, and integration with Railway security infrastructure. The overall solution should be operationally sustainable, low-maintenance, scalable for largescale deployment, and suitable for continuous deployment under diverse Indian Railways operational and climatic conditions.

## What the brief never says

- what specific chemical sensors or hardware components must be used for narcotics and explosive detection
- the exact battery life and weight limits for the quadruped and handheld devices
- the communication protocols required for integration with existing railway security infrastructure
## Constraints that are not negotiable

- The judged build is a prototype demonstrated in roughly 36 hours by students, not a product.
- A jury evaluates it against this problem statement's own wording, not against general merit.
- We submit on sih.gov.in; the problem statement number and title above must match exactly.
- Your solution must not have appeared in any previous event or programme, of any sort.
- This is a hardware problem statement, so a demo needs physical components we source ourselves.
- Known obstacles in the brief: Needs hardware; Restricted data.

## What I want from you

1. Who actually has this problem in India, and what they do about it today.
2. What already exists — government systems, open-source projects, published research — that we should not rebuild.
3. For each item under 'what the brief never says', what the realistic answer is likely to be and how I could verify it.
4. The two or three things about this domain that a student team would get wrong without local knowledge.
## How to answer

- Everything above between quotation marks is the organisers' own wording. Treat it as the requirement.
- Do NOT invent requirements the brief does not state. If something matters and is not stated, say so and ask me, rather than assuming.
- Where you are inferring rather than reading, mark it as your inference.
- Do not guess what this ministry wants from its name. Its wording above is the only evidence.

---
Problem statement facts assembled by Wynit from Ministry of Railways's published brief for SIH 2026.
The plain-English summary, the list of parts and the evaluator read are our interpretation of that text; the quoted title and the full description are theirs.

The government's original description (595 words)

Background: Indian Railways is one of the largest rail networks in the world, serving millions of passengers daily across thousands of stations, platforms, and train coaches. Ensuring the safety and security of passengers and railway assets is a critical responsibility of the Railway Protection Force (RPF).Drug trafficking through railway networks and threats arising from explosives and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have emerged as major security concerns. During the year 2025, RPF recovered narcotic substances worth approximately Rs. 300 Crores in more than 2100 instances.However, as per data of Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB), nearly 15-20% of drug trafficking is routed through the railway network. Similarly, recent incidents involving use of high explosives such as RDX on railway tracks highlight the vulnerability of railway infrastructure to hostile activities.At present, Indian Railways does not possess any dedicated mobile quadruped or handheld system for real-time field detection of narcotics and explosives. This severely limits the capability of RPF personnel to conduct rapid, non-intrusive screening at station entry points, platforms, inside train coaches, and during luggage or parcel screening operations. Therefore, there is an urgent requirement for a modern, technology-driven, ruggedised, and easy-to-operate detection system suitable for Indian Railways operational conditions. Description: The proposed problem statement envisages development of an AI-enabled Mobile (Quadruped) Device/System and Handheld Device/System for real-time detection of narcotics and explosives across Indian Railways.The Mobile (Quadruped) Device/System should function as an intelligent robotic surveillance platform capable of operating in hazardous, complex, and GPS-denied environments. The system should support autonomous or semi-autonomous navigation using LiDAR-based mapping, sensor fusion, thermal and optical imaging systems, and real-time video surveillance. It should be capable of operating in dusty, humid, high-temperature, low-light, and uneven railway environments including ballast areas, yards, tunnels, platforms, and coaches.The quadruped system should support underframe inspection of coaches/wagons, yard surveillance, night patrolling, bomb detection assistance, narcotics detection, facial recognition and matching, and inspection of luggage and concealed areas inside train coaches. The system should also support secure wireless communication, onboard data logging, real-time transmission to control centres, obstacle detection and avoidance, fail-safe mechanisms, and long-duration deployment capability.The Handheld Device/System should be lightweight, ruggedised, easy to operate, and deployable by RPF personnel with minimal training. It should support offline and online operation, encrypted data storage, real-time alerts, GPS tagging, automatic event logging, multilingual interface, and integration with centralized monitoring systems. The device should enable non-intrusive screening crowded railway environments and support wireless transmission of alerts and threat information to control rooms or designated supervisors. Both systems should be capable of detecting a broad spectrum of narcotics including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, cannabis derivatives, opium derivatives, semi-synthetic and synthetic narcotics, as well as explosives including RDX, TNT, PETN, TATP, C4, dynamite, ammonium nitrate compounds, gunpowder, and pyrotechnics. Expected Solution: A cost-effective, ruggedised, Al-enabled Mobile (Quadruped) Device/System and Handheld Device/System should be developed for real-time detection of narcotics and explosives across Indian Railways.The proposed solution should support rapid, non-intrusive, and real-time detection capability at railway stations, platforms, train coaches, luggage screening points, yards, and other vulnerable railway locations. The system should provide automated alerts through sound, visual indicators, vibration, and centralized monitoring dashboards along with timestamp and GPS-based event logging.The quadruped system should support autonomous patrolling, under-carriage inspection, thermal imaging, facial recognition, bomb detection support, and surveillance operations in hazardous or inaccessible areas. The handheld system should support quick deployment, easy usability, offline data storage, synchronization after network restoration, multilingual operation, and integration with Railway security infrastructure. The overall solution should be operationally sustainable, low-maintenance, scalable for largescale deployment, and suitable for continuous deployment under diverse Indian Railways operational and climatic conditions.