Five Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) students have created G-FORTAR, a gyroscope for military purposes.
G-FOSTAR, as cited from the universitys website, is the first fiber optic gyroscope prototype ever made in Indonesia that can give a lot of benefit to the countrys military.
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Image: itb.ac.id
Gyroscope itself is a device which can be used as angular velocity measurement and is mostly found in navigation system.
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Inspired by the first point of President Joko Widodos Nawacita (nine programs), the team takes further steps to create the device.
Indonesia is on fire to [realize] Pak Jokowis Nawacita, so we want to be independent in making weapon system tools, Said Megan Graciela Nauli, one of the team members.
All gyroscopes in Indonesia wereimported, causing the country to spend USD 683 million or Rp 9.3 trillion just in 2015.
Even the main problem for G-FORTAR itself is that the components are not produced independently by Indonesia yet.
The obstacle is on the components, [which most of them are still] imported. Its difficult [to get them here] and it takes long time to import them, Megan continued.
Other challenge the team has comes from the lack of experience in dealing with fiber optics. However, the team finally made the G-FORTAR before they sent it to Students Creativity Program (PKM) competition.
Besides Megan, there are other four students working together in creating G-FORTAR. They are Ardinda Kartikaningtyas, Nahdia Nurul Hikmah, Khodijah Kholisjh Rumayshah and Cristian Angga Jumawan.
The team hopes that their research will be continued by future ITB students or other Indonesians.
Megan also added that the size of the gyroscope still can be minimized since the current G-FORTAR still has 15 cm of diameter which is big enough compared to fiber optic gyroscope made and sold by other countries.