Guwahati, Jan 3: The Aeromodelling Club of Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati (IIT-G) has come up with indigenously developed drones that can be used for multiple purposes, including surveillance, target identification and tracking, inventory management and delivery.
The drones that have been developed by a team of students include a ‘warehouse drone’ for warehouse management, ‘reaper drones’ for military and law enforcement, ‘ornithopter’ based on the design of birds which can be used for surveillance in tight spaces, for wildlife photography, and ‘RAVEN,’ an indigenously developed VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) capable fixed-winged aircraft.
“Apart from these projects, students of the IIT-G have also developed a drone capable of firing at targets with high precision. The firing mechanism is designed in such a way that it returns to its previous position waiting for the pilot’s command for the next firing,” an official statement issued here on Tuesday said.
Set up as an informal group in 2013 by students interested in aerodynamics and registered as an official club of IIT-G in 2015, the Aeromodelling Club has since been conducting training workshops in fields such as aircraft design, computer vision, and radio-controlled (RC) aircraft hardware.
Of late, it has even managed to secure the seed fund from the Technology Incubation Centre (TIC) of IIT-G to develop ‘reaper drones’ for commercialisation.
“I have watched the students of the Aeromodelling Club work very closely, and the amount of passion and effort they put into developing aerial robots is just amazing. Their consistent top performances in both internal and external competitions speak for themselves,” Prof. Chivukula Vasudeva Sastri, department of chemistry, IIT-G, said.
Sharing his experience on working on drones, Rishikesh Das, a third year student from the department of mechanical engineering, IIT-G said, “I have always been fascinated by radio-controlled (RC) aircraft. So this has been a wonderful opportunity for me to explore aircraft design and understand the aerodynamics of planes.”
“Working on projects at the club is a wonderful feeling, to be able to contribute to society and find solutions to existing problems,” he said.
In 2022, when the Indian Meteorology Department issued a red alert warning to citizens against heavy rainfall in certain flooded areas of Assam, the club deployed their drones and conducted surveys to identify safe spots where flood relief payloads could be landed safely.
The club now aims to develop smart drones with an easy interface for common people to interact with drones.
“It is the process that I enjoy in making drones and planes. To ideate, innovate and come up with feasible solutions to complex problems fuels my passion. Every competition we participated in and every project we have worked here at the aeromodelling club has inspired us to do more. We work together as a team and aim to develop smart drones,” Hemant Pandey, a third-year student from the department of chemical engineering, IIT-G, said.
