IIT-Guwahati’s aeromodelling club has designed a range of drones, including “Warehouse drones” for warehouse management, “Reaper drones” for military and law enforcement purposes, and “Ornithopter” drones inspired by the design of birds for use in confined spaces
According to an official, the club is pushing students to use creativity, technology, and innovation in aeromodelling to produce intelligent drones with user-friendly interfaces, stated a PTI report.
The aeromodelling club has developed various types of drones, including “Warehouse drones” for warehouse management, “Reaper drones” for military and law enforcement, “Ornithopter drones inspired by the design of birds that can be used for surveillance in tight spaces and for wildlife photography, and “RAVEN,” an indigenous VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) fixed-wing aircraft, informed Chivukula Vasudeva Sastri, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Guwahati’s Department of Chemistry.
“Apart from these projects, students 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,” he added.
Sastri said that warehouses present a significant challenge in terms of maintenance, due to the need for repetitive tasks such as inventory monitoring and item relocation. These tasks can be time-consuming and physically demanding, and any delays can result in financial losses. To address this issue, the inventors have developed a drone to handle labour-intensive tasks and reduce human inefficiency, as per a report by PTI.
He added, “With a little bit of tweaking in the program, for future scope, the utility of the drone can be modified from understanding the flow of water in agricultural lands to delivery of goods within a city by using line following algorithms along roads, it can also be used for faster identification of items in the inventory of industries.”
An indigenously created unmanned aerial vehicle named “Reaper” is primarily intended for use by the military and law enforcement for tasks including target identification and tracking, among others, as well as patrolling.
“The drone can also be used during natural disasters like floods or earthquakes, helping disaster management teams search for injured/trapped people by making use of hyperspectral imaging. Another use is that it can collect data on animals in any national parks/wildlife sanctuaries and study their behaviour,” Sastri told PTI.
Courtesy : Edex