Seen as a major achievement by the academic community in India, the Aeromodelling Club of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati has developed four state-of-the-art drones. These indigenous drones are designed and developed in-house by the students of the institute, in collaboration with their professors. Notably, these ‘multipurpose’ drones are capable of surveillance, precision photography and warehouse management.
It is learnt that out of the four different kinds of drones designed, the ‘Warehouse Drones’ are meant for complex warehouse and inventory management, while ‘Reaper’ Drones can be used for military and law enforcement purposes.
‘Ornithopters’, on the other hand, can be used for surveillance purposes in tight spaces as well as for wildlife photography.
Last but not the least, the ‘RAVEN’ is an indigenously built VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) capable fixed-winged aircraft which can be used as a delivery or surveillance drone.
Talking to the media, a third-year student in the mechanical engineering department at IIT Guwahati, Rishikesh Das shared his experience working with drones: “RC planes have always fascinated me. It has provided me with a tremendous opportunity to learn about aircraft design and aerodynamics. I’m much more intrigued by the number of potential drones. It is great to be able to help society and solve problems by working on initiatives at the aeromodelling club.”
Going by some media reports, apart from these four, the students have also created a drone that can shoot at targets with extreme precision. In order to wait for the pilot’s order to fire again, the firing mechanism is built to return to its initial position.
Interestingly, the Aeromodelling Club, which recently raised a seed fund from the TIC IIT-Guwahati to develop ‘Reaper’ for commercialisation, was instituted by the students as an informal group in 2013. After getting registered as a formal club in 2015, it has been associated with multiple events both within and outside the campus. It also conducts training workshops in aircraft design, computer vision and RC aircraft hardware etc.
