Students of IIT-Kharagpur Develop Drones for Aerial Surveillance
The speciality of these drones is that they would function in places which are GPS-disabled.
Students of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur developed drones by using indigenous hardware and software for aerial surveillance. Prof. Somesh Kumar, Department of Mathematics assisted the students in developing drones which would be able to take autonomous flights, track and contact other drones and robots. The specialty of these drones is that they would function in places which are GPS-disabled.
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The project has been taken up under Aerial Robotics Kharagpur (ARK) of IIT-K which is regarded as one of the initiatives at the institute designed to give a research experience to students. IIT-K is funding the ARK. The institute has provided a funding of Rs. 5 crores for developing various projects.
Under AEK, students would work on a network of flexible aerial robotics which are used in multiple ways such as assisting in search and rescue operations, controlling aerial vehicles, etc., The students have been working on various other projects and drones are just a part of it. Some of the projects include 3D printing, an underwater vehicle and much more.
Gaurav Gardi, one of the students, said that robotics could be applied in multiple fields such as mining surveys and surveillance, agricultural technology and others. Robotics plays a significant role when the possibility of human interaction poses a problem.
The students of AEK also participated in International Aerial Robotics Competition at Bejing in September and won the ‘Best Team Cooperation’ award.