French tech firm Dassault Systemes announced that Dhaksha Unmanned Systems Pvt Ltd, a Chennai-based drone manufacturer, has adopted its Modsim modeling and simulation tools on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to develop and launch next-generation drones at lower costs.

Dhaksha, a subsidiary of Murugappa Group’s Coromandel International, has already developed agriculture drones with Modsim and will deliver a new set of drones to its customers next month.

In today’s market, both large companies and start-ups need agility to quickly introduce and refine products. Innovation is crucial for faster market entry. “Increasing complexities, cost reduction, and market speed drive innovation. Dassault has been at the forefront for 40 years,” said Tarik CHAÏB, Chief Technology Officer, CATIA, Dassault Systèmes.

Dassault’s Modsim is touted as a unified modeling and simulation solution that enhances design exploration, optimisation, and validation on the 3DEXPERIENCE cloud platform.

“This solution enables seamless collaborative modeling and simulation, improving product development efficiency and compressing the development cycle,” said Praveen Mysore, Technical Sales Director, Dassault Systemes India Pvt Ltd.

N Ramanathan, CEO, Dhaksha, emphasised that start-ups face the challenge of maximising investments and pointed out the significant costs associated with drone pilot projects. “Failing a logistics drone trial could incur costs ranging from ₹15-20 lakh. Every prototype requires substantial amount,” he noted.

“Speed of development is critical for us, so we chose Modsim. The financial support package for start-ups helped us initially to understand and use it at a lower cost for a year, he said adding, “Modsim helped us analyse different materials quickly, speeding up the design process. It will be a boon for designers.

Dhaksha has set up a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Sholavaram in Chennai with a capacity to produce about 400 drones per month for the agriculture sector and about 50 drones on the logistics or defence front. It carries an order book of about ₹250 crore to supply drones for defence and agriculture segments

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