In one of its kind feat, the Aeromodelling club of IIT Guwahati has crafted four state-of-the-art indigenous drones. The drones designed and developed in-house by the institute’s students in collaboration with guidance of professors are multipurpose ones capable of surveillance, precision photography and warehouse management.
The club has designed four different types of drones, including ‘Warehouse Drones’ for complex warehouse and inventory management, ‘Reaper Drones’ for military and law enforcement usage, ‘Ornithopters’ for surveillance in tight spaces and wildlife photography, and ‘RAVEN,’ an indigenously built VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) capable fixed-winged aircraft which can be used as a delivery or surveillance drone, said a press release issued by the institute.
Set up as an informal group in 2013 by students interested in aerodynamics and registered as a formal club in 2015, the Aeromodelling Club has been associated with multiple events both within and outside the campus. Over the years, the club has been conducting training workshops in fields like aircraft design, computer vision and RC aircraft hardware. The club has recently raised a seed fund from the TIC IIT-Guwahati to develop Reaper for commercialisation.