EndureAir, an unmanned aviation technology start-up, has collaborated with five defence public sector undertakings (PSUs), for establishing a state-of-the-art testing facility for drones at Technopark IIT Kanpur, which is a part of the UP defence corridor.
Another such facility under the Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme (DTIS) is coming up at Chennai in Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor.
The sole private company, EndureAir, is part of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) created special purpose vehicle (SPV), which has five PSUs including Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Gliders India Limited (GIL), and Yantra India Limited (YIL), as other stakeholders, to roll-out the ₹60 crore project.
Professor Abhishek, Co-founder of EndureAir, told businessline that the project is waiting for ₹45 crore grant from the government, after the stakeholders have contributed to their combined share of ₹15 crore, to start the project that would offer readily available testing facilities by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accredited labs as well as multiple certifications required for exports as well.
Global UAV hub
The company, incubated in IIT Kanpur in 2018, is primarily the technical partner in the project that eventually is aimed at making India the global hub for UAVs.
“The establishment of UAS testing facility at IIT Kanpur would ensure easy accessibility to all end users and at EndureAir we hope to leverage this infrastructure to build world class high performance UAS solution. We look forward to contributing to the growth of the defence sector and supporting the vision of a self-reliant India,” he said.
The project will become operational by the end of this year since all the facilities will take time to kick in, he elaborated.
The move will address challenges that military grade UAV manufacturers face due to limitations of advanced testing facilities in this growing sector, he said. As of now, the UAVs designed and developed in India will get exposure to this facility, professor Abhishek pointed out.
It will also lead to faster path to certification. The UAVs for defence application, particularly in higher weight category would need to be certified as per international standards.
The testing facility would enable sub-system level testing to ensure high reliability of the system, which would result in higher customer satisfaction eventually promoting the growth of industry and would help open foreign markets, the start-up pointed out.
Manufacturers will have to bear a cost for using the facilities that will offer indoor testing, outdoor testing and mobile testing for the unmanned platforms, EndureAir Co-founder stated.