Delhi Technological University — Unmanned Aircraft System (DTU-UAS) Aarush X1 was unveiled by Padma Shri V.K. Saraswat, scientific adviser to ministry of defence and director general, Defence Research and Development Organisation, on Friday.
The UAS is designed and developed by an 11-member student team from DTU, headed by Jayant Malani, a fourth year B. Tech student of electronics and communication. DTU vice-chancellor P.B. Sharma and faculty advisor Prof. N. Raghava mentored the team UAS DTU. The students of DTU designed and developed the next generation unmanned aerial vehicle for urban applications with the mentoring support from Lockheed Martin, a US avionic company.
The DTU UAS is capable of carrying a payload of 8-10 kg and is able to attain a flying speed up to 120 kmph. The applications of the vehicle are civil law enforcement, geomatics, meteorological operations, pipeline surveillance, mining surveillance, disaster management, coast and border patrol and news and reporting agencies.
Dr Saraswat said, “The design and development of small unmanned aerial vehicle, autonomous submarines and autonomous ground vehicle is an area of great interest to the DRDO as this will strengthen our resolve to safeguard our coastal areas, provide a reliable support to the Army by deployment of autonomous ground vehicles as also strengthen our Air Force for strategic defence.”
“Aarush-X1 is the finest example of what can be achieved through an effective industry-academia partnership in a tech university,” said vice-chancellor Sharma.
Recently the DTU-UAV was placed overall third after Cornell University and California State University, Northridge amongst 35 international teams at the 10th Annual SUAS competition organised by AUVSI 2012 in Maryland in June 2012.
The DTU was formerly known as Delhi College of Engineering.