Anna University gets patent for path-breaking drone technology

Revolutionary drone technology developed in Chennai enables precise autonomous landing, enhancing delivery capabilities for various sectors.

Researchers at the Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Chennai, have developed a path-breaking technology that is claimed to open up a new era of drone operations.

The Indian Patent Office, Intellectual Property India, has granted patent for the airborne-based intelligent autonomous landing system for mini-Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that come with accurate identification of geographical location of landing sites from the plurality of images captured.

According to K. Senthil Kumar, Professor and Director, Dr. Kalam Advanced UAV Research Centre, Department of Aerospace Engineering, MIT, the technology would immensely help in the delivery/pick up of load such as weapons, ammunition, medicines, food etc. to armed forces deployed along hilly terrains or inaccessible locations along the border.

While existing UAVs were designed to land at a pre-determined well prepared plain surface locations, the system developed by his team of researchers is capable of not only finding the precise location of a marker like a particular coloured dress or object on the site and land there safely even if it were to be a hilly terrain with uneven surface and slope.

“Once the landing site is identified, the position coordinates are obtained and UAV lands at the target including moving platforms. Further, QR code can also be used to enhance reliability. The efficiency of the UAV landing system is increased, landing time is reduced, and the complete process is on-board and autonomous using AI and deep learning algorithms. The system is particularly useful for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) applications,” Dr. Senthil Kumar explained.

According to him, the UAV landing system could be utilised in high-altitude logistics drones to assist armed and border security forces in day-to-day essential supplies delivery to border posts, emergency relief and rescue operations or delivery of certain goods to strengthen combat missions. “We now have UAVs with the capability to fly up to 50 kg load to 20 km. Efforts are on to enhance the load to 100 kg and flying distance to 50 km.”

Besides defence, firefighting and surveillance operations, Dr. Senthil Kumar said, the intelligent autonomous landing system for mini-Unmanned Aerial Vehicles could also be used for civilian missions such as organ/medicine delivery in healthcare, product delivery in e-commerce etc.