CHENNAI: As he ushers us into the empty hall of his apartment-turned-office on C P Ramaswami road, he quickly notices our puzzled looks that there is not a single piece of furniture.
“I like to keep this room empty so that I can fly my drones,” says Srinath Mallikarjunan, with a tiny smile. It’s the only bit of mirth that the otherwise serious drone designer shows, as he gives us the low-down on what his company ‘Unmanned System’ has been doing.
Developing the software and controller code for drones ever since 2011, Srinath has managed to collaborate with drone designers in the US and across Europe to come up with some cutting-edge software. “We have developed Quatos, which not only allows the pilot to fly the drone with greater precision, it also auto-corrects for natural factors like wind, dust and even the failure of one of the rotors. It’s an extremely self-reliant system,” he adds.
The programmer was so well received that their list of clients included the US Navy - quite an achievement for the fledgling developer who worked from a small space thousands of miles away.
After all the acclaim for the system and having sold some 20-odd drones across the world, Srinath is looking homeward. “The drone market is booming globally, but is almost non-existent in India. I am looking to give people the kind of useful drone that will really work wonders for several utilities,” he said.
We’ve seen amateur drones being used by the police during the Deepam festival In Tiruvannamalai for aerial surveillance and for recon during the building collapse in Moulivakkam recently. So, how is his drones superior? “The programming is such that it can attain a preset location using its GPS chip. That means that the pilot can operate the drone in semi-automated or even fully autonomous modes,” he added.
Like every other drone, aerial surveillance and photography is the key aspect to these rotor-runners. “You can put any resolution camera in them and achieve an angle of 180 degrees and the viewing can be either on a monitor or through these first-person view glasses,” he said. With an eye on selling to domestic buyers, he explained that he has meetings lined up with the TN Police and shipping companies to show them the utility of his UAVs. “The primary use is search-and-rescue but things like dam inspections and aerial monitoring while at sea will also be possible. The possibilities are endless,” he said.