CHENNAI: Students of IIT Madras have developed drones that can identify accurate information on people trapped in disaster-hit areas and can provide real-time information about it to the relief task force.
A statement issued by the institute said the drones have been developed by the Centre for Innovation and the project has been named ‘Eye In The Sky’.
The drones are equipped with Artificial Intelligence and computer vision. Apart from detecting persons from high altitude in disaster-hit areas, the swarm of drones can detect people buried under debris where only one part of the body is visible.
The drones can also provide information to the rescue team if the identified person is in a conscious state or not.
The drones can also help to conduct an efficient aerial survey, to help provide food and water supplies and other medical and safety aids to marooned and trapped populations. It can also help the relief task force to rebuild a collapsed communication channel and can provide navigation support.
The Eye In The Sky project won the finals of Indian Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP 2.0) University Challenge held at IIT Bombay recently. The project was among the ‘Top 18 Innovative Startups’ from all over the nation. It has also received `10 lakh funding from Microsoft AI For Earth.
Speaking about the project, Ayush Parasbhai Maniar, a student involved in the project said, “We propose to use a team of drones which can scan the entire disaster-affected region in just a few minutes, analyse and provide critical data that could potentially save lives. The final aim of our start-up is to make end-to-end drone software solutions which can be used by any Disaster Response Force of the world and thus help in saving thousands of lives.”
“Our analytical modules are based on the latest available technology. We’ve also gone to the extent of creating our own databases for some of the modules,” said Maniar.
The team now plans to collaborate with hardware companies that can provide scalable drone technology to conduct the required spot surveillance of disaster-struck areas.
Large technology corporations that work with organisations like the United Nations and conduct disaster relief operations also have mutual gains from collaboration besides NGOs that specialise in disaster relief operations, said the statement from the institute.