HYDERABAD: Students from the Osmania University College of Engineering (OUCE) have successfully conceptualised and crafted two independent drones, with autonomous capabilities for the very first time. One of the drones, Eureka, won the second prize under the best innovative design category at the Autonomous Drone Development Challenge hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers India in Chennai on August 25 and 26. Notably, the cost for making these drones was crowdfunded by the alumni of the institute.
“Normally, the drones we see around are controlled with a remote. However, the drones made by these students are programmed using artificial intelligence,” said Prof V Uma Maheshwar of OUCE, who provided guidance to the students. During the competition in Chennai, a unique challenge was presented to the drone named Eureka.
The team was tasked with placing an egg inside a small box, attaching it to the drone’s bottom, and then dropping the box onto a marked spot on the ground from a certain distance. The drone needed to successfully complete this task without breaking the egg, lift the box again, and return to its original position. In terms of innovation, the team that built Eureka excelled in creating a mechanism for dropping the payload box. On the other hand, the Falcons team utilised off-the-shelf items for their drone design.
The students ingeniously used items like cycle spokes, pen refills, and sensors to build the drones. The entire development process took approximately two weeks, with each drone costing around Rs 40,000.“In future, such drones will be useful for delivery from medical shops to homes. Amazon or Flipkart will use these drones for the delivery of products. In an emergency situation, when stuck in traffic, such drones will be the best option,” added Prof Maheshwar.
This groundbreaking initiative was carried out by two distinct teams, each composed of 10 students, also named Falcons and Eureka. These teams consisted of students from various courses, including those from the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), Mechanical Engineering (Mech), and Mining Engineering branches, making it a truly interdisciplinary effort. The captains leading these teams were Gaali Gaurav Krishna for team Falcons and D Shashank Raj were team Eureka.