01-03-2013, 04:46 PM
Aerial Eye to Guard Ag ainst Terrorism
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Eye in the Sky
With many UAVs developed and tested
in the past to address our defence
needs, what makes Netra a cut above
the rest? Netra outsmarts other UAVs
in the market with features like vertical
take-off and landing, which result in
greater operability, BlueFire Autopilot,
which is the smallest and lightest autopilot,
and fail-safe modes, wherein the
UAV automatically returns to the base
in case of low battery or communication
loss.
High operability. Netra has set
new yardsticks in terms of operability.
It can vertically take off and land, allowing
it to be operated from confined
areas and even rooftops.
“The on-board GPS keeps updating
the current position of the vehicle.
It stores the take-off GPS position that
can act as the landing spot too and be
changed in flight, if required. Once it
is commanded to land, it decides its
path and reaches the landing spot.
Then it lands vertically down,” says
Mehta.
Netra is well-equipped to with-
The thought of terrorist attacks in
Mumbai on Nov. 26, 2008 still
sends chills down our spines.
Be it the attack on a city that never
sleeps or the daily battle fought by our
soldiers on snow-capped mountains at
the line of control (LoC), every terror
attack throws up harder challenges for
the armed forces, making the urge for
a watchful eye stronger.
Netra, the unmanned aerial vehicle
(UAV), which is like a small eye zooming
in the sky, can gather real-time
intelligence on the ground and become
the perfect weapon to outsmart terror
elements. Developed by ideaForge,
a start-up company incubated at IIT
Bombay, it is a completely autonomous
system controlled by a ground-control
software application with an intuitive
graphical user interface.
“Netra is a completely autonomous
system for surveillance and
reconnaissance requiring no prior
flying experience for an operator. The
operator just needs to point and click
on the satellite map displayed in the
software application for navigation.
It keeps sending live video to the
ground control station, helping the
The completely autonomous hovering unmanned aerial vehicle named Netra promises to be of great
help to counter insurgency operations
innovation
It took two-three years of extensive
research and development by a team
of five experts at ideaForge to develop
Netra. “We began with the development
of autopilot, which ended up being the
world’s smallest and lightest autopilot.
There have been challenges at each and
every stage throughout the development,
right from its first flight till date. And
every failure has been an essential part of
strengthening our base,” recollects Mehta.
stand harsh conditions like wind and
poor visibility. “We have studied wind
effects on the vehicle and done a lot of
aerodynamic design changes for improved
wind resistance,” says Mehta.
Further, it can be operated at night and
soon even indoors.
“The thermal camera option allows
Netra to operate at night, in fog or any
other kind of poor visibility condition.
Since the vehicle is completely autonomous,
the user need not worry about
the navigation issues in such conditions,”
says Mehta.
Peek into the future
Looking ahead, ideaForge is determined
to make continuous improvements
in Netra. “In the immediate
future, better communication and
improved image intelligence are the
areas that we wish to focus on. We are
also working on reaching out to potential
customers. We are targeting armed
forces, paramilitary forces, special task
forces, ATS, security agencies, fire
fighters, disaster management groups,
etc and have already started holding
demonstrations for them,” says Mehta,
on an optimistic note.