IIIT Lucknow develops indigenous drone 5 times cheaper than retail models

The renowned, Indian Institute of Information (IIIT Lucknow) has added another innovation to it's bag. A ‘desi drone’ which is equally efficient, but five times cheaper than the ones available in the market, is their latest breakthrough. The said feat has been achieved thanks to a tweak in drone technology using a mobile phone.

A panel of experts at the incubation centre of IIT-Patna has already approved the innovation and released grants for further development of the indigenous drone.

Under the assistance of Professor Vishal Krishna and two of his students, the new drone has been developed after six months of research. The team was given the responsibility to develop this drone by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the NIDHI-PRAYAS Scheme. 

One of the most expensive components of any drone is the camera. Hence, instead of using the regular camera, this drone can take photographs through a mobile phone camera. Explaining further about the innovation, a port is present on the drone's quadcopter where one can plug in their mobile phone. The drone sensors then uses the camera of the mobile phone to take photographs and transmit them to the laptop through an Android application for aerial monitoring. The app for this purpose has also been developed by IIIT-L team.

The indigenous drones can be used by farmers and agriculture experts for monitoring their crops and agricultural terrain mapping. Besides, officials can use it to assess drought and flood situations. Even individuals can utilise it for aerial photography.

As per officials, the cost of a drone at present is ₹8,000, which can be brought down to ₹3,000 in case of mass production.