The students of IITK (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur) recently developed a drone called ‘Prahari’. This anti-drone system has been developed by Professor Abhishek and Professor Mangal Kothari of the department of aerospace engineering and their team of students. This drone is capable of carrying a load of about 4-5 kg and can also patrol sensitive zones for up to 3 hours. It is an autonomous drone with a drone-catching net.
As part of the autonomy, the Prahari is also equipped with an advanced autopilot system. It is capable of handling sudden changes in weight and inertia while capturing a rogue drone.
Borderline Surveillance and Security
The Prahari could prove to be efficient for the usage by the armed forces as the drone is specially designed for border surveillance and national security. The drone’s extended flight time of 3 hours coupled with its anti-drone contraptions could provide high vigilance in border areas.
HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, on November 19, 2019, shared the video of this achievement on Twitter. He praised IITK students for developing the advanced counter-drone mechanism. Professor Abhishek said, “This drone can be used for a wide range of applications, ranging from surveillance, crowd monitoring, crowd control, delivery of emergency supplies, precision agriculture, hostage situations, chemical, and nuclear agent detection. It can also outrun the rogue drone and can capture it in its nets. This way, not only the rogue drone is physically captured but also vital information can be extracted from it.”
