Rohit, currently studying in 11th standard at Kendriya Vidyalaya in National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) campus, has five UAV prototypes of different sizes and weight to his credit.
Now he has set his sights on building a UAV. His recent prototype – Nayan (eye) – has innovative inverted fans to lift the UAV. Rohit has programmed the remote control and the UAV can hover up to a height of 150 metres and be on air up to a duration of 20 minutes. It uses a rechargeable lithium battery and weighs about 650 gm. It was built at a cost of 8,000.
“The idea is to make these gadgets using local materials in order to cut costs. There are number of prototypes on quadrotors, but none have inverted brushless motors. I have used the bars from an old refrigerator as the stand to mount the camera. I have used a vegetable parcel box to cover the battery,” Rohit said. The Nayan prototype has a camera mounted on it and uses a transmitter to provide live coverage on the ground. The UAV’s range can be more than 1.5 km and be used for surveillance. “I wish to use this UAV as an aid to disaster response. It can reÂcoÂÂrd the actual situation and based on that rescue measures can be taken,” he said.
Rohit is now planning to reduce the size of the UAV so that it can also be used in the security sector. “In future I am aiming to build miniature UAV so that we can operate it through small windows and places where UAVs of larger size cannot access. I have to thank my father who is a scientist in NAL for helping me to nurture my interest in these gadgets,” Rohit said.
