A final-year student of BTech (Mechanical) at the Chandigarh Group of Colleges in Mohali, his design of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the Indian Air Force (IAF) is gaining limelight among top brass, including the Department of Defence Production.
He hails from a remote village in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh. But at the mere age of 20, engineering student Ankit Singh’s innovative design has attracted the attention of the Ministry of Defence!
A final-year student of BTech (Mechanical) at the Chandigarh Group of Colleges in Mohali, his design of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the Indian Air Force (IAF) is gaining limelight among top brass, including the Department of Defence Production.
The department helped the student submit his idea under the Make in India category.
According to an Indian Express report, although the design of the proposed UAV is under wraps, the Department of Defence Production tweeted out that it helped the youngster submit his suo moto UAV proposal to the Indian Air Force under Make-II category of the Make in India project.
What does Make II category entail?
It means that the innovator has to develop a prototype of their design with no government funding.
The college has also assigned the student a team of interdisciplinary students and teachers to build the prototype.
Speaking to the publication, Ankit said, “I had started working on the design from the first year of my BTech, and the driving force behind it was the knowledge that very little research and development was being done on UAVs in India, apart from a few companies and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).”
About the UAV:
While the student has been asked by the MoD not to reveal much about the UAV, he said that the design and development had been planned for an India-specific mid-range vehicle which could help surveillance. But the interesting component of the design is that the UAV can be weaponised too.
“We have received queries from the IAF as well as the Army asking for some amendments in design and giving more suggestions and have given overall good reviews for it. I would be thrilled and would not mind at all if the DRDO would like to look at the design and improve it,” he told the Express.
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His mentor for the project, Amresh Kumar, who is currently working as an assistant professor at the college, said Ankit’s research has also been well received at the institution. It was at the time that they collectively thought it deserved more limelight.
“While an IIT can get government funding for such a project we, as a private college, are managing within our means. I cannot reveal much, but we have now received certain suggestions from defence officials regarding artificial intelligence component of the UAV and the integration of the vehicle with the internal communication network of the Army or IAF,” Kumar told the publication.
We wish Ankit and his team the very best as they set the prototype of the UAV flying in the next three months.
(Edited by Shruti Singhal)
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